The subject matter in this week’s workshop was extremely timely, relevant and interesting (well, interesting for me anyway!) We looked the areas of print, texting and hypertext literacy. It may sound dry, but there is much to be discussed!
Watching last week’s Q&A highlighted the way social networking sites such as Twitter have been integrated into mainstream media. During Kevin Rudd’s slip of the tongue, Twitter feeds went off the Richter scale- so much off the scale that there were over 18,000 posts during the show. ‘Q&A in 60 Seconds’ is a YouTube clip that highlights very nicely, in 60 seconds, the number of tweets, and the key terms of each of the posts. Check out the link below.
I, too, am a convert of Twitter. While I am still finding my feet with this technology, I love that I can follow my favourite shows, sporting teams, celebrities, restaurant, companies, and other random people. Find and follow me, the Blondpineapple, on Twitter today.
Onto a more education related matter, is there a place for textspeak (or should it be Txtspk?) in our classrooms. The question was raised: how does it affect our children’s literacy skills? I was extremely surprised by the findings. According to linguist David Crystal textspeak doesn’t harm student’s literacy skills. In fact, it is seen to be almost beneficial. Crystal made an extremely good point- if a child leaves certain letters out of a word, then he or she must know how to spell that word in the first place. Fascinating stuff and an area to watch in the future.
All this speaking about speaking makes me think of how I use textspeak in everyday language. Apart from the standard use on the net (Facebook, Twitter and the like) I have been known to use sayings such as, “I’m getting a coffee, BRB”, “Wow, that is literal LOL” and “Seriously, that was a CWOT”.
For the novice, I’ll provide a translation. BRB= Be right back. LOL= Laugh out loud. CWOT= complete waste of time. Slightly sad that I use it, yes, but brings me to a more important point. If I, as a teacher, use this language, it would be hypocritical of me to criticise and penalise students for using it in the classroom. I think that a happy medium would have to be reached. Textspeak would be acceptable in conversations, but not to in essays or written pieces. I am a literacy purists- I would hate to see the demise of the old fashioned written essay!
I think that’s all about textspeak for now. And while there is much more to be discussed regarding this area, that is for another time, and another blog!
C U L8ER
About This Blogger
- Madison
- Pre-service teacher at UWA. Looking forward to bringing technology into the classroom in fun and exciting ways!
10 comments:
I agree Madison, I quite often use txtspk in conversation, especially with family and I would certainly not penalise a student for lol(ling) in the classroom. The key is to teach appropriate text literacy and in the right context 'lol' is perfectly acceptable.
Thanks for your comments Jo. What is the most common txtspk for you? I'd have to say LOL is right up there! "That is so LOL" is a common one for me.
Def agree with teaching appropriate text literacy!
I agree, it's all about using textspeak in moderation & like you said Mad, to penalize students for something that you do too on an everyday basis just in a different format would be hypocritical and definitely not the best way to develop a relationship with your students. Yes in essays and written work it doesn’t seem suitable; but I think that’s where every classroom differs and where every teacher must develop an understanding with their students what’s appropriate and what isn’t. I also have to say the use of hypertext throughout your post really emphasized how beneficial it can be in an educational context. It elaborated on what you were saying, providing us the readers with more background information and adding credibility to your blog.
Thanks Rom, I have to give you the credit for showing me how to do it in the first place. I am trying to use all the technologies Mark has shown us- hypertext linking to wikipedia page for a start- I was feeling pretty impressed with myself!
Totally agree- every teacher and every classrom is different- and like you said Rom, it is up the individual teacher to decided with the class what is appropriate.
In the end, it's all a bit of fun. I encourage everyone to get out there and use a bit of txtspk in everyday conversations.
Maddawg, why do you think it would be hypocritical for you to penalise your students for using it in the classroom? I don't really understand that - I don't think it is hypocritical at all. I understand that it depends on the context, but so does swearing and slang, and that is generally unacceptable in the classroom. We all use language differently depending on where we are and who we are with - I'd say we all speak slightly differently when we are at school, uni, work, home or out with friends and certainly write differently if we are writing an essay, on facebook or sending a text.
Anyway, maybe I am a little bit old school. I have just been reading the latest update to the Oxford English Dictionary and this year OMG, LOL, FYI and Wag (Wag!!!!!!) have been added to the dictionary as well as biker; couch surfer; la-la land; party crashing and wassup.
http://www.oed.com/public/latest/latest-update/
Still on the OED, Australia even gets a special mention:
From a land down under
The OED aims to cover lexical developments from throughout the English-speaking world. In this update, a few new items from Australian English enter the dictionary for the first time: flat white n., a style of espresso drink with finely textured foamed milk; tragic n., a ‘boring or socially inept person, esp. one with an obsessive interest or hobby’; and yidaki n., an Australian Aboriginal term for the musical instrument better known in English as a didgeridoo.
I am going to finish this post, before I become even more "tragic" :)
It's been fascinating reading Madison's original post (complete with hyperlinks, as Rom noted) as well as the follow-up comments. The common thread seems to be the need to evaluate language use in context, which is of course a core part of what literacy is all about. It's commonly argued that literacy skills don't really exist in the abstract, only in specific communicative contexts. In some of those, txtspk might be appropriate, and in others it certainly won't be. Of course, the really interesting contexts are the borderline ones, where we see the process of linguistic evolution in action.
PS Sorry about the removed post above - a technical glitch! I've reposted all the content in the next post.
I agree with everyone that textspeak is okay depending on the context. I was very impressed with David Crystals explanation of textspeak, especially when he said the kids need to know how to spell before they can textspeak!That made me think that maybe text speak can help students literacy??? Maybe some research needs to be done in the future on this.
Great thoughts Cindy. Fancy doing some research into text speak (txtspk) and the effects it can have on children's literacy?! David Crystal is very succinct in explaining his 'theory' on txtspk. I found his thoughts fascinating.
As for the appropriateness of text speak it all comes down to the individual teacher and how he/she allows her class to it. I don't think it would really be appropriate for me to say to the class, 'That is so LOL' about a funny situation. After all, it's about modelling appropriate and correct use of language to the students. I'm sure I would earn some brownie points with them though for using that sort of language- I'd hate to be considered the uncool teacher of the school!
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