The Death of English (LOL)

From a report done by the Irish Education Department's Examination Commission (Fox):

"Text messaging, with its use of phonetic spelling and little or no punctuation, seems to pose a threat to traditional conventions in writing," according to the report, based on national test results in English for about 37,000 students aged 15 and 16. The report branded today's teens "unduly reliant on short sentences, simple tenses and a limited vocabulary." Too many test-takers, it said, were "choosing to answer sparingly, even minimally, rather than seeing questions as invitations to explore the territory they had studied and to express the breadth and depth of their learning and understanding."

Habitual use of shorthand isn't just about choppy English, but choppy thinking. Crystal may see growth, but Ireland's Commission, which studied 37,000 students, has data that suggests not creative spirit, but the loss of any sort of complexity. Poetry is one place where simplicity becomes complexity because of imagery. Prose, however, requires a different set of writing tools and this is where habitual texting is causing problems. There is data to back that up no matter what Mr. Crystal may wish for. It's not the alteration of the words. It's the alteration of syntactical thinking.

Do any of you oher ancients who were in high school in the 60's remember a notetaking method taught in English class called "briefhand?'" Brfhn wz lk txtg. The demise of the English language is greatly exaggerated.

As a middle school English teacher, I begin each class year with a study on the history of the English language. The children are amazed to see the number of changes from Old English, to the great vowel shift, to modern English. We cannot even read the original text of one of English's greatest authors, Geoffrey Chaucer. My students are also surprised that after the Revolutionary War, John Adams wanted to set up an American English Academy (voted down by Congress) and then Noah Webster Americanized English by purposely changing the spelling of hundreds of words so we would have unique language compared to the King's. (No wonder some of my students have trouble with spelling!) World War I and II did more to change the language than texting. I explain to my students that English is difficult to speak and write because it has been influenced by so many factors. I also tell them that is what makes English so wonderful! They are all excited to learn that they are a generation who is continuing to revolutionize the language, through their texting. Who knows! "OMG" may soon be added to the dictionary while "whom" and "lain" are removed as obsolete. And, to the purists out there who want it to stop: good luck! That's like trying to dam a river with a stick.

The butchered language is fine for texting but the problem is now many teenagers are now starting to use dis (instead of this) and da (instead of the) and u (instead of u) and lyk (instead of like), etc.

As I said earlier this is all fine when abbreviating via text message but I sometimes have occasion to read papers and letters from teenagers and young people and they really believe this is how you spell these words. They are beginning to not know the difference.

That's what I'm afraid of.