A couple of recent studies seem to confirm what many fear: text abbreviations cause poor grammar and writing skills in tweens and teens.
Are we on the verge of a new Dark Age? Will the Internet render us incapable of language? Well, not so fast. There’s evidence that textspeak is actually beneficial to language, and that the fears are overblown.
Linguist Daniel Midgley hoses down the panic on this episode of Talk the Talk.
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First article: Professor says teens’ social media lingo hurts writing skills
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-professor-teens-social-media-lingo.html
Second one: No lol matter: Tween texting may lead to poor grammar skills
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-lol-tween-texting-poor-grammar.html
Also: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2012/07/duz_txting_hurt_yr_kidz_gramr_.html
Link to the paper:
http://nms.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/05/10/1461444812442927
Moral panic from Schlegel: “A nation whose language becomes rude and barbarous must be on the brink of barbarism in regard to everything else.”
http://pratclif.com/language/language-change-old.pdf
Language Log has been all over this:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=609
In other research, texting doesn’t hurt grammar.
2006: http://stephenslighthouse.com/2006/08/04/texting-doesnt-hurt-grammar-study/ 2009: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2341776,00.asp
