Internet Safety News
Instant Messaging Teaches English Skills?
by Christine Loftus
Instant messaging has raised concerns from parents and educators about the effects of this form of communication on teenagers; however, this electronic correspondence as well as e-mail and chatrooms may have some positive aspects. Instant messaging and e-mail are creating a new generation of teenage writers accustomed to translating their every thought and feeling into words.1
Grammarians and English teachers at first feared that the shortened, rules-free nature of online correspondence would cause their formal writing skills to suffer. "But more and more teachers are concluding that kids' comfort with language actually might improve their writing, if that interest can be harnessed in the right way.2 Researchers and teachers say one positive aspect of e-mailing between teenagers is that it presents a new chance for teenagers to develop some of the skills needed for effective writing, such as learning to pick their words and tone carefully to convey their message appropriately.3
Some teachers even claim that their students suffer less excrutiating "writer's block" than they once did since students are more familiar with keyboards and blank computer screens now.4 If students see writing online as recreation rather than as schoolwork, it opens up the possibilities for teachers to exploit the medium.5
Teenagers might grow out of using abbreviations for words or phrases in their online writing, but what they won't grow out of is "an instinctual understanding that writing has a purpose and an audience. Kids learn that how they write will determine whether their meaning is received correctly."6
1"Click by Click, Teens Polish
Writing." Washington Post. May 20, 2003, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12718-2003May19.html.
2Ibid.
3Ibid.
4Ibid.
5Ibid.
6Ibid.
Christine Loftus is a research assistant/editor for the Parents & Educators component of the NetSmartz Workshop® at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children®.
