Is Chatspeak Destroying English?

“A student of mine recently asked via e-mail, “hey, i cant find hw n the conf can u help.” I did. Shortly thereafter, she wrote a lovely paper devoid of chatspeak.” said Greg Monfils, Freshman/Sophomore Academic Dean for the Urban School of San Francisco. This is a very true statement. Student’s today are very capable of switching from “Chatspeak” to English much as a by lingual student switches from one language to another, “After all, we teach them different languages all the time. We don’t fear that a Spanish class will diminish a student’s command of English.” (Monfils)

Young teenage minds are capable of communication in multiple languages; however that is not truly the debate at hand. Are society is not concerned that a student is going to turn in a paper written in grammatically correct Spanish, they are concerned that students are not being taught grammar and spelling. This is completely true. Students are inserting “Chatspeak” in assignments and final papers. As for Mr. Monfils example of the student that e-mailed him in “Chatspeak” and then wrote an excellent paper, I pose the question of, is it appropriate for students to address teachers using this type of language? Any employee would never send their supervisor an e-mail written in “Chatspeak”.

“Every generation has something that is uniquely their own, and that is wonderful; however, a time comes when we all have to grow and evolve into our true character, and many young people will have a difficult time drawing the line between acceptable and unacceptable dialogue in everyday life, especially in written communications.” said, Linda Howard. In academic setting students should address teachers and peers using formal language. Many countries around the world have both formal and informal language. In these countries students would definitely only speak and only use formal language when addressing a teacher.

“We may have different sets of linguistic conventions according to our ethnicity, family, friends, and our work and school communities, but at some point it is time to realize that the English language must be used effectively to understand and to be understood.” (Howard) To appeal to today’s students teachers must example the importance of being understood. All students want to be valued for their thoughts and opinions, however if they are written in a grammatically incorrect and often not understandable form their thought might be disregarded. Teacher’s must create a classroom standard for writing that is professional for their students to follow.