by Mjd Nawaz

Created on: September 12, 2010

Introduction

The debate of whether texting is actually destroying the language- it tends to be the older generations that thinks it is annihilating our use of standard English however in a number of studies there seems to be no significant difference.  My view is written below, I do believe that the use of standard English is very slowly deteriorating, however text messaging is not to be blamed, the amount of video games that are played by children even on school night,the coalition government budget cuts and children taking unnecessary days of school all need to be taken into account. 

Many studies have in fact shown for an unknown reason that children who regularly text are in fact better at reading than children who don't. Texting using abbreviated words is more convenient. Children should be credited for their skill of being bale to code switch- take a business man for example the type of letter he may post to his customer will vary a great deal to one which he sends to his parents and relatives. 

Texting is not at all demolishing the English Language.  A survey linking punctuation and spellings of regular texting children to individuals who do not habitually text did not discover major differences. Both sets of children made normal grammatical errors. Moreover, teachers and examiners did not come across text abbreviations or any form of slang language. This noticeably indicates the children’s talent of being able to code switch. A sensible child understands when there is a need of appropriate grammar and vocabulary; therefore there is no fear, of the language being shattered due to children constantly sending and receiving phonetic messages.

Literacy skills may possibly advance, as abbreviations can help children to recognize the division of words into particular syllables. Large quantities of words are abbreviated in text messages to maximise the number of characters that the sender is allowed to type and also to save time, not merely because the sender has remodelled the English Language.

If text language found its way into an English assignment it is not to be blamed directly, there are numerous reasons to consider. In reality, the   prime reason is, basically the huge budget cuts that schools are heavily affected by across the country. The other main culprit is video games; children are playing games for countless hours each day instead of reading, as a result the growth of their writing, spelling and reading skills are essentially being halted.

Parents need to control the amount of hours that children spend on video games and encourage them to read, and complete homework.

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