Journal #7

Title: Is Chatspeak Destroying English?
Authors: Linda Howard and Greg Monfils
Leading and Learning with Technology, Nov. 2007

This article is a presentation of two divergent views of the damage and/or value of chatspeak on school age children. The authors define chatspeak as the shorthand slang language that kids have developed and adopted with the emergence of electronic forms of communication. Linda Howard presents the anti chatspeak view by claiming that it ill prepares kids for writing proper educated English. She identifies the reality that kids need to be prepared to write in a form that is precise, accurate and able to be understood by other educated English speaking people and that encouraging chatspeak will compromise a students command of English. Greg Monfils defends student’s use of chatspeak claiming that the English language itself is an expanding entity that incorporates many exceptions and meaning into its body. He argues that teaching foreign languages in class does no harm to a student’s command of the English language and analogizes chatspeak to another language such as Spanish.

The article is limited to a dialoge of the authors’ fears, opinions, and experiences. There are suggestions as to the impact of chatspeak on students but there is little substance to back-up the claims made. The article is however, valuable for what it is, a exposition of the fact that chatspeak is a language modality that is growing in usage among students. The authors inform the reader that chatspeak is an evolving thing that teachers will have to face at some point. When this happens, the teacher can reflect on the information in the article to guide their decisions about how to proceed.

Question #1 Will I correct students who write to me in chatspeak? No. I think each generation has its own language/slang that allows them to express their youth and this allows communication in a more intimate style; one that the English of their parents is unable to convey. Chatspeak is the current form of slang. I would happily respond to chatspeak because it’s a form in which students can most comfortable communicate and accurately express themselves.

Question #2 Will I learn to write in chatspeak? No, unless. If it would be useful for my students then yes, I would do my best to struggle through it. However, I really don’t feel comfortable using these types of shorthand. I don’t even like deciphering acronyms much less chatspeak.