As I have mentioned in the lesson, playing online games was my brother's motivation to learn English when he was a Primary 5 student. It is because he couldn't type Chinese and sometimes he needed to communicate with foreigners. He asked me the English translation of words, ways of expressing his meaning, etc.
I think even though the students are using SMS language, they still have to know what the symbols/ letters they are using actually mean, in order to remember the meaning of them. While they are using the SMS language, they are training themselves to express the ideas in English. It is quite impossible to understand what the lady in the video is speaking without learning the phrases before.
I think it is important for the students to be able to differenciate between SMS English and Standard English. It's just like people wear different clothes in different occasions. We may not have all types of clothes fit for all possible occasions but we certainly can distinguish which clothes fit for which occasion.
Similarly, different types of language should be used in different situations. Although we may not be able to master all types of language but we can definitely notice what kinds of language should or should not be used.
2 comments:
I like your analogy: by using a particular kind of language we 'dress' to match the context. So, as Rodney pointed out in the lesson, it is just as bad to be 'overdressed' - using formal, standard English in a textspeak situation - as it is to be 'underdressed' - using textspeak in an academic essay, for example. I love the video, which makes a joke out of textspeak, by having people speak it out instead of texting it.
Thank you, Christoph. To be honest, I cannot understand 90% of what the lady say in the video. I seldom use textspeak.
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