Text message slang found in school work

by GD Fri 12 Dec 2008, 10:39 pm

Children are increasingly resorting to "text message speak" and street slang in essays - leaving teachers baffled when marking work.

A study revealed more than four-in-10 teachers failed to understand some pupils' writing because it was so littered with obscure language.

Phrases such as "innit" and Gr8 are now regularly found in school work, it was claimed.
One teacher told how an essay contained the sentence "i noe u dnt noee mii,i donno huu u r" - I know you do not know me, I do not know who you are.
Another student wrote "ma m8s wnt ova" - my mates went over.
It was revealed that, in one case, four teachers had to mark a pupil's essay together because it was so confusing.
According to the survey of 500 teachers, almost 55 per cent believed children's grammar was now worse than it used to be.
Many said children now failed to tell the difference between standard English and colloqualisms.
The report - commissioned by the satellite channel, Teachers TV - listed examples of street language found in an essay on Shakespeare.
It included "Macbeth couldn't be arsed...", "Macbeth he is well wicked", "Macbeth was pure mental" and "Romeo was a numpty, wasn't he?"
In an essay on the Second World War, a pupil wrote: "Hitler was majorly bad."
Andrew Bethell, Teachers TV chief executive, said: "Pupils are increasingly communicating through colloquial language in the classroom, with some teachers accepting this as the norm. However, the correct use of grammar is vital if education standards are to be maintained and improved."
The study said many teachers were now picking up on pupils' phrases, but some were left confused.
More than half of staff failed to recognise that "phat" meant "great", almost 50 per cent did not understand that "klingon" was used for a younger brother or sister and a quarter did not know "vanilla checks" was slang for "boring clothes". (from times online)

I have to admit, that the english education standard, seems to have dropped quite rapidly over the past few years...