Is texting really the root of all evil when it comes to writing?

Is chat-speak destroying English? First of can we please find a different name for this new language then chat-speak, because that word makes me want to destroy the English language. I think I have to say no that it is not destroying the English language, because I really do think we as Teachers should be able to teach students the difference between the two. I agree with Greg Monfils when he wrote “They know the difference indeed, I’d go as far as to say that their command of chat-speak is directly proportional to their awareness of that the fashion of chat-speak subverts traditional rules of written English” (Monfils, 2007). Students know that the language that they are using in texts and other forms of electronic communication is not the way English is supposed to be written, but they do it for convenience. A standard text message is 160 characters and to get a full thought into a 160 characters one has to use shortened abbreviations of words; it’s not a direct assault on the written language, it is just a mode of fitting everything you want to say in a shortened space.

Above all lets relax when it comes to chat-speak, because shouldn’t we be encouraged that our students are actively participating in reading and writing? Isn’t it a fear of teachers that students will lose these skills all together, but now were complaining because they are doing them but just doing them in a non-conventional way. When I was a kid I used slang that was different from my parents and teachers, and of course I put that slang into my papers as much as possible, what’s the difference between that and chat-speak (I seriously cannot stress enough how much I hate that word)? Mofils explains it in a different way when he wrote “A teenage experimenting with a sprinkling of profanities in their conversation with peers will not suddenly forget how to converse with their grandmother” (Mofils, 2007). Students know the difference between chat-speak (errrrrr) and the kings English, please give them the benefit of the doubt. I think the only person who is afraid of chat-speak destroying the English language is lazy teachers who don’t feel the desire to stress the importance of learning how to correctly use the language, and that is shame on them. Don’t blame the technology or the new ways students use to communicate with it, blame the teacher who isn’t skilled enough to teach the kings English.

One last point when it comes to chat-speak, is it really what’s destroying the English language or more importantly the students ability to write it? I think the biggest culprit to destroying students ability to use the language is the program I am using right now to write this blog, Microsoft Word, oh yes I’m coming after you Bill Gates. I’ve been using Microsoft word since easily the third grade, and it and its stupid spell check has hindered my progress with the language at least a 100x more than texting and instant messaging ever has. I literally cannot spell to save my life, I just can’t do it, and there are some words that I misspell every time. But with spell check I can just fix it with a click of a mouse, so there is really no reason for me to ever learn how to properly spell these words. Microsoft Word even fixes grammar now (it may have in the past but seriously who remembers the third grade, or really anything that happened before college), so now I don’t even have to know how to correctly use a semi colon, or the correct there, because lovely old Word will fix it for me. So there teachers lay off the chat-speak (hold on I have to bang my head against the desk a few times, because I hate that word with such a passion), because your making students type every assignment in Microsoft word is killing their command of the language more than that language I refuse to type one more time. Just for giggles I waited till the end to use spell check for this blog and there were over a 50 words misspelled and ton of grammar issues, so there I proved my point, lay off the language that shall not be named and blame Bill Gates for hiring some MAT grad to create the spell check in Word.