Internetz blamed for poor literacy?

[Insectoid]

Linky!

i dunno wut there talking a bout, my grammer is the toppest notch.


On a more serious note, I know plenty of you attend UWaterloo and thus have taken the test mentioned in the article. How basic ARE the concepts which are the basis of the test? How difficult would it be for foreigners to pass?

I admit, my spelling isn't all that great and I depend heavily on spell check, but overall my grasp of English is perfectly fine, and as I rarely if ever submit handwritten work, I don't see poor spelling as a problem. NOTE: By poor spelling I mean the inability to spell 'foriegner' correctly, and other ridiculous words. There/their/they're, its/it's, etc. are all fine and (as far as I know) I always use them correctly (with the exception of the above sentence in which I intentionally misspelled many words).

What do you guys think of the literacy situation?

[DtY]

I think the problem is that it's socially acceptable to be stupid.

[edit] And by stupid I mean specifically things like "u", "ur", ect, &c.

[chrisbrown]

To be fair, UW's literacy test is hardly a measure of university-level literacy. Given that almost a third of its students are international and/or ESL, it's more of a screening test for basic english communication skills.

[Insectoid]

methodoxx @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 9:58 pm wrote:

To be fair, UW's literacy test is hardly a measure of university-level literacy. Given that almost a third of its students are international and/or ESL, it's more of a screening test for basic english communication skills.

Interesting how almost a third of its students are failing too.

[TheGuardian001]

Considering the "jump" was to 30% from 25%, I don't think we really have much to worry about here...

although I do think most people could do with putting a little more effort into it. A little shorthand is fine, but at the point where people are changing every single word, it's a bit ridiculous.

[SNIPERDUDE]

What seriously concerns me is the illiteracy caused by "txting", "msn" and the such in the high school generation (roughly), it is quickly trickling into the younger generations. The biggest difference is they aren't using these shortcut words as shortcuts, but as their actual grammar. Kids really are becoming stupid (in this sense at least, but I'd argue they are getting dumber in many more aspects than just spelling/grammar), and I've seen this in effect.

I accidentally spent a semester of co-op in my last year of high school in an elementary school (blame the teacher, she was a bit loopy), and what I've seen is absolutely remarkable. I felt like I was watching animal planet or something. When grade 8 students are spelling words like "kitchen" as "cichin" and think it's correct - we have reason to be concerned. 80% of the kids were failing basic spelling tests. I remember when I was in elementary there wasn't "the smart kid", but the "slow kid".

There are many factors at blame here, but we can't ignore this issue. I'm just afraid this isn't one of those habits they are "going to grow out of" like any other childish behaviour.

[Turing_Gamer]

'Txt spk' is probably a life saver. I mean, how many of you when texting or messengering talk like this in full words, rather in abreviations.
How many time have you used lol, for example. Grammer may take its toll but it helps us talk faster along the net.

EDIT: Are smilies considered bad grammer? I mean who wouldn't go around saying in MSN (messenger, for those who prefer full words)?

Just an idea, we chould make a poll...
When you are online or on the phone, do you use 'txt spk' or full words?

[Insectoid]

This isn't about shitty spelling on the web, it's about that 'txt spk' migrating over to university assignments. I don't know about you, but smileys in an essay is a definite NO. Myself, I DO use complete sentences in IM, though I am a 'lol' addict (and trying to break the habit).

I don't think I know a single person who abbreviates over the phone...I mean, it's the phone! Closest I get to it is modern slang, which I'm not even sure is slang...might just be my area's thing ('you' is not 'you' when used at the end of a sentance, here, it's 'yah'. Don't know weather that's the case elsewhere, prolly is ('prolly' is one of the few words I intentionally misspell, 'cause I hate the word and hate to spell it)).

Quote:

Messenger, for those who prefer full words

Acronyms for nouns are okay in my opinion, given that you've used the full term at least once in an essay. Yes, talking faster is important in online games where you may have only a few seconds to type it out before you have to control your character/vehicle/whatever again, but you do NOT have to type out your speech in a few seconds. Typically you have a few days or more, depending on the level.



Unless that was sarcasm, in which case I've made a fool of myself.

[jbking]

I've hear and said abbreviations or acronyms over the phone. "OMG" and "TGIF" come to mind as examples but there is also the fancier stuff like ID ten T, for something a bit fancier. "POS" is another that comes to mind. It can be a handy way to suppress profanity. Generally I use a mix as in a way it depends on to whom I'm sending the message. If it is a friend that is different than posting to someone that is expecting a mature message.

[Prabhakar Ragde]

The proficiency exam requires the student to write an essay of 300-500 words in 50 minutes.

This page contains some sample topics, actually submitted essays, and the marks. There are no examples of failing submissions.

http://elpp.uwaterloo.ca/sample_essays.html

I have, on occasion over the past two years, asked students in the advanced first-term CS course to submit a text file with some reasoning or analysis. Since these files are prepared electronically, spelling and grammar checkers could be used. The average quality of these, from a communications point of view, has been pretty low. It doesn't seem to get any better through our curriculum, and this is one of the largest complaints that employers have about our graduating students.

[SNIPERDUDE]

Yes, yes I do type out full words. On MSN, via Texting, and through speech. There are few reasons for the amount of illeteracy seen today.
I am not so much against smilies, so long as they are a smiley. Example, when people type out other "smiley shortcuts" found in IM such as (Y), I honestly think they look stupid.
I am also against those LOLs and ROFLs to a large degree, they have taken over speech which should never have happened.

[TheGuardian001]

I also type out full sentences while using IM programs. However I don't have a problem with either shortcut smileys, since they can actually convey an emotion, nor do I have a problem with "lol," so long as "lol" stays confined to the world of text (seriously, people need to stop saying that out loud)

Also, I find the fact that you misspelled "illiteracy" funny.

[SNIPERDUDE]

TheGuardian001 @ February 5th 2010 wrote:

Also, I find the fact that you misspelled "illiteracy" funny.

It happens. Notably a genuine spelling error caused by typing too fast, not on purpose.
For some reason I can't get the spell check feature to work on Firefox. I'm generally pretty good at spelling, but there are times this does come in handy.

[DtY]

I've never had a problem with spell checking in Firefox (at least, since I've known it's been there), you might want to try installing a new dictionary

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:3

[Zren]

Turing_Gamer @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:18 am wrote:

'Txt spk' is probably a life saver. I mean, how many of you when texting or messengering talk like this in full words, rather in abreviations.
How many time have you used lol, for example. Grammer may take its toll but it helps us talk faster along the net.

Reason why I got the rumor with it's Qwetryness.
Truthfully though, lol could really be it's own word. Seeing as it's used a lot of the time a filler word. However lol, rofl, pos and the like are all abrieviations.
Then again, I'm probably one of those people who would fail and throw these stats off anyways.