Students Can Use Txt Speak on Tests

X3 Talk

It's a bit sad. As you can tell from ALL my posts, I try to use high quality English where possible (except the French forum, then I use low quality, poor beginner French!). I just think it is lazy not to use the our language correctly.

Perhaps in SMSing, you could like running l8, c u l8er, but in emailing, forums (such as this) and chat rooms, there is really no excuse. It is a lot harder to type long sentences into a telephone, but with a big, generous keyboard you really have no excuse.

Wern't they going to write the bible in text speak once?

God created the...

becomes

god cre8ted da

SlowWalkere

Although the story seems a bit silly, there's a legitimate pedagogical reason for the decision. If a student is performing a task in history, is he being judged on his grasp of the content knowledge and his ability to think critically or his ability to speak English? The same with science, math, and other non-English subjects. Although it is the job of teachers in all disciplines to help a student communicate properly (and thus use the dominant language), it is more important to assess and teach the given content area.

While it seems inane to be talking about 'txt' speak as being acceptable as schools, this is in other ways a very serious debate. In the US, should a Spanish-speaking student be allowed to use Spanish in school, or forced to use English? Should students who speak something akin to ebonics at home be forced to use standard English?

As a high school social studies teacher, I know the poor grasp of the English language that many students have. I also know that, while one of my tasks is to improve on that, I cannot penalize students while assessing their social studies skills for their lack of language skills. When a student gets to my 9th grade class with a 4th or 5th grade reading and writing level, I need to make adjustments and accomodations.

- Walkere