Chat room slang in Jamaica
In this post in January we debated whether there is a place in writing today for abbreviated English of the type found in emails, text messages and chat rooms, or whether this is just a menace to ESL students and teachers.
Well, according to the Jamaica Observer, this type of English is becoming a problem in Jamaican schools, as it creeps into students’ essay writing. One teacher, quoted in the article, blames the problem on a lack of reading: “If you ask students to read a novel, the first thing they ask is ‘how many pages, Miss? Is it long?’ Everything is about instant gratification.”
What do you think? Would students use less chat room slang at school if they read more and watched less TV? Have a look at the article and post a comment below…
May 10th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
The article that ran in the Jamaica Observer referred to chat-room slang several times as “American spelling.” I also noted that one teacher even said that she thought it was okay for the students include this style in their writing, because it might help them if they were to attend college in the United States…
I think both of these are strange declarations, as abbreviations like “b4″ and “r u” would never be acceptable in formal written American speech. In fact, there is a good portion of the population that wouldn’t understand such notation should they see it on paper. I think its best to avoid championing such slang in the interest of learning to use English properly. If students want to use a form of this speech on the internet, thats great - that’s where it belongs. Lets just try to keep it out of the academic arena!