Project 4 Essay

Project 4 Essay Project 4 Essay Aya Abdulrahman Professor Rife English 1100 25 November 2014 Texting is Destroying English Can texting affect our English? The answer is yes, it can. It seems like I can’t walk anywhere without seeing at least one person glued to their phone screen typing away as fast as they can. â€Å"Adolescents reported receiving 46.03 and sending 45.11 text messages per day† (Cingel and Sundar 1310). The English language is like a beautiful ocean, when it's polluted, it becomes ugly and unwanted. Most people love and enjoy the texting language because it's simple and fast. Texting is reported as the most preferred communication style (Cingel and Sundar 1306). Texting does change and hurt the English language in so many ways. It teaches younger generations the wrong structure and grammar of the English language. It also affects those who are newly introduced to the English language. I believe that texting will change the English language in the future so much that it will become an odd language to speak. Throughout the centuries and decades English has changed a lot. The introduction of cellphones and texting has extraordinarily impacted the way in which people communicate (Kemp and Bushnell 18). People no longer have to make phone calls to keep in touch with friends and family, they can now type a short message stating whatever they need to say. People don't speak English the same way it was spoken hundreds of years ago. A new word comes out every day, and texting has a big role in that change. I have seen how people say the same word they use in text messages in their actual conversation like "LOL" which means laugh out loud, "ROFL" which means â€Å"rolling on the floor laughing†, and the list goes on. Some people not only use the texting language when they speak, but they write it out as well. I have been in a class where my teacher was so upset because some of the student used the texting language and even emoticons in their homework, essays, and exams. Some students do not seem to be able to alternate between text speak and normal English in a classroom setting. â€Å"Average sent word adaptation, consisting of abbreviations, letter omissions, and homophones, was found to negatively predict grammar score, so much so that it accounted for more variance than grade (Cingel and Sundar 1316). Thus, the texting language is starting to dominate the English language Texting is most dangerous and harmful on the younger generations. Young people enjoy texting the most among all other ages, which makes it faster and easier for them to dominate and mix the texting words and symbols with the English language. Some results suggest there’s correlation between texting and bad test results. â€Å"A survey was conducted to test the association between text message usage of sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students and their scores on an offline, age appropriate grammar assessment test. Of the 229 students surveyed it showed broad support for the negative relationship between tech speak and grammar† (Cingel and Sundar 1304). Texting does not only affect the English language itself, but it affects how those young people communicate with each other when they talk. This means that they will carry this new language to the next generation, and it will change the English language. Texting not only devalue the English language, it makes it meaningless too. For example, I have a friend who likes to say "ILY" a lot, which means "I love you." Some people even say "HBD" instead of saying "Happy Birthday" to me. It makes absolutely no sense to use these expressions. Symbols and words like these not only change and hurt the English language; they change and weaken relationship between people. The way people communicate is all about feelings and the meanings of this beautiful language. Unfortunately, using texting language kill those feelings and the real meaning of what people want to say and what they actually mean. Another impact of texting is that it makes it harder for