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Message board > Text messages
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yetigumboots
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Text messages
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Hia everyone, Just here for a quick moan.... I thought I would get your opinion on something. Today I noticed someone has posted a worksheet about abbreviations in Emails/texts etc. It sort of made me sad because we spend so much time trying to show kids how to write and spell correctly and then they just want to use symols or abbreviations. For example, a while ago I let my two boys start to write Emails to thier cousins in England. Mine would write in German and the cousins would reply in English. I thought this would be a good way for both sides to learn from each other........until I started to see comments like �cant w8 2 C U � etc. cringe.... Sorry I am sure there is no harm in using this on our moblies when we are in a hurry, but do we really have to teach it????
OK I know I am being old fashioned and behind the times. Just wondered what you think of this subject. Please don �t shout at me..(he he) 
Hugs Yeti xx |
16 Jun 2009
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s.lefevre
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Hi, finally sombody who is against the abreviations too. I must confess that I have big problems sometimes reading the posts when they come " in code". I agree that we should not teach them because this is something the students learn by themselves. Most of the children nowadays don �t know how to write a sentence which makes sense, they don �t know how to spell. So lets teach whole sentences the old way. |
16 Jun 2009
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hedgehog
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I totally agree with you. They don �t need us to write weird words!!!! |
16 Jun 2009
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Minie
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I also totally agree ! And I don �t think we are being old-fashioned ! When I see how some of them write and spell, it makes me crazy !!! So teaching them the right thing is what we definitely have to do !!! ...and keep doing ! |
16 Jun 2009
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Ivona
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This is not me saying it now, but my fave novel character, Gully Jimson, an artist ( Favourite books):
"Every time a new lot of kids get born, they start some new art.
Just to have something of their own. If it isn �t a new dance band it �s
a new religion. And the old lot can �t stand it. You couldn �t expect it
at their age. So they try to stop it, and then there �s another bloody
war."
Now, the passage is taken out of context which is a conversation with
another character about Hitler (the book was written in 1944 and
touches very lightly upon the ongoing war), so don �t think i �m saying
there will be a �bloody war � if you stop your kids from using
abbreviations, lol! I myself am for keeping up the good old ways (because i
think they �re really good) but the young " just [want] to have something of their own". It �s
their own .. �cool, modern, faddish � imprint. So let them have it. But
also make them aware of the other way, so they can choose in the end. P.S. I highly recommend the book. Check the link i provided.  I 1-der what others have 2 say about this 
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16 Jun 2009
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LuciaRaposo
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Hi yetigumboots
I can�t agree more with you! You �re completely right....
However... that worksheet can be used with our students to show them what they shouldn�t do.
Why not use the inverse exercise - grab those symbols and ask them to "translate" them into proper English.
Greetings |
16 Jun 2009
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Mariethe House
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I totally agree with u Ivona! It �s their way to get rid of adulults always one ting to poke in2 their business! And it requires some imagination to invent the new code!
I think we could give them a texto to transl8t in2 English as an exercise and to give them recognition of their right 2 be different!
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16 Jun 2009
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Ivona
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"So teaching them the right thing is what we definitely have to do !!!"
Minie, how do you know what is the �right thing �? To me, it only depends on the pov, on the perspective. From your/our point of view, abbreviations are �wrong �, BUT if you ask the kids, they just love them and think that we are being old-fashioned, nitpicking, etc, just as we thought of some of our teachers/parents. And these very kids, in 20 years � time, they will think that the old way of using abbreviations is the �right thing � to do, and the �new thing � that the future generations will introduce are �wrong �. It �s all in the pov.
Btw, speaking of pov, do you remember that scene in "Dead Poets Society" when Mr Keating asks the students to climb onto their desks and take a look around them? Have you tried it in your own home and seen how much the �picture � changes!? When i was hanging the curtains one time, i turned and looked around and said �wow, i never thought my room could look like this! �
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16 Jun 2009
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verybouncyperson
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Personally, I hate abbreviations - it may take me longer to write a text message, but I always use the full word unless I �m desperately running out of space.
However, I do think that it �s something we should teach students as it �s a very real part of English, whether we teachers like it or not. It �s the same as we teach them colloquial language, which we would never want them to use in an essay, but which is more than likely what they hear when watching TV series. It �s all about teaching them what to use in the correct context.
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16 Jun 2009
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Ivona
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"And it requires some imagination to invent the new code!"
Exactly! Why stifle them in the bud? It �s not like they are going to write using abbreviations ALL the time. Yeti�s kids probably wrote the email properly, but just signed it in a �cool � way. No formal and impersonal �best wishes � or �kindest regards �, but a phrase/abbrev. recognisable to the group, in this case the young.
To those who didn �t see this, i strongly recommend watching. Some food for thought. Schools kill creativity by Sir Ken Robinson
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16 Jun 2009
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MartaZ
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Hi,
It �s a complex issue. I see your points and can �t say whether I �m for or against.
My adult and teenage students wanted me to prepare a lesson on abbreviations and acronyms as they come acress them in chat rooms on the Internet and they really wanted to know what some of them mean. That �s fine - as long as they need them. But I would never require them to learn the abbreviations and test them. And I also stress the importance of being able to write properly ( �properly � meaning the old-fashioned way :)
Have a great day Everyone!
Marta
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16 Jun 2009
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