There is a whole new generation of language going on out there and I am not privy to it. I received this email from a student last night and Adam and I had to read it a few times before we actually got the entire thing. Try for yourself:
mrs ung. i can't get to da blogspot 4rm my computer do it onlii work on da skool computa? now i cant watch da film n answer da ?'s. imma do it again to check but dis stupid thingy iz not workn..okay thanx mrs u hope u get dis message..im not harrassn u!!!lol
While this might just seem annoying and/or crazy to you (with a strange sense of irony since this email was written to this young woman's ENGLISH teacher), it actually raises a lot of very interesting questions regarding literacy in the lives of teens. Undoubtedly, kids of all ages are reading a lot more on the Internet via surfing, blogging, texting, emailing, etc., but when they choose to write in this IM-speak, is it hurting or helping their overall reading and writing skills? How does reading Wikipedia and other online sources compare/contrast to reading literature? Will these students be more well-versed in non-fiction than, say, my generation who were schooled in straight-up literature (and canonical literature at that--not much multiculturalism going on in the late 80's/early 90's in my suburban high schools)...
A lot of questions out there. I find this stuff fascinating....
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