Texting And The English Language

In the article “2b or not 2b”, David Crystal begins with discussing how others such as John Humphry argued that texters are “vandals who are doing to our language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbors 800 years ago. They are destroying it” (335). This is also the common belief of most people. People often argue about the bad points of technology over our language. However, Crystal believes that texting can improve children’s ability to read and write rather than hinder their literacy as many people claim. He also argues that not all texting are done in abbreviated words. Complex messages and institutional messages are often texted in standard form of

In Michaela Cullington’s essay titled, “Does Texting Affect Writing?” the author tests the ongoing question of how today’s youth handles the effects of texting in the education system. Using successful evidence from both sides of the argument as well as participating in her own experiment, Cullington is able to fully demonstrate how texting does not interfere with today’s students and their abilities to write formally in the classroom.

Texting is helping teens all over America improve their writing and language skills. According to the passage, Text- Speak Can Help Students, “ Researchers at Coventry University in the United Kingdom asked children to write text messages that described different situations. The children who texted often had a better vocabulary. Also, they could express their thoughts in writing easily than children who did not text regularly.” Of course, students are able to do something called, “code switching” which means they know when to use text talk and when to be formal. Seventy- five percent of teenagers text. In recent years, text messaging has become the predominant mode of communication for the typical American teenager.

We as a society are evolving with each generation to come. We are getting stronger, faster, and smarter. Just as cell phones are no longer square blocks with numbers on them and TV’s are not in black and white, writing itself has also evolved. Once upon a time many wrote and spoke in a Shakespearean form of language and over the years it has evolved into something we call modern English. In recent years, technology has advanced greatly and cell phones have become one of our primary use of communication. With cell phones came a new form of writing called text messaging. Text messaging is used to send short, concise messages to anyone around the world. Often times text messages involve the use of abbreviations which stand for different things and also involves frequent use of emoji’s as a form of expression. This form of writing is now considered informal writing and is not acceptable in academic settings. In Michaela Cullington’s essay “Does Texting Affect Writing?” she touches on both sides of whether texting is hindering students writing or if it’s actually having a positive effect. She then makes is clear that she believes most students are educated enough to know when text speak is appropriate and when it’s not so therefore it has no effect on students. Although, I agree with her thesis, she lacks credibility due to her insufficient evidence. In addition, I also believe

“Does Texting Affect Writing” is about Michaela Cullington, the author, comparing two opposing perspectives. The perspective is whether texting hinders the formal writing skills of students or not. Millennials are a population that cannot go a day without looking at their phones so, due to the “increasing use of mobile phones, concerns have been raised about its influence on their literacy skills. No matter if it is sending or receiving a text or checking social media sites, technology has taken over the lives of the young generations. The essay “Does Texting Affect Writing?” in They Say, I say exposes how the significant action of texting and using textspeak, i.e. abbreviations and symbols, may be hindering the writing skills of teenaged students. People communicate using textese to “more quickly type what they are trying to say” (Cullington, 2017, p. 361). Textese is a “register that allows omission of words and the use or textisms: instances of non-standard written language such as 4ever” (Van Dijk, 2016). When these people use textese often, it can become habitual and transition into their school assignments. Michaela Cullington constantly repeats words and uses comparisons and abnormalities for the concerns about textspeak, the responses to the concerns, methods and the discussion of findings on the topic to be analyzed.

Courtney Treco English 152 November 5, 2014 Is Texting Destroying Our Language? In David Crystals article, 2B or Not 2B, he discusses texting and how it is not destroying language. First in the article Crystals compares his ideas to an article written by John Humphrys, who believes that texting is wrecking language and stated that people who text are “vandals who are doing to our language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbours 800 years ago. ”(Page

According to Cullington, “texting has a minimal effect on student writing” (367). Cullington, explains that students are very conscious about text-messaging and that they will never combine informal writing into formal writing because they believe that text-messaging with friends is not the same as writing an important paper in school. Nonetheless, Cullington states that Dennis Baron,an English and linguistics professor at the University of Illinois, “suggest students do not even use abbreviations in their text messages very often” (368). Cullington also emphasizes that another English teacher argues that “despite texting, her students formal writing remains solid”

The article “2b or not 2b” by David Crystal is about the era of texting and how it affects teens and children today. It has become common to dismiss that the texting is a bad influence on children who text due to the bad language people write in their text. According to the article, John Sutherland of University College London texting is "bleak, bald, sad shorthand”(crystal 1). This is due to teens who cut the conversation and forget grammar to text to one another. They would put numbers to words or cut letters out to shorten a word. Although, people say that texting is bad and make people stupid people said the same thing about printing. People back then said that it’s evil and put things in people’s mind. This is no different to the opinions

Texting has become more and more common among younger aged children from about ages twelve to seventeen. As new phones begin to develop young kids have the urge to buy them to appear cool to their surrounding peers. In an ebook, Discourse of Text Messaging: Analysis of SMS Communication, written by Caroline Tagg reads this, “In 2010 it was estimated that 200,000 text messages were being sent every second, a three fold increase from 2007(Tagg p2). And it has also been calculated, by Ben Parr, that, “the average teenager now sends 3,339 texts per month(Parr).” This is an insane amount of texts. But little do these young teens know how this is greatly impacting their reading, writing, and speaking skills . Texting at a young age is very serious, is negatively affecting children’s literacy, and many of the problems that come with younger aged texting can easily be avoided.

This generation has experienced significant advancement in the technological world. It is a platform of which communication has become more efficient, specifically through text messaging. As technology and efficiency have advanced, so have the language ideologies surrounding them. Adult speakers of the English language have formed the ideology that text messaging are ruining the language. Texting and instant messaging are not directly influencing literacy, in fact, they introduce a new kind of literacy. From Variation to Heteroglossia in the Study of Computer-Mediated Discourse by Jannis Androutsopoulos, Always On : Language in an Online and Mobile World by Naomi S. Baron, From Statistical Panic to Moral Panic: The Metadiscursive Construction and Popular Exaggeration of New Media Language in the Print Media by Crispin Thurlow, Undergraduates ' Text Messaging Language And Literacy Skills by Abbie Grace, The Effects Of Text Messaging And Instant Messaging On Literacy by Lieke Verheijen, and Beverly Plester, Nengah Kemp, and Clare Woods’, Text Messaging and Literacy – The Evidence all make clear that this is a prevalent language ideology used to control the discourse of the English language.

According to the writing, “That alarms some linguists, who worry that the proliferation of text messaging — where cellphone users type and send short messages to other phones or computers — will enforce sloppy, undisciplined habits among American youths” (Linguists Mixed on Effects of Text Messaging). The “undisciplined habits” in text messaging is used in academic classes. As a result, students are affected due to the common use of altered language in text messaging.

What are some of the particular features of texting that Crystal identifies? Are they still relevant? There are several features of texting that Crystal addresses in this chapter. The spelling of texts is new and different. Children’s ability to capitalize correctly, punctuate and spell will decline. Children’s schoolwork will suffer because they will assign texting customs to the classroom which result in a decrease in exam scores. The upcoming texting generation will not be able to articulate proper English, thus causing the whole language to deteriorate. While there has never been any clear evidence to support the above concerns, I feel the older generations are not convinced texting is not determinantal to the younger generations.

John McWhorter a linguistic(someone who studies language or linguistics) says texting is killing our language or damaging the writing portion of it. But he says it isn't true. Texting is a way for kids, teenagers, and adults express their feeling in a different kind of way. They express our feelings by saying things we wouldn't say in person. Some people think texting and writing are two of the same types of writing styles. Language started about 80 thousand years. Writing is something that came along much later. First came speech and then writing. Before we write an article or a presentation on something we think or even say it out loud. When we talk casually we usually attend to talk in a more looser way. Meaning

I will analysing two articles one of them being John Humphry’s article “I h8 txt msgs: how texting is wrecking our language” and David Crystal “2b or not 2b” analysis of text messages looking at what kind of language do they use and other kind of language devices.

Texting is the communication of evolution, is it destroying our english language? According to Crystal there should be texting he finds it helpful in a way. “2B or not 2B”, Crystal states how texting is not a disaster “texting has added a new dimension to language use... its long-term impact is negligible. It is not a disaster” (Crystal,2008). People are worried that texting isn’t good for our literacy skills in this generation and so forth. We want to think that the youngsters came up with misplacing of abbreviations. This isn’t true Crystal points out in his research “Eric Partridge published his Dictionary of Abbreviations in 1942… English has had abbreviated words ever since it began to be written down” (Crystal,2008). The idea of our english language becoming a disaster isn’t true, abbreviations has been around since history.Texting is something done in an everyday life. Texting has become so common that everyone 's mind has adjusted to the misplacement of abbreviation this doesn’t mean everyone does it when they do their school work or when they 're on there job. Being one of those people use misplacement of abbreviations when texting, hasn’t completely ruined my common sense of reading and writing the proper grammar to be successful or to be labeled well educated. If misplacement of abbreviations when texting means you 're not intelligent then in guessing everyone isn’t smart who texts. We all know this isn’t true, I do agree with Crystal that texting “it is not a