O RLY?

Apr 26, 2007 15:13

And now from the "you hadn't noticed already?" department...

CNN:Report: Text messaging harms written language

DUBLIN, Ireland (Reuters) -- The rising popularity of text messaging on mobile phones poses a threat to writing standards among Irish schoolchildren, an education commission says.

The frequency of errors in grammar and punctuation has become a serious concern, the State Examination Commission said in a report after reviewing last year's exam performance by 15-year-olds.

"The emergence of the mobile phone and the rise of text messaging as a popular means of communication would appear to have impacted on standards of writing as evidenced in the responses of candidates," the report said, according to Wednesday's Irish Times. "Text messaging, with its use of phonetic spelling and little or no punctuation, seems to pose a threat to traditional conventions in writing."

The report laments that, in many cases, candidates seemed "unduly reliant on short sentences,simple tenses and a limited vocabulary".

In 2003, Irish15-year-olds were among the top 10 performers in an international league table of literacy standards compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

It took educators and scientists this long to notice this? I'm wondering who's worse off here: the generations of kids who R1T3 LI3K 7H15, or the idiots in their ivory towers who would rather come up with "education" plans that serve no practical purpose save the continuing safety of their jobs. If this keeps up, maybe I shouldn't be in the manga business - I may have to go into the picture book biz instead. -_-+

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