Text-speak on tests
According to a CNN article, New Zealand high school students may now use “text speak” on their national exams:
New Zealand’s Qualifications Authority said Friday that it still strongly discourages students from using anything other than full English, but that credit will be given if the answer “clearly shows the required understanding,” even if it contains text-speak.
That means now, for a question like “Describe Pythagoras’ theorem” the answer wouldn’t be “a2 + b2 = c2,” but rather:
CU jus take the shawt sides xx2 + = big side xx2
This is a sad day indeed for the country of New Zealand, which has totally diluted its educational standards. Why do we learn English language, grammar, and syntax? Why do we learn the proper pronunciation and spelling of words? Why are rich etymologies important?
The idea that language is just a “vehicle to facilitate the exchange of information” is a dangerous misconception. In reality, language is a complicated system of expression, the mastery of which recursively allows greater expression. Language itself is the information it tries to convey. When you speak and write well, your ideas are enriched by your vocabulary and style. An impoverished language proficiency is the same as an ill-trained mind.
| This entry was posted on Saturday, November 11th, 2006 at 10:26 pm and is tagged with dangerous misconception, cnn article, proper pronunciation, language grammar, expression language, language proficiency, high school students, cnn, qualifications authority, educational standards, sad day, c2, vocabulary, english language, spelling, syntax, new zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback. |
4 Responses to “Text-speak on tests”
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Maths requires a certain aspect of communication and justification. How you get to your answer is just as important as what the final answer is. If schools are now accepting poor english in their maths courses, then perhaps they are also accepting poor logic in english essays, or no english explanations in history. There has to be a line saying where education stops teaching students. I think this line has been crossed if teachers are now accepting ‘text-speak.’
i strongly agree with Russ..
Yes, I too am strongly opposed to this news. ‘Txt spk’ is one thing, English essays are another. Allowing students to use these abbreviations in serious writing is not going to do them any favours. Their writing will become sloppy and lazy, for if they are not taught how important the rules of the English language are, they just won’t understand.
I can see our spoken language becoming very corrupt (even more than now!) in not too many years. It was only the other day I heard a girl say ‘lol’ out loud. Lol is an acronym standing for ‘laugh out loud’ and certainly not a word to be used outside the chatroom!
It is worrying, and what’s more, it is stoppable – what do these teachers think they are doing, allowing it into the exam-room? Well, they shall see …
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