TWITTER & LANGUAGE E

SL40

8

Is Twitter Killing Literacy? So

cial

Med

ia

Language

Evolution of Language

Standard English

TWEET TWEET

Twitter Talk

Technology

Abbreviations

Workplace

Illiterate

#whatwecando High costs Society Telegraph users

19th

Cen

tury

M

icro

blog

ging

Creativity comes from constraint

140

Twitte

racy

Tweep

Dialect of English

Cho

ice

Educated

Mic

rob

log

gin

g

Differentiate

Code-switch S.E

Subject Audience Purpose { }

Twitter Conventions ( ) What’s  happening?  

140   Tweet

@myenglishprofessor  –  Used  to  address  a  fellow  tweeter  RT  –  Retweet    #commontopics  –  Used  for  common  topics  

1.  Symbols  

2.  Followers  &  Following    3.  AbbreviaFons  For  example:    

@myenglishprofessor  RT  @herlovelystudent  Imma  get  your  heart  racing!  ;)    #KatyPerry  

Use of informal language

is a choice, not an

indication of illiteracy or

sloth.

Opponents:

Education Sector:

Insisted that these jargons and

abbreviations were affecting both

language and cognitive ability of

children (Shaughnessy, 2008).

Yet Dr. Plester argues:

Newer research shows a stronger

causal relationship between text

abbreviations and literacy skills.

(Petrillo, 2006)

Tweeps cannot

distinguish

Twitter talk from

Standard English.

Is Twitter Killing

Literacy?

3 arguments

(Choice)

(Conclusion) (Evolution of language)

(Standard English defined by norm)

“ the English that with respect to spelling,

Standard English

grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary is

” substantially uniform though not devoid of

Definition [stan-derd ing-glish] n.

regional differences.

“ it is well established by usage in the formal & informal speech & writing of the

” educated, and is widely recognized as acceptable whenever English is spoken & understood. (Merriam-Webster)

#2

By the definition:

Standard English is the language accepted by the norm.

S.E. defined by norm

S.E≠ English

Assume S.E. = English

Standard English

S.E. is the right language

Anything else is NOT English

S.E. used by literate

S.E. is the Right language

IS TWITTER KILLING LITERACY?

Formal & informal S.E. used by the educated

TWIITER IS NOT KILLING LITERACY!

( )

Remember the telegraph

in 19th century?

They used a shortened dialect of

language too (Schott, 2009).

Evolution of language

1. Technology

#3

Costs of Communication

More convenient to to use abbreviations, with choppy grammar.

T W I T T E R I S N O T DESTROYING LITERACY!

A G A I N S T

Evaluation

KILLING LITERACY. T W I T T E R

{ Use of informal

dialect is a S.E. definition: Evolution of dependent on

While critiques believe that Twitter is crippling free expression, being able to express yourself concisely and clearly takes effort and creativity. }

choice. norm. language

} { This is what I would’ve said if Twitter wasn’t being so #@*!

So instead.. { } Constraints breed creativity.

Q&A { }