BodiMojo Blog

OMG. I sent my 17-year-old son a txt msg the other day and he got mad. “Why are you using all those abbreviations?” he fumed in his reply. “Kids don’t really talk like that in their text messages; adults just think that they do.”

With more than 82 million people texting regularly, maybe my cryptic code was off base, but Internet acronyms and text message jargon are part of the shorthand for most users communicating via cell phone, IM, etc. And now comes new research that says that txtspeak probably has no effect on your child’s spelling abilities. Researchers thought there would be some correlation between poor spelling and txtspeak, but NW (no way). In fact, the University of Alberta researchers said that the language variations commonly used on instant messaging and texting is actually a good sign: it’s a sort of brain workout, requiring kids to express themselves in a new and different way.

Linda Manganaro, an Arlington, Mass., based linguist, says that she believes that texting and the frequency of texting is probably independent of spelling ability. “There is something about texting that is a bit ‘other-language-ish,’ almost like a written ‘dialect’ of English,” says Manganaro. “Being ‘up’ on the latest txtspeak words, expressions, etc. – could be very similar to wanting to improve one’s ability in learning a new language.”

Manganaro, who speaks several languages herself, goes onto explain that in learning languages, there is the pronunciation, grammar component and the lexical (i.e. word) component. “But here it is pretty much mainly the lexical component – so it allows kids to experience something similar to learning aspects of a foreign language while doing something kind of trendy and cool.”

Well, as a parent of a teen who never looks up because he’s always looking down at his phone and typing, I think that’s XLNT. (Excellent). My son thinks 404 (I Haven’t a Clue.) Dunno. But if he knew that I thought that txting could be educational?? :O