It comes up now and then how spelling is suffering at the hands of chatspeak and teenagers. Do you think it's true?

I have a couple teenage friends on Facebook and in nearly every post, and that of their friends, there is a spelling mistake or grammar error .. not just substituting with chatspeak or even typos but basic mistakes. Now this is just informal writing .. are they making the same mistakes in formal writing?

A friend of mine who is a teacher of primary kids (7-11ish age group) thinks that it isn't spelling so much that she has noticed going downhill but that kids don't seem to have the vocabulary anymore.

Does it just not matter? Is it just as important that they are writing no matter how bad it is or are the habits going to be long lasting and over time will our expectations change and will we not worry about it?

I am supervising my son's schooling and I am constantly onto the poor little [censored] over all this kind of thing and every now and then I step back and wonder if in ten years time will it matter? I hope it does.

I sincerely hope it will matter!

If it's any consolation, my 13 year old absolutely hates chatspeak, and is constantly correcting her friend's spelling mistakes. They write notes to each other in their homework diaries (:-/), and my daughter corrects the errors for the others (who take it well, in fact). Okay she's the exception to the rule, but if she is against it, then there are most certainly others of like mind somewhere ...

If we don't at least try to combat chatspeak taking over, then in ten years time nobody will even know what is the 'official' (and correct) way to spell anything and everybody will end up just doing their own thing.

Yes it takes more time to write correctly, but it's easier for everybody to read and understand, and the chances of misunderstandings are dramatically reduced.

Why should we be less exigent about spelling when we are ever more meticulous about other everyday things? (hygiene springs to mind, but there are loads of other examples).

Yes I agree. We fuss about things being PC, hygenic, green organic, etc etc. Why do we go the other way when it comes to grammar, punctuation and spelling? It matters an awful lot to me. I cringe when I see the Chinese children that I teach, (and adults too,) lapsing into text and chatspeak. It is so ugly and lazy. We have the most interesting language in the world, I think. I could never condone it being cheapened and ruined by the lapsing of standards.
Maybe I am old fashioned and pedantic, but that is me.
It is one of the reasons I have been here at FT so long. Thank God things will never be allowed to slip here as they do at other, inferior sites.

I am an exception to the rule as well. I really dislike it when people mix up the most basic words.

Today in Psychology, my teacher wrote on the board:

Quote:

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The independent variable effects the dependent variable

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I pointed out her mistake (confusion of 'affect' and 'effect') and she told me that she doesn't like using 'affect' because, to her, it means 'to show affection'
She wouldn't correct it either.

Which is really annoying me. I can take her the dictionary definitions if she'd like.
Effect (n) - The result of a change
Affect (v) - To change or influence something
Effect (v) - To bring about

While the independent variable may indeed effect the dependent variable, I'm pretty sure that wasn't what she meant to say.

I am a pretty ordinary speller, but Dad liked spelling correct, as well as knowing most words in crosswords. I remember at junior school, both my Mum and Dad were surprised that spellings were not corrected etc. I try to avoid text speak as much as I can

To bring up your point about not correcting spelling mistakes in Junior school, I think that they were following the method by which only some of the words were marked wrong, others not , sometimes because the pattern had not yet been taught, or because too many red marks makes a child feel inadequate. This happens in Primary schools still, and is a reasonable method I think.
We tend to teach children word lists with the same pattern. When the pattern has been taught then we expect the child to use it correctly.

Another problem which I think is affecting spelling is the Internet and how we are now seeing spellings from different 'English speaking' countries. I have begun to doubt my own spellings at times, double or single L for instance.

I'm no longer a teenager, but I never got heavy into chatspeak and was ALWAYS a good speller (when I was 9, we had classes of mixed grades in school, because there weren't that many kids overall, so in grade four, was in a class with grades 4, 5 and 6... in taking a test for the regional spelling bee, for the kids who wanted to participate, I was tested with the grade six words, scored higher than anyone else who actually was in the age 12-14 category, ended up having to compete in the junior division and won.)

In terms of internet chatting and stuff, I use some acronyms, like "lol" and such, but only the ones that don't really replace actual words (an exception might be in text messages, where there is a character limit, and only in that case I might use 'u' instead of 'you'. It drives me crazy when people use "chatspeak" that is actually not any quicker than real words. There seems to be a ridiculous trend among 11-14 year olds (approximately, I'm sure some continue past that age) who use 'lyke' instead of 'like' or 'whut' instead of 'what'. I highly doubt it's because they don't know how to spell such basic words, rather they just think it's 'cool' or something. I use my own kind of abbreviations, like for example when I was in school for note-taking, simply for speed purposes, but I would never do so in a more formal context, or even just in an e-mail or posting here on this board for example. I do remember one grade 11 English class though, where the teacher came in and told us all we were having a class on proper writing, as an appalling number of students had handed in essays to her using things like 'w/o' instead of the actual word 'without'. That's the kind of abbreviation I'd use in a note to myself, never ever ever on something I'd hand in to a teacher, or even something I'd let anyone else read.

My sister laughs at me for texting in full words, correctly spelled and with punctuation. She learned to spell phoetically so we've always argued about spelling. Now I don't speak with proper grammer but when sentences don't start with a capital or have any punctuation, it does slightly depress me.

Perhaps spelling is not being corrected because some of the new young teachers weren't taught the correct spelling and therefore can't teach their students

Toadette, I think you have something there. Also, watch the commercial channels on your TV one night. The misspelling in the advertisements is amazing, as is poor grammar, punctuation etc. I also become quite upset when I use a computer where the set language is English (US) and the damn thing tries to tell me I have misspelled colour, organisation and favourite. The first thing I do when I start in a new office is to set the language to English (Aust) which means I don't receive a lot of unearned errors.
I wonder if a possible solution might be to change the mindset of young people about textspeak ? Perhaps get them to learn it as they would a foreign language, to be used only in certain situations ? Yes, I AM joking.

I do the proof-reading at work and it appalls me what people would otherwise be sent out of our office if it wasn't checked.

I also recently bought a game for our Wii and I hate that it has spelling mistakes in it. It drives me up the wall and I tend not to play it anymore because it is so bad.

I only use chatspeak in a text message because of the character limit. If I know my message will fit though, I use proper spelling and punctuation. I actually find abbreviations, etc really hard to read and hate it when I get a resume/cv in at work that uses this kind of spelling.

If it's formal, don't be lazy!

Lones, poor spelling and punctuation on a resume are very high on my "hate" list.
As a career counsellor / employment consultant, I once had the misfortune to deal with a man who deliberately crossed out something on his resume and added in a correction in pen before he sent it. When I questioned what he was doing, he told me it added a "personal touch". I told him if it ended up on my desk, the only personal touch it would receive was from my hand consigning it to the "discard" pile.
He called me a "picky bitch".

My spelling has always been abominable, and I'm not really sure why that is the case. I seem to be unable to remember the correct spelling for even some commonly used words.

Sometimes, but not always, a word will look odd to me if I misspell it. Then, if I am able to do so, I look in a dictionary or use a spell checker to see if I've made a mistake. When I've written reports I've given to a secretary for typing, I plead with them to check for my spelling errors. I'm generally a poor Scrabble player because my spelling is such a hindrance, and doing crosswords is quite a challenge because of the same problem.

I find my poor spelling a source of considerable embarrassment, because I do feel that misspellings reflect badly on the writer and are also a source of distraction from the content of what is written. What I write is a reflection of myself, and I like to be able to take pride in what I do.

In my case, my spelling difficulties are totally unrelated to my educational background and to my general level of literacy. I just seem unable to remember how many words are spelled, and this has been going on since childhood. And I grew up in a time when we were drilled in all the basics of spelling and grammar, and long before texting and chat came along. Perhaps it is because I spell phonetically and English is not really a phonetic language. Although, no matter how many times I look up the correct spellings for certain words, I will not remember them the next time. It just doesn't sink in. It's a pain in the neck, and it does bother me--a lot.

But that's my problem...

Over the past few decades, we've grown more casual in many things, including how we dress, and speak, and write. In the broadest sense, we've become more vulgar, and less formal. Texting and chatting are certainly informal modes of communication, and they are fine in their place, just as wearing jeans might be fine, in their place. But some people may have lost sight of when it is important to communicate more appropriately and formally, just as they may have lost sight of when to take off the jeans and put on a nice pair of pants. It's up to parents and teachers to keep reminding the younger generations of the "niceties" of language use, including spelling and grammar. It's really the equivalent of good manners applied to language. It's part of how we present ourselves to the world, through the written word. Even on the internet, with all it's anonymity, people should care about how they present themselves through their language use.

In an age of instant communication, things spread quickly through the culture, including certain ungrammatical phrases that the news media will suddenly start using and which then become "acceptable" language use. One in particular that drives me nuts is the phrase, "She went missing a week ago", to describe a person who disappeared. Every time I hear it it is like fingernails scraping across a blackboard to my ears. "She went missing" --how can anyone go missing? They are missing or they have been missing for a week, but they haven't "went missing". That's just one example. Unfortunately, there are loads of instances where the media contributes to the butchering of the language.

You have no idea how many words I had to check for spelling in this post. I used an online dictionary. I wish FT would add a Spell Check feature.

I have always been good at spelling (no matter what the language) so I find it harder to appreciate how difficult it must be for other people if it doesn’t come easily to them.

Mind you, when I went to school, we were physically punished for making spelling errors, so there was a powerful incentive to learn. I’ll never forget my first grade teacher. She was a real old maid and I think she got her jollies by hitting children. Every night we were given a list of ten spelling words that we had to learn overnight and we were tested on them the next morning. We received a sharp rap over the knuckles with a cane for every one that we got wrong. I remember one particular time when she gave us a list consisting of words like rot, cot, dot, spot, etc. When she tested us, she slipped in “yacht” (which was NOT on the list). Needless to say, we all spelt (spelled, if you are American ) it “yot” and the entire class was beaten. But I digress.

Society tends to judge a person’s intelligence by their literacy, and this is particularly true when it comes to employment and the competition for jobs. In this regard, I think correct spelling will always “matter”. I work with trainees who are looking for employment in the health sector. I am often asked to proof-read their resumes and CVs and give constructive criticism. I’ve never seen one yet that didn’t have errors in it. I’ve also noticed that the worst ones inevitably boast “I pay attention to detail”.

It will be interesting to see the impact of chatspeak and abbreviations on the language. English is always evolving. A hundred years ago, people were worrying about the same literacy issues. When I was a child, our teachers and parents lamented the effect of advertising and catchy business names on our English skills (such kwik instead of quick).

Last August, I caved under enormous pressure from my daughter and got a mobile phone. I didn’t use it until December when we went away on holiday. I used it to keep in touch with my daughter who stayed at home. We were travelling considerable distances by car, so while Maynooth drove, I would text-message my daughter. At first I used perfect English but eventually I decided to have a go at using abbreviations. After the first message, I got a response from her: “Who is this?” – she didn’t believe her mother would ever stoop so low (LOL – see I can do it - ).

I work with a young girl who not only writes in chat-speak but speaks it as well. Instead of saying “by the way” or “oh my gosh”, she will say the letters BTW or OMG. She often uses abbreviations that no-one in the office understands. I told her that the point of language was to facilitate communication and if people can’t understand what you are saying, it defeats the purpose. Everyone in the office teases her about her use of chat-speak. Our boss tried using it back to her, but he stuffed it up, with hilarious results.

I'm currently at a training course for those who teach their kids through the school system we're in. I was really heartened yesterday when the Principal did a talk about spelling and its importance. He talked about the spelling programme we use and how he's going to encourage the teachers to spend more lesson time on spelling and it's strategies and so on. There could be hope for spelling just yet!

We just have to get the younger kids through their teenage years knowing when and where to use the chatspeak.

As a "word nerd" (and proud of it) I deplore what's happening to the literacy and vocabulary standards today. I use text speak all the time in notes to myself, in texts to friends and online when on yahoo or skype but that saves time and characters. When compiling a document for work for example it has to be correct.

When a nephew of mine was being taught table manners he asked me if he had to do certain stuff all the time. I told him "No, when you're at home you can relax a bit but when you're older and at a friend's house, at a work dinner, at your girlfriend's house or anywhere vaguely important it's nice to know the right things to do." He took it well and learnt from that. It's the same with language skills in my book.

My niece was developing certain annoying speech habits common with her age group. Her mother and I encouraged her to speak properly, take a few bad habits out of her speech and now she's a very confident, well spoken, articulate and well presented 21 year old. Part of that is her own nature but I'll take a bit of the credit.

I agree with people who think that the younger teachers don't know what's correct. I've heard of a teacher thinking "can't" is spelt "carnt" for Heaven's sake. A friend of mine is about 60 and works in a school. She is perpetually correcting documents teachers give her to have printed up.

Alas, I have no solution. As with the lack of civility in some of today's society I think it's going to get worse before it gets better.

I'm not a native English speaker...
Don't mean to brag but I've always been a good speller...and once I see someone who's good at it this thought crosses my mind that s/he is probably from a good and decent family...I think the way we speak shows our personalities.

Sadly I think the correct spelling of words is losing its real value...
and I can anticipate other words or maybe signs will be replaced by words sooner or later..and it's not in my or your hands!
Like U instead of YOU
or @ instead of AT
Remember Shakspeare English...
We no longer see some words...like...THY..."How are thee?"
or ...ALAS!
I don't think they are common words anymore!
So...as you can see this is what happens to any languages by time and unfortunately we are unable to help it!
No matter how hard we try:(
I'm still wondering why they say:"A LANGUAGE IS A PERSON."

Written and spoken English have changed a lot. I still use 'local dialect' when I speak, but not when I type or write. This could spark a whole new thread. Wat do you think me ducks?

Cold as this might sound, chatspeak is good in some ways. It allows people who know how to spell and use punctuation correctly to stand out amongst the crowd. Think of it as a very obvious way to separate the wheat from the chaff.

It's probably not a big deal if you're a future hood rat but it will be a rude awakening for those interested in obtaining a college degree or any career in which writing, technical or otherwise, plays a major part.

I will say, though, that chatspeak does make sense if you have a phone that only allows you 160 characters per text. That's a fair exception. E-mails? That's a different story.

Thanks a lot for the information...
So this is the reason I find it really hard to understand English(Spoken in England).
These words make me really confused!:):):)Yet I love to learn them!