Influence of age on texts

Wt r u on abwt: Explosion in child 'text speak' leaves 90% of parents and teachers needing help with translation

• Parents frequently have to ask their children to translate text messages
• Education experts have warned against schools tolerating 'text speak'
• Michael Gove will introduce tests on more formal English grammar

By Andrew Levy
PUBLISHED:17:59, 14 March 2013| UPDATED:18:00, 14 March 2013

Another language: Children now use an entirely different form of communication to their parents

Children are always complaining their parents don't understand them - and it seems they're right.
The explosion in 'text speak' means many are now effectively using a different language.
Almost nine in ten parents and teachers say the abbreviated words and acronyms developed for speed when writing text messages have thrown up a language barrier between the generations.
And three-quarters said they frequently had to ask children to translate the contents of a text or email.
More than two-thirds of teachers also said the terms were now 'routinely' cropping up in essays and other work.
Adults reported messages from young children are becoming incomprehensible to them.
Examples include a text message a mother received from her eight-year-old child who wrote: 'Mum can M8 cotch at yard?'
This translates as: 'Mum, can my friend sleep over at our house this evening?'
Other popular words include rfd, meaning after, kwl, or cool, and churoo, or true.
Education experts yesterday warned schools' 'toleration' of the terms was 'eroding language'.
Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: 'Children use text speak all the time. It's incomprehensible to a lot of people but you're never going to get rid of it. It's a social phenomenon.
'The problem is schools go out of their way to accommodate it when they should be promoting the full versions of words.

More...

• Police called to school after teacher brings in antique gun to show pupils
• Even Gove's twirly manners were strained to their limits

'A lot of teachers say language evolves so you have to accept it. Fortunately, [Education Secretary] Michael Gove is introducing tests which are much more formal and based on English grammar.'

Tradition: Michael Gove plans to encourage the use of a more formal type of English grammar in schools

Almost a quarter of primary school children now go to school with a mobile, according to the survey of 500 parents and teachers for Del Monte.
This rises to 93 per cent of secondary school pupils, helping to embed text speak in common culture.

DO YOU KNOW YOUR TEXT SPEAK?

After - Rfd Oh my god - OMG
Tonight - 2nite Laugh out loud - LOL
Great - Gr8 Party - PRT
Before - B4 Wait - W8
Tomorrow - 2moro Wicked - WKD
Cool - kwl Hang out - cotch
Mate - M8 Home - yard
Pizza - peetsa About - abwt
True - churoo Because - bcuz
That - dat Busy - bzy
Computer - compy These - deez
face to face - f2f Hate - H8

The difficulty adults have with the abbreviations was illustrated last year when it emerged text messages sent by David Cameron to former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks were mistakenly signed off 'LOL'.
The Leveson inquiry heard the Prime Minister thought it meant 'lots of love', when in fact it means 'laugh out loud'.
A recent Ofcom report on children's media habits revealed texting is most prolific among 12-15-year-olds, who send an average of 193 every week.
This was double the amount on the previous year and more than four times the UK average.
Even eight to 11-year-olds were sending 41 texts each week.
Another survey of British adults found three-quarters believed words such as 'quashed', 'raconteur' and 'diabolical' have become outdated because of texting.
Frans Van Melis(CORR), vice president of Del Monte - which is sponsoring the Mencap School Spellathon, an online spelling bee - said the latest survey suggested text speak was eroding academic standards.
'The difficulty is that a lot of text speak is creeping into work that kids are doing in the classroom,' he added.
'Spelling has become much more fluid than it used to be which, on one level, is good - but, on another, doesn't help with academic attainment.'

The language issue of whether text speak is having a negative impact on how children are speaking is represented negatively. The dynamic verb 'tolerating' suggests that to speak in that manner is unacceptable and is only tolerable. 'Warned' also shows how the writer could be warning the reader about the language issue, portraying it negatively as it is something to beware of.
The writer represents the children in a negative way, possibly as the article is targeted at adults and parents due to the high register low frequency words. The adverb of frequency 'always'  in the compound sentence 'Children are always complaining their parents don't understand them - and it seems they're right,' presents the children as annoying and constantly ungrateful. While the writer themselves presents no bias opinion of their own view, possibly because the article is from a broadsheet newspaper which would limit the amount of opinion the writer could demonstrate, quotes from Michael Gove, a prescriptivist, could suggest that the writer agrees with the prescriptivist view. This can also be supported by the use of compound sentences in the article which shows convergence to standard English and suggesting the writer is gaining prestige as they are presenting the information clearly and coherently.
In this way it can be argued that the writer is successful in shaping the readers response as they position the audience to agree with their view as their precise writing style and reference to important political figures presents them as knowledgeable which could therefore persuade people agree with their view. Also, his use of rhetorical questions with the second personal pronoun 'you' 'Do you know your text speak?' shows how the writer is targeting the reader of the article in order to convince them to accept their opinion. The rhetorical question makes the reader feel unintelligible to the text speak 'explosion'. The negative representation of it persuades the reader to side with the writer who is in the know and who can possibly inform them in order to keep up with the times and this new phenomena.

World English

World English

World English can also be known as Global English, Common English, Continental English or General English. It is a means of global communication.

Some typse of World English:

American Standard English:
Northern
Midland
Southern
Black English Vernacular

Australian English:

Australian English is similar in many respects to British English but it also borrows from American English. (For example, it uses truck instead of lorry, and freeway rather than motorway.) It is most similar to New Zealand English, although the difference is immediately obvious to a speaker from either country. Australian English also incorporates several uniquely Australian terms, such as outback to refer to remote regional areas, walkabout to refer to a long journey of uncertain length and bush to refer to native forested areas, but also to regional areas as well. Fair dinkum can mean are you telling me the truth? Or, this is the truth! or even this is ridiculous! Depending on context.

Bloke - generic term for a man (driven out by the ubiquitous "guy")
Bloody - the "great Australian adjective" (survives, but increasingly replaced by stronger expletives such as "fucken/fucking", particularly among young men)
Bonzer - really good (almost extinct)
Chunder - to vomit (ridiculed to death by Barry Humphries, now replaced by "puke/puked/puking")
Cobber - friend, mate (almost extinct)
Digger - ex-soldier, term of address to an older man (nearly extinct)
Drongo - a fool (survives, but in decline)
Dinkum - genuine (still used but in decline)
Poofter - homosexual man (replaced in polite use by "gay" and as a term of abuse by "fag")
Sheila - young woman (driven out by "chick")
Smoko - break from work (smoking is banned in most workplaces)
Struth! - Expression of shock or dismay (replaced by stronger expletives such as "fuck!")

Tok Pisin
New Zealand English
Aboriginal English
Maori English

Indian English:
Frenglish
Quebec English
Inuit English
New Foundland English

Caribbean English:
Barbadian English
Trinidadian
Bahamian

Prescriptivism and Descriptivism: 

Prescriptivism – The attitude or belief that one variety of a language is superior to others and should be promoted as such. A key aspect of traditional grammar, prescriptivism is characterized by a concern for "good," "proper," or "correct" usage. It contrasts with descriptivism.

Descriptivism – A non-judgemental approach to language that focuses on how it is actually spoken and written. Contrast with prescriptivism.

Well known prescriptivists include:

Skinner

Pullum

Dryden

Bernstein

Crystal

Well known descriptivists include:

Chomsky 

Wrenn

Williams

Webster

Noam Chomsky, a famous linguist, has a descriptivist point of view. He believes that language is innate which fits in to the view that prescriptivism in language is artificial language and descriptivism is natural. However he also sees the other side to the argument that the specifics of standard grammar in Standard English should be learnt as part of an education – “I think sensible prescriptivism ought to be part of an education”. – Noam Chomsky 1991. This view shows a non negative attitude to variations in accent in dialect unlike prescriptivism which is arguably the source of negative attitudes towards accents like that of the ‘stealing’ Scouse or the ‘unintelligible’ Brummy. 

Rastamouse Controversy

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2087221/Rastamouse-complained-childrens-TV-sparking-racism-row.html

A television series about crime-busting Rastafarian mice on the BBC was the most complained about children's programme last year, it has been revealed.
Rastamouse attracted more than 200 complaints because of the way it 'stereotyped black people' and because of the 'patois' language used by the Jamaican mouse characters.
The CBeebies show, which has run for two series, attracted 13 complaints when the first episode was aired last January. There have since been 200 further complaints.

Stereotypes: The BBC show Rastamouse attracted more than 200 complaints last year

The BBC has defended the Bafta-nominated show, which features an all-mouse reggae band - Rastamouse and Da Easy Crew.
The puppet mouse spreads love and respect as leader of the Easycrew.
He uses patois language - and phrases such as 'me wan go' for 'I want to go' and 'wagwan' for 'what's going on?'.
The CBeebies series is aimed at children under six.
Parents have complained on Mumsnet that children using the same language as the mice could be accused of racism.
One Mumsnet user, TinyD4ncer, asked fellow users for advice on whether to stop their child watching the programme, posting: 'I dont want my DD to talk this way. Do you think I should stop her watching it?

BAD LANGUAGE OR GOOD FUN? RASTAMOUSE PATOIS

'Wa'gwan' - What's going on
'Tings is ruff' - Things are bad
'Make a bad ting good' - Making the best of a bad situation
'Irie'  - Jamaican word meaning 'to be at total peace with your current state of being'
'Me tink me know who de t’ieving mouse may be' - I think I know who the thieveing mouse is.

'The thing I'm most worried about is her knowing/saying the words like 'rasta'.
'(I) Suppose what I'm saying is if my white child walked up to your Caribbean/Black etc child and said this, what would you feel - or nothing? - as I wouldn't want to walk away with a black eye?'
One user leaving a comment on MailOnline said: 'Frankly this programme is insulting because it uses a lazy stereotype.

'Most educated black people in this country who were born here speak the same as their white peers - some of us have cockney accents, others have RP accents. I am black and have an RP accent as I was the product of private schooling, university etc.

'Children need to lean to speak English properly and I do not understand why having this character would assist that process.
'If the programme makers want to introduce more diversity why not have a black character who speaks like a normal British born black person instead of a character that has a Jamaican accent.

'Surely this makes sense given that we are not living in Jamaica.'
A BBC spokeswoman said nine out of ten complaints had been about the language spoken by the characters.
She said: 'This was one of our most popular children's programmes last year.

Comments:

As this article is from the daily mail it is expected to be unbiased, however the lexis used such as ‘the BBC defended this Bafta-award winning show’ suggests defence against the ‘200 complaints’ by creating links between well respected organizations like the BBC and emphasising its achievements. It creates a semantic field of ‘love’ and ‘respect’ around the show to combat the negative comments, also portraying the ‘crime-fighting’ theme to go against the stereotype expressed by this arguably racist commenter – ‘'Frankly this programme is insulting because it uses a lazy stereotype’ who also believes that exposure to the accent will decrease their child’s education ‘'I don’t want my DD to talk this way.’ This suggests that the author of the article, while trying to remain unbiased is also trying to suppress the negativity surrounding the show, but while informing the audience. The audience is positioned to agree with the writer, who tries to make the controversy seem absurd while making a point about the audience of the show ‘The CBeebies series is aimed at children under six,’ which contrasts with the views of racism with that of innocent children, suggesting that it is just a program to entertain to children and exposure to accents and dialects like Jamaican Creole is important for cultural education. 

BBC Voices Poll - November 2004

 

Aims and methodology:

To find out how people in Britain felt about accents in the U.K. They conducted an internet survey of 5000 people to find this out, using celebrities that speak the accents as representatives. The final sample yielded 5,010 respondents (15+) who completed the entire survey. The final sample nationally was 49:51 Male : Female. There was a 'middle age spread' in the sample, with 25-64s proportionally over-represented and 15-24s and the 65+ under-represented. Social Class data was not collected. 97% of the whole sample said that English was their first language. 26% of the overall sample said they spoke at least one language as well as English.

Findings and analysis:

Sean Connery with his Edinburgh accent came out on top, followed by Trevor McDonald with a Trinidadian accent. Pierce Brosnan with his Irish and slight American accent also scored high up on the list. People enjoy listening to accents local to their own, for example Scots said they prefer Ewan McGregor's Perthshire accent, the English found Hugh Grant's accent, people in Wales preferred listening to Welsh actor Richard Burton and newsreader Huw Edwards, while those in Northern Ireland found Terry Wogan's Limerick accent preferable.
The most wished-for accent is a Standard English accent, but 7% said they would rather have a Southern Irish accent (12% in Northern Ireland).
59% people in the survey wished at least occasionally that they had a different accent.
Throughout the country, people voted "an accent identical to your own" as one of their favourite accents.
95% of people in Northern Ireland, 79% in Wales and 87% in Scotland think of themselves as having at least a moderately strong accent. Only 63% in the east of England and 64% in the south think their accent is moderately strong. Generally people in the north and west of the UK identify with "having an accent" more than those in the south-east.

Conclusions:

People like accents local to their own.
Scottish accents are consistently voted as most pleasurable to listen to by the general public.
Stereotypes and associations have a strong link when it comes to attitudes towards accents.

Evaluation:

The use of celebrities to rate accents can bring in bias, especially as a conclusion drawn from the survey is that people prefer accents local to their own, for example an anomaly in the results shown that Northern Irish participants were the only group who found Ian Paisley's voice acceptable - his was voted 'least pleasant' by all other areas of the UK.