Do you think chat rooms and other social media sites really encourage bad spelling? Many individuals believe they do and now they have statistics to back them up.
Some Study Findings
The English Spelling Society released a paper in November, 2010, which concludes the internet makes misspelling words typical for many people, especially the younger ones. Children who have grown up in the internet era now seem to think its okay to misspell words.
The analysis says: “The increasing use of variant spellings on the web continues to be brought about by people typing at speed in chatrooms and on social networking sites in which the general attitude is always that there isn’t a need to correct typos or comply with spelling rules.”
The report goes on to say that unconventional spellings are accepted because they’re faster and are now normal. At least 22% from the 18-24 year olds interviewed for the study says they would not be comfortable writing an essential email with no dictionary or spell checker to assist them.
One Way Teachers May Use the Internet to Help
One way many teachers are attempting to help keep children spelling correctly is simply by creating chat rooms for their students. Parts of the assignments are to take part in online discussions – and spelling matters. Although the discussion may be on any subject the teacher chooses, part of the grade depends on correct spelling, punctuation use, and grammar. This allows students to chat making use of their peers, but still requires them to pay attention to how their messages are written.
One way to make this plan successful for younger students would be to pick topics that they’re interested in. One day the topic could be a popular rockband, another day they could chat about trend or favorite game titles. The possible topics are vast and varied, however the focus on proper spelling shouldn’t waver.
Though it is fun to send over texts and use witty acronyms, abbreviations, and variant spellings when chatting or using social networking, it is still important to learn how to spell correctly. When it comes time for students to fill out college applications, job applications, or other important documents, the way they spell can certainly produce a lasting impression on the person who receives the missive. Misspelled words tend to send the message that the person who wrote it is either uneducated, lazy, or perhaps doesn’t care. That is not an impact anyone really wants to make on someone who might have input about your future. Can you spell rejected?