Letter to the Editor-Technology & Language

Where do I start? I just finished reading your “Twtr? It's majorly bad! Leading headteacher condemns 'text speak' for eroding schoolchildren's language skills” article from 2014, and the best word to describe how feel is both disturbed and quite humored from these critical quotes you have provided.

I would like to start by pointing out, why do you question the children’s academic ability to learn? Instead you should be questioning the quality of teaching in these schools. Could you explain to me how a teacher hasn’t taught a child the difference ‘I don’t know who you are’ and 'I donno huu u r' or how numbers don’t belong in the structure of words like ‘m8’. Keep in mind this is in a leading private school in Oxford of all places. Rather what you’ve pointed out in the article is how it is deliberately the student’s fault for not knowing the difference. It baffles me that simple grammatical lessons have clearly been overlooked by these teachers of the “perfect English”. Now I propose the question, could we have reached this “perfect English” without any change. You provide the quote “'We should teach English in a traditional way.” Was there ever really a traditional way? It is an ignorant statement to think the English language isn’t prone for change. Keeping in mind that the English Language was created from convenience of not speaking Latin, similar to how many teenagers find writing in the manner of how they speak more convenient in a formal environment. As such instead of beating a dead horse it would seem logical to open towards the change that technology presents to the English language. On the topic of technology, throughout you’re article you claim that Technology has had only a negative impact on the English language through various quotes like “'With the continuing reliance on technology, "textspeak" is eroding hardlearned skills in such basic areas as spelling and grammar.” If anything, technology has been a milestone in the progression of the teaching of the English language. Technology has the ability and tools to provide the teachings of the English language on a platform that many teenagers may find more comfortable than a class room. Additionally, think of the infinite sources of English literature that teenagers can learn and benefit from, an educational standard that I fear the school you interviewed doesn’t match. Overall your article is based on the belief of a prestige dialect, and that the English language can never be changed, an argument so short-minded that it should raise academic concern.