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IOL: OK 2 use SMS lingo in exams
New Zealand high school students will be allowed to use text-speak – the second language teenagers have developed for cellphone messages – in exams, according to news reports on Thursday.
The move has divided students and educators amid concerns that it could damage the English language, The Press in Christchurch reported.
It said that the New Zealand Qualifications Authority was still encouraging students to use proper English in exam papers but would give credit if an answer written in text-speak “clearly shows the required understanding”.
Deputy chief executive Bali Haque told the paper that in English examinations, where candidates were specifically required to demonstrate proper use of language, text abbreviations would be penalised.
Teachers’ spokesperson Debbie Te Whaiti said that the move reflected the situation in the classroom, where teachers were grappling every day with the use of text-speak.
One Christchurch school principal, Denis Pyatt, said that he would not encourage students to use text abbreviations in exams, but added: “I think text messaging is one of the most exciting things that has happened in a long time.
“It is another development in that wonderful thing we call the English language.”
But another teacher, Stephen Rout, said: “Students need to be able to write and understand full English.”
Wellington’s Dominion Post gave the following examples of text speak in school papers: “We shal fite dem on d beaches” (Sir Winston Churchill) and “2b or nt 2b” (Shakespeare’s Hamlet). – Sapa-dpa
Here’s the Web2SMS translator.
Before being able to graduate, Florida colleges require all students to pass a test called the TSWE…. Test of Standard Written English. Or they did when I graduated back in the stone age (i.e. before the internet. Probably still do, but I digress…) The test proctor, an English professor no less, made sure we understood that this was testing WRITTEN English.
“Now, in spoken English, you may say ‘he be’s my brother’, but in written english, you must say ‘he is my brother’.” She gave a few other examples as well. I had not realized until that point that ebonics was considered to be proper spoken English.
I doubt if things have improved.
Reminds me of the push in the early 90s to let black students use ebonics in school instead of regular English. That idea was as stupid as this one is.
This is no big deal, they’re just Kiwis. Go into a pub in Wellington and ask what state of Australia are you in. You will be rewarded for your efforts. 🙂
two things:
(+) the “standard” dialect of any given language is simply the dialect spoken by the people in charge of the money and the guns.
(+) it is immutable that language changes over time; it’s why shakespeare and chaucer sound funny to us now
get over it.
@#2 Let me AX you somefin I, dont see what da problem is
Fo Realz
#3 They do call Australia the West Island.
Rather than waste any more time on the pretense of being concerned with the decline of literacy rates in industrialized nations, we should simply start a program to offer post-secondary certification in obedience and conformity.
Education, as Ezra Pound apparently noted great insight, is for those who refuse to do without it. Which, unfortunately, remains the overwhelming majority.
Born 40 years to late, for my spelling to be any good…
f u cn rd ths u cnt spl wrth a dm.
#4 is right. This new text speech is the way of the future and it’s only us old people who aren’t used to it that don’t like. We hate change.
Text speech is a much faster written language than regular english. I watched my teenage daughter communicate with four people in four separate chat windows at once. There’s no way us old people who write things out properly and fix our spelling to keep up with her. Text Messaging will be the next written language. We will become like China and have two versions of the language everywhere, one formal and one informal.
The only real concern over this form of writing is does it get the message across?
#9 u r right but i still gt the message
May I be the first to thank you Uncle Dave for not using a picture of a babe with basketball-sized, rock hard, surgically enhanced, hooters. Reinforcing my post of a few days ago, there’s sure nothing wrong with a perky A-cup!
I think it’s very handy that when students have answers messaged to them during an exam, they can write them down as received without having to translate them into proper English 😉
9
I can read that quite well, being an avid texter. However, I take a considerable amount of pride in my ability to spell better than the average bear. At some points, I even consider myself to be quite the well rounded lexicographer.
11
I concur. Its more about a nice juicy backside anyway.
12
You hit the nail on the head!
Who cares about formal english? Just like life, language evolves whether you want it to or not. It simply doesn’t matter if you believe it or not, it is going to happen. That is the beauty of science, it requires no faith and continues with or without it.
Shakespeare invented hundreds of new words, and the world is better for it. With more ways to express ourselves, our creativity only increases.
Yup, like everything else in our culture(s), changes are a fact and who can say this one is a bad thing ? Perhaps, the folks traveling towards Mars or beyond will realize energy savings by sending info homewards in this manner ? Dunno..I will heartily agree with the comments of #11. and #12, with a heavy lean towards #11….yowza !
Just seems a bit sad to note one more thing the kids are doing that leaves us geezers a liitle further in the past. As noted before, however, it’s good to see our soft bellied, A-cupped youth at work !!
10 I watched my teenage daughter communicate with four people in four separate chat windows at once.
Reminds me of a recent article in my local paper – about a high school girl getting great grades in school – but “barely scraping by” on 1000-minutes/month on her cellphone. Doing homework while listening to music, fielding frequent calls & SMS messages. Over 100 “friends” on her MySpace page…
My first thought was: She couldn’t work in manufacturing, like I do. She probably couldn’t work in any of the cubicle-dweller jobs here, either.
Will these kids have to go “cold turkey” to support themselves? Or will they find jobs that let them “stay connected”?
Speaking as someone whose mother tongue is not English, I must say that using Politically Correct language is much harder to do then understand and use TXTSPK.
🙂
I don’t see a problem as long as people don’t forget non-texting English. It would be useful to be able to abbreviate in exams simply to save time, but if they start teaching classes on text speak I am going to mournfully let go of my last shred of faith in humanity.