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GIRL WRITES ENGLISH ESSAY IN PHONE TEXT SHORTHAND

Education experts warned yesterday of the potentially damaging effect on literacy of mobile phone text messaging after a pupil handed in an essay written in text shorthand.

The 13-year-old girl submitted the essay to a teacher in a state secondary school in the west of Scotland and explained that she found it “easier than standard English”. Her teacher, who asked not to be named, said: “I could not believe what I was seeing. The page was riddled with hieroglyphics, many of which I simply could not translate.”

The Scottish Qualification Authority has expressed concern about the problem in its report on last year’s Standard Grade exams, and revealed that “text messaging language was inappropriately used” in the English exams.

Judith Gillespie, of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, said a decline in standards of grammar and written language was partly linked to the craze. “There must be rigorous effort from all quarters of the education system to stamp out the use of texting as a form of written language so far as English study is concerned.

“There has been a trend in recent years to emphasise spoke English. Pupils think orally and write phonetically. Your would be shocked at the number of senior secondary pupils who cannot distinguish between their and there. The problem is that there is a feeling in some schools that pupil’s freedom of expression should not be inhibited.”

The teenager’s essay began: “My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we usd 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF &3:-kds FTF. ILNY, it’s a gr8 plc.” Translation: “My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and three screaming kids face to face. I love New York, it’s a great place.”

THE DALY TELEGRAPH, March 3, 2003