In my local parents’ magazine this month, there is an article about Instant Message (IM) lingo and it’s effect on children in school. It focuses on the popularity of programs, such as IM, and blogs and how it encourages IM speak. IM speak is a condensed language where capital letters and punctuation are rarely used. Little words like ‘a’ and ‘the’ are often omitted and vowels are often dropped so that people becomes ppl or help become hlp. Numbers are also added to create little puzzles such as l8r (later) or 4get (forget). Sounds crazy, huh?As a teacher, I can see how this language can become a problem when teaching grammar and writing but I also see it’s advantages, too. Sure, it drives me batty to see my eighteen-year-old brother writing notes to my parents using brb (be right back) or even how he’s shortened his voicemail to say ‘late’ instead of later; however, if a parent explains to their children when it’s appropriate to use the informal language of IM speak or when they need to use a more disciplined version of English, young children can start to understand that different settings require different types of language. For example, children communicating on the playground have a different way of speaking versus communication at a dinner table. Same things applies to school. Children should understand when it’s okay to write in IM language and when it’s not. I’ve compiled some helpful hints below.
· Speak with your child’s teacher and see if it’s okay to use IM speak in rough drafts of writing. It’s believed this helps eliminate writer’s block.
· Point out that using IM speak may be beneficial when taking notes because it takes less time to write using the condensed language.
· Encourage your child to proofread their work carefully and remember that many grammar or spell checkers will not catch IM lingo.
· Teach the difference in words such as two, too, and to. This way, they are not always using the number 2 to distinguish between the three.
If it’s still a problem, it may be helpful to limit the amount of time children are spending on Instant Messanger; however, appreciate your child is ‘bilingual’ in a sense! And when in doubt, you can always run it through an internet slang translator.
