sarasince – Multiliteracies in ELA Classrooms

Txting is OK, but don’t do away with language rules altogether

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.

Blogging: The amateur author empowered

Before the internet, and before blogs, those who wished to publish their written work needed to jump through many hoops before they would ever see their work publicized and consumed by a large readership. However, thanks to the availability and user-friendliness of blogs, anyone can be an author these days: all you need is a computer and internet connection, and something to say. One of the best things about blogging is how one is able to individually control all aspects of your work production: you don’t need a publisher, or an agent, or an editor to stamp your work as “worthy” of being shared. And this kind of control could be very empowering, especially if you are normally someone who is bashful about sharing your ideas aloud or having your work scrutinized by a third party.

Lankshear and Knobel state that the “quantum simplification of web publishing spawned a new mass generation of bloggers in a very short time” (2006). I find the language of this statement revealing: “spawned” pointing towards quick and prolific production, while the phrase “generation of bloggers” is interesting because it puts emphasis on the fact that these new bloggers most often fall within a certain age bracket, and that this generation is defined by the technology we use. Within this mass of bloggers, some have emerged as noteworthy, and some have climbed to fame despite their lack of formal education in journalism, creative writing, or other professional degrees. Granted, it isn’t easy to become a popular blogger, and success usually takes some talent. But the fact that amateurs are gaining access to a field of discourse they would never have been able to touch before could lead us to question the need for formal education. The gatekeepers to the world of publishing seem to have lost power with the rise of blogs.

Along with the new medium of blogging, then, comes the responsibility to contribute in acceptable ways. Sometimes the problem with the amateur author isn’t WHAT they say, but HOW they say it. Bloggers with many followers could have a lot of power: bloggers have the ability to “mobilise massively at short notice to challenge an opinion or state of affairs and achieve a result” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006). As I stated in our seminar, the writer of The Oatmeal (Matthew Inman), an online comic and blog, famously rallied his readers to donate money in order to insult FunnyJunk, a website that was posting The Oatmeal’s comics without permission. The battle between the two sides had consequences that departed from the world of the web and bled into the physical world. Inman, an amateur author who found huge success in his online comics, had no trouble at all getting thousands of people to donate a large sum of money to support his cause. Had Inman been dishonest, he might have kept the money for himself; instead, he followed through and donated the sum to the charities he indicated he would support.

I believe that as teachers, then, we need to think about teaching our students how to interact online, and ask them to consider the full implications of their online actions. We have been told about the dangers of leaving a bad digital footprint, but I think that more emphasis needs to be put on interacting respectfully online, even if one is anonymous. Digital footprint aside, the internet can go from being a community to being a mob in no time, and oftentimes, the mob, disguised by usernames and avatars, can do irreversible and real damage.

References:

Lankshear, C. and Knobel, M. (2006)/ Blogging as Participation: The Active Sociality of a New Literacy. American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, U.S. April 11, 2006. Available: http://reocities.com/c.lankshear/bloggingparticipation.pdf