Procrastination on Storybird
Created by Seldom, Published April 26, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Completely unrelated obligatory cute cat video
I am destined to be a crazy cat lady. And I'm ok with that.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
From Sunrise, this morning, Monday April 20th.
The video isn't particularly informative but the comments on the website are interesting in regards to teen grammar and 'what went wrong'.
A lot of people seem to be defending the youth of today, which is promising.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Txt Spk
I admit when I started to hear reports about text speak being allowed in classrooms I considered it further evidence of the declining literacy skills of the youth of today. I love the English language when it is used 'properly' and effectively and balked at the idea of encouraging the use of what I perceived as a bastardised form of it. However, the ironic thing is I am in fact guilty of using abbreviated forms in text messages (although I prefer to retain proper punctuation and grammar whenever possible) and in chat programs such as MSN where it is in fact often necessary in order to keep up the conversation. I taught my mother how to text message a few years ago and it is still a bit clunky and time-consuming for her so she abbreviates as much as possible, often to the point where it takes me a while to comprehend the message.
However, my opinion has well and truly been swayed by the more reports I read on studies being conducted in the area. A study by Plester, Wood and Joshi in 2009 found a positive correlation between the use of text speak and reading ability. The ability to effectively abbreviate shows evidence of phonological awareness and knowledge of phonetics. Additionally, exposure to mispellings does not adversely affect a child's ability to learn the correct spelling. They also argue that the positive correlation could be an indicator of the benefits of increased exposure to text through mobile phone use in aiding reading ability. Additionally, text speak can be engaging to students, shows their ability to manipulate the English language and can be a strong motivator for children to develop sufficient literacy skills in order to effectively communicate with others via mobile phone. These are ideas that I had not considered before.
In terms of how this could be transferred to the classroom, perhaps txt speak could be used to reinforce grapheme-phoneme correspondences, and to allow children to play around to find other orthographic representations that still convey appropriate meaning for the reader. Any method that encourages a child's literacy development and understanding of the writer-audience relationship and how best to convey meaning efficiently can only be a benefit IMHO.
However, my opinion has well and truly been swayed by the more reports I read on studies being conducted in the area. A study by Plester, Wood and Joshi in 2009 found a positive correlation between the use of text speak and reading ability. The ability to effectively abbreviate shows evidence of phonological awareness and knowledge of phonetics. Additionally, exposure to mispellings does not adversely affect a child's ability to learn the correct spelling. They also argue that the positive correlation could be an indicator of the benefits of increased exposure to text through mobile phone use in aiding reading ability. Additionally, text speak can be engaging to students, shows their ability to manipulate the English language and can be a strong motivator for children to develop sufficient literacy skills in order to effectively communicate with others via mobile phone. These are ideas that I had not considered before.
In terms of how this could be transferred to the classroom, perhaps txt speak could be used to reinforce grapheme-phoneme correspondences, and to allow children to play around to find other orthographic representations that still convey appropriate meaning for the reader. Any method that encourages a child's literacy development and understanding of the writer-audience relationship and how best to convey meaning efficiently can only be a benefit IMHO.
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