Carrington states that Standard English and txting are “oppositional positions” with “txting represented as the abnormal intruder” (2005). While Carrington makes the case that txting is a reflection on the media that we use, and that we need to be flexible to allow for new modes of expression, I personally believe that txting belongs in the world of mobile phones, and needs to stay there. In a way, I do think that txting IS the “abnormal intruder.”
During Shakespeare’s time, spelling was not regulated, allowing writers to use endless different ways to spell their works. The problem with non-standardized rules of language, however, is that meaning may be lost along the way. For example, when I read the “essay” written by the Scottish girl, I thought that “FTF” meant “F*ck that family” or some other variation using the expletive (as in abbreviations such as FML, LMFAO, OMFG, etc). Consistency, for me, is an important thing. I am not saying that all instances of the letter “F” in abbreviations need to stand for “F*ck,” but there is a point at which I ask: was that abbreviation necessary? Is it worth the extra time to have your reader try to understand it?
In the face of so much txting, most of us laugh off funny spelling and grammatical errors, point them out to students, and continue on with our teaching. While I don’t think that txting is decimating the population’s ability to write properly, I think that we need to look more seriously at the errors that do occur in formal circumstances. Schooling is formal, and thus it must be done in a formal language. I wonder, sometimes, what happened to the emphasis on learning grammar and spelling in school. Of course students need to be able to express themselves and make mistakes. But this does not mean that we need to ignore the need to teach this formally in school. When I was teaching in China, I was ashamed to learn that many ESL students knew English grammar better than your average English first language, Canadian-born student.
With this impoverished grasp of the English language, then, can we take lightly the fact that students often prioritize their grasp of txting lingo over that of Standard English? Txting is a great way to expand social networks and develop identity through language. This I don’t deny. But we cannot look at grammar and spelling errors in school with the same lightness of attitude that we use to look at txting.
I also believe that txting cannot be held solely responsible for the proliferation of an I-don’t-care-attitude towards the rules of language. Say what you want about the constantly changing landscape of the English language, but the fact remains that those who write a resume or essay with faulty spelling and grammar will still be looked down upon (or not taken seriously as a scholar), regardless of age or generation.
1 response so far ↓
dmeshen // Jul 19th 2014 at 12:00 am
When I looked at the essay by the Scottish girl the “FTF” abbreviation had me very confused for the same reason you mentioned; I have been so trained to substitute f*ck every time I see F in a text abbreviation that when it did not seem to fit, I was stumped. I had never seen “FTF” in a text before, and so it took looking for context clues, and then eventually using Google, to figure out that it was the much more innocent “Face To Face”. Your note about consistency had me wondering if there was a cultural or geographical reason for the fact that I could not figure out what “FTF” was, and at first tried to think of any possible way f*ck would fit. Was I, in my early twenties, old and out of touch (very possible), or could it be because the girl writing the essay was from a different area with different social and cultural influences? I wondered this after watching John McWhortor’s TedTalk, “Texting is killing language! JK!!!”. In his speech, he makes a very convincing argument that texting is not merely writing on a phone, but instead is what he titles “fingered speech”. When I first heard that I thought about something like sign language, but McWhorton explains that it is something to the effect of a new dialect of spoken language in written form – that people are starting to communicate through writing in the same manner that they do while speaking. This, along with my confusion over the Scottish girl’s slang, had me wondering whether or not we will see the emergence or growth of dialects within text. “LOL” seems fairly standard, but as young people continue using and shaping this “fingered speech” it will be interesting to see how text language evolves, and potentially enters spoken speech or formal arenas such as schools.
Despite this curiosity about the shaping and future of text language, I completely agree with your points about how we need to be concerned with students’ ability to write and communicate in a more formal form of language. I cannot imagine a world in which our society has shifted to communicating purely through texting language. Therefore, school does need to be a place of formal language education (with perhaps a lesson here or there focused on register shifting, in which Romeo and Juliet totally agree to GTFO of Verona and live happily ever after while LOL).
Works Cited:
http://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk
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