Study Sez Txt Msgs Make Kidz Gr8 Spellrz

Picknz writes "The Telegraph reports that researchers have found texting can improve literacy among pupils by giving them extra exposure to word composition outside the school day. According to the report, the association between spelling and text messaging may be explained by the 'highly phonetic nature' of the abbreviations used by children and the alphabetic awareness required for successfully decoding the words. 'It is also possible that textism use adds value because of the indirect way in which mobile phone use may be increasing children's exposure to print outside of school,' says the report. 'We are now starting to see consistent evidence that children's use of text message abbreviations has a positive impact on their spelling skills,' adds Professor Claire Wood. 'There is no evidence that children's language play when using mobile phones is damaging literacy development.'"

Re:Grammar Nazis

[CrimsonAvenger]

I derive no benefit from spending more time proof reading a post.

Actually, you do. Because if you look illiterate in your posts, many people will assume you're illiterate. Or stupid.

Either of which means that they'll ignore anything you say as incoherent rambling.

Note, by the way, that you used "your" repeatedly in your post. In all the cases you used it, it should have been "you're"....

Re:Writing

[milkmage]

orientate is valid, it's British English (though often considered incorrect in the US)

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/orientate [reference.com] - variant of orient.

Re:Ebonics != Language

[PCM2]

Ebonics is people too stupid to learn their native language, so they just mumble some shit and then when they're told to learn english if they want a job, they cry and claim it's a "language" and that it's "racist" to not support it.

No. "Ebonics" was a bunch of teachers wanting to get dialect classified as a language, so they could then teach English as a second language. The idea is this: Students whose native language is Spanish come to American schools with many of the same handicaps as people who have grown up only speaking African-American dialect. The difference is that the states and the federal government provide additional funds for English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, but they don't provide any additional funding to help the black students, even though they consistently perform poorly in English classes. By getting Ebonics classified as a language, the teachers hoped to win some of the same additional funding that teachers who teach English to Latino students get.

Unfortunately, nobody outside the Bay Area seems to understand this, and so Ebonics in the rest of America remains just a touchstone to allow racist assholes like you feel good about yourselves.