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Study Sez Txt Msgs Make Kidz Gr8 Spellrz
Picknz writes "The Telegraph reports that researchers have found texting can improve literacy among pupils by giving them extra exposure to word composition outside the school day. According to the report, the association between spelling and text messaging may be explained by the 'highly phonetic nature' of the abbreviations used by children and the alphabetic awareness required for successfully decoding the words. 'It is also possible that textism use adds value because of the indirect way in which mobile phone use may be increasing children's exposure to print outside of school,' says the report. 'We are now starting to see consistent evidence that children's use of text message abbreviations has a positive impact on their spelling skills,' adds Professor Claire Wood. 'There is no evidence that children's language play when using mobile phones is damaging literacy development.'"
And yet the rate of instances in which I want to punch these texting douchebags repeatedly in the face is trending upwards.
Way worse! Especially the last decade, many people don't even know that "then" and "than" are different words, that "ironic" doesn't mean "odd or coincidental", and how about expressions like "for all intensive purposes"? And don't get me started on "orientate"...
TFA is nonsense, written by an uneducated fool.
Caveat Utilitor
I'll ignore the multiple spelling/grammar/punctuation flaws in your post for the sake of making my point.
You are Cwix, slashdot member #1671282. That is all I know about you, aside from what you write. Much of the internet is this way, though admittedly Facebook and texting imply some previous, and likely real-life relationship as well. Since the only further information others know about you is based on the content of your posts, the lack of proofreading and spellcheck running implies that accurately expressing yourself isn't valued. For the ladies, it's akin to wearing mismatched clothes or a wrinkled dress when going to a bar.
How you say what you say is just as important as the message you're trying to convey. This is why grammar nazis like myself make it a point to express ourselves accurately. Sometimes it's expressed condescendingly, and I think that THAT is a problem (since it obviously doesn't help much), but summarily knocking the desire to express one's self accurately is shortsighted.
"your"???
You do realize that poor grammar makes you sound juvenile and uneducated. We are not talking about lack of proof-reading. The "your" example in your posting, above, is a perfect example. It is not that you misspelled a word, or made a typo, you just don't know the difference between "your" and "you're"!
I am the first to admit that I am a horrible speller. But I know the correct words to use.... a spell checker can fix one, but it cannot fix the other. :)
And again, at the danger of being redundant, I can't see why it ain't more popular with the French.
Maybe because it would have to be held at a university level, I dunno...
But on topic: There's a danger associated with changing the writing system. Germany had such a reform a few years ago. Now, you might know, German is written pretty close to its pronunciation. So we're not talking about a ground shaking, language uprooting change here. A few words were made simpler, a few ss - ß rules were revised to make them more logic and less arbitrary, the "Ph" in some foreign words were changed to F (so now you write "fotografieren" and "Fantasie" instead of "photgraphieren" und "Phantasie", thankfully they spared us "Füsik", it's still Physik. At least to my knowledge and it's gonna be a very cold day in hell before I write Füsik! Ok, I mean aside of this example ...).
So as you might see, minor changes. Even if you don't follow the change, you will still be able to read everything.
The outcry! Insane! Damaging our language! Dumbing down our language! Whole newspaper staff refused to follow the new language system and (some to this date) continue to write in the "old" system. Schools are in disarray, some German states followed the new system, some clinged to the old one, and of course kids now learn two different forms of writing which, while not mutually crippling, would lead to good students suddenly making a lot of grave spelling mistakes were they to move to another state and write their tests there.
Now imagine a much more invasive revision of the English language that you would have to coordinate not in a single country (ok, in the case of German it was three countries that were affected but afaik the Swiss said from the start that they don't give half a shit about it), but with four very important native speaking countries, quite a few former colonial countries where English is still a formal, official language and of course with pretty much every other country on this globe with English being the de facto lingua franca.
I don't think anyone really dares to touch that with a mile long pole.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Way worse! Especially the last decade, many people don't even know that "then" and "than" are different words, that "ironic" doesn't mean "odd or coincidental", and how about expressions like "for all intensive purposes"? And don't get me started on "orientate"... TFA is nonsense, written by an uneducated fool.
This comment is a perfect example of why we study things that are "conventional wisdom". The above poster has already made up his mind that kids today are poorer spellers due to this "newfangled communication technology" because of conventional wisdom. However the study referenced in the article showed the exact opposite correlation. Kids that were given cellphones did better than kids in the control group who weren't given cell phones.
If the study had shown that the kids with cellphones did worse I'm sure the above poster and others would have been whining about "Why do we need to test this? Everyone knows it's true already!" It's sad that the above poster can't accept evidence contrary to his world view and that there are enough moderators out there to think this is "+5 Insightful". I suspect I need to get off their lawn.