Clipmarks | anzbau's IDEL11 collection

If they won't write, get them to text

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:42:12 GMT

clipped by: anzbau
clipper's remarks: Hamish Norbrook writes how the use of text speak could be used by teachers to make their students aware of different styles and genres of written texts and give them practice in writing skills.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Text messages offer opportunities for the English teacher because they provide a realistic basis for writing exercises. Fewer and fewer letters are being written - especially informal ones. Yet writing is as relevant as ever - and increasingly the ability to recognise a variety of different registers, formal or informal, serious or light, is essential. Often the exercise need not be a long one. So, instead of saying "Write a letter", say "Write a text". With predictive texting the language can be as formal as you like - and although current text messages have space for only 160 characters, with a multimedia messaging service (MMS) you can write far more.

Tags: textspeak

Is txt mightier than the word?

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:34:11 GMT

clipped by: anzbau
clipper's remarks: Pervasive use of text speak by teens sparks a debate. Does the use of the shorthand have a liberating or inhibiting influence on the language? Should the young be allowed to express themselves freely using their lingo or should they be forced to comply with conventions? Related questions include the issue of digital divide and multiliteracies.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

When a 13-year-old Scottish girl handed in an essay written in text message shorthand, she explained to her flabbergasted teacher that it was easier than standard English.

She wrote: "My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc." (In translation: "My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York. It's a great place.")

Tags: text speak

Wots Rude

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:09:32 GMT

clipped by: anzbau
clipper's remarks: A video showing a pervasive use and inappropriate use of textspeak (see 01:14 for a specific example).

Clip Source: news.sbs.com.au

Tags: text speak

OMG! Text speak finds way into work force

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:55:01 GMT

clipped by: anzbau
clipper's remarks: Textspeak slips into resumes - young people entering professional life have to learn distinguish informal and more formal contexts and appropriacy of text lingo usage.

Clip Source: www.mysuburbanlife.com

Tags: digital natives, text speak

'Copy and study this list of text message spelling words. We will have test tomorrow.'

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:54:08 GMT

clipped by: anzbau
clipper's remarks: How to teach textspeak - a guide for innovative teachers

Clip Source: www.cartoonstock.com

Tags: text speak

'But this is fantastic, professor! It's like no language I've ever seen before!'

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:53:04 GMT

clipped by: anzbau
clipper's remarks: New language has emerged.

Clip Source: www.cartoonstock.com

'But this is fantastic, professor! It's like no language I've ever seen before!'

Tags: text speak

'Functionally illiterate and innumerate'

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:52:04 GMT

clipped by: anzbau
clipper's remarks: According to government-funded research approximately 20% of teens are functionally illiterate and/or innumerate.

Clip Source: www.tes.co.uk

The latest evidence on reading shows 17 per cent of 16- to 19-year-olds are functionally illiterate and Professor Brooks said this had also been the case for at least two decades.

“People at this level can handle only simple tests and straightforward questions on them where no distracting information is adjacent or nearby,” his report says.

“Making inferences and understanding forms of indirect meaning, eg allusion and irony, are likely to be difficult or impossible. This is less than the functional literacy needed to partake fully in employment, family life and citizenship and to enjoy reading for its own sake.”

Tags: 19-year-olds, functionally, illiterate, innumerate, professor brooks