Thursday, February 25, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Are teens' vocabularies limited by Internet or texting?
"U cn stop worrying bout d teens now" reads the first line in the article "Teens masters of any language they need." The article by Shannon Proudfoot of Canwest News Service can be found in January 16, 2010, A5 Section of The Edmonton Journal.
According to this article, once again, the focus has shifted to the "appalling language skills" of young people adversely affected by the digital world of Internet and texting. However, researchers in Canada, the U.S., and Britain claim that their findings prove that the teens have adequate language skills. Professor Sali Tagliamonte of the University of Toronto also claims that there is no evidence to prove that the adolescents' "communication is just riddled with weird things." Tony McEnery, a linguistics professor at Lancaster University found that the "teenagers have slightly narrower vocabularies than older people, in part because they are still developing their linguistic abilities."
Professor Tagliamonte and co-author Derek Denis analyzed conversations of 72 students aged 15-20, and found that the "shortforms, abbreviations and "LOLs" that supposedly dominate the vocabulary of teens" account for less than three percent of their spoken and written words. Tagliamonte claims that the young people using slangs and short forms in instant messaging are able to make a switch to a more formal language when needed. "They mix it up, but in mixing it, they show us that they can do both." Tagliamone says.
While many teens may be poor at grammar, Fan Wu, a Grade 12 student at Don Mills Collegiate Institute in Toronto, is displeased with the over-generalizations about the teens' language ability. Bambi Schieffelin at NYU and Graham Jones of Princeton University studied conversations and YouTube comments of 18-22 aged group and found that the students can change how they communicate with their friends or with their parents.
I have provided a summary of the article. What is your opinion on "Teens masters of any language they need?"
According to this article, once again, the focus has shifted to the "appalling language skills" of young people adversely affected by the digital world of Internet and texting. However, researchers in Canada, the U.S., and Britain claim that their findings prove that the teens have adequate language skills. Professor Sali Tagliamonte of the University of Toronto also claims that there is no evidence to prove that the adolescents' "communication is just riddled with weird things." Tony McEnery, a linguistics professor at Lancaster University found that the "teenagers have slightly narrower vocabularies than older people, in part because they are still developing their linguistic abilities."
Professor Tagliamonte and co-author Derek Denis analyzed conversations of 72 students aged 15-20, and found that the "shortforms, abbreviations and "LOLs" that supposedly dominate the vocabulary of teens" account for less than three percent of their spoken and written words. Tagliamonte claims that the young people using slangs and short forms in instant messaging are able to make a switch to a more formal language when needed. "They mix it up, but in mixing it, they show us that they can do both." Tagliamone says.
While many teens may be poor at grammar, Fan Wu, a Grade 12 student at Don Mills Collegiate Institute in Toronto, is displeased with the over-generalizations about the teens' language ability. Bambi Schieffelin at NYU and Graham Jones of Princeton University studied conversations and YouTube comments of 18-22 aged group and found that the students can change how they communicate with their friends or with their parents.
I have provided a summary of the article. What is your opinion on "Teens masters of any language they need?"
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