Journal #7

Point/Counterpoint: Is Chat Speak Destroying English? Linda Howard & Greg Monfils, Learning & Leading with Technology, September/October 2007, Pages 8-9.

The first author argues that chat speak is killing English. The author feels that there is no room for chat speak, because students will be unable to differentiate between chat speak and clear concise written English. She goes on to say that there is “… a time 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.” By using chat speak, she feels the average student will not be able to transition effectively between chat speak and proper written English. That the students will not be able to express opinions, engage with others in academic, business and formal situations, because of this inability to transition to proper English. The author is of the opinion that chat speak has no place in larger society.

The second author approaches the infiltrations of chat speak as a challenge. Chat speak is a students way of maintaining privacy and personality. He feels that the students know the difference between chat speak and proper English. He feels that they know when to use each type of English that is necessary for a given situation. Given that he teaches in a virtual environment, he is used to communicating in chat speak, but expects his students to complete their assignments in proper English. He compares the uses of chat speak to that a student using a foreign language, not as a threat to a student’s ability to use English. He comments that English has been standardized, but students live to challenge standards.

Though I find myself agreeing with the argument that chat speak is not going to mark the end of the use of proper English, I do have two questions about the authors standpoints.

Do the authors treat chat as a language? The first author seems to feel that students are incapable of switching from chat speak to proper English and therefore should not use chat speak at all. She does not consider chat as even an informal language. She appears to consider chat as an intrusion or abomination of English. The second author treats chat as though it was a foreign language. A language like any other a student might know, and be able to speak along with English.

This leads me to my second question. Do we find that teaching a foreign language is a threat? Some teachers seem to think that just knowing English is enough in today’s world. I have traveled extensively, and constantly amazed at how many times I have heard “What do you mean you don’t know English?”. We are one of the few countries in the world that do not require additional language comprehension as a basic rule. Instead, here we argue about what little language is taught, and expect all of our students to be at an equal level of English language comprehension. Teaching and speaking in other languages should not be viewed as a threat, but rather as a learning opportunity. For a country that wants to have the world be as one, we are very egocentric about the language that is used to do so.