[ti:Motivator or OMG?] [ar:Bob Doughty] [al:Education Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English [00:02.93]Education Report. [00:05.03]Web browsers first appeared [00:07.92]on computers in the early [00:09.61]nineteen nineties. [00:11.25]Since then, the Internet [00:13.76]has greatly changed the way [00:15.92]people communicate. [00:17.52]But some teachers think [00:19.88]he changes are not all [00:22.17]for the better. [00:23.37]Eleanor Johnson [00:25.61]is an English professor [00:27.10]at Columbia University [00:29.01]in New York. [00:30.45]"I think that text messaging [00:32.07]has made students believe that [00:34.95]it's far more acceptable [00:36.25]than it actually is to just make [00:37.51]screamingly atrocious spelling [00:40.99]and grammatical errors." [00:42.39]She says her students [00:44.36]over the past several years [00:46.76]have increasingly used less [00:49.54]formal English in their writing. [00:51.79]She says words and phrases like [00:55.82]"guy" and "you know" now [00:58.76]appear in research papers. [01:00.95]And she now has to talk about [01:03.69]another problem in class, [01:05.33]she says -- incorrect word use. [01:08.32]For example, a student says [01:12.41]"preclude" instead of "precede" [01:16.04]when talking about one event [01:18.38]coming before another. [01:20.67]It sounds like precede [01:23.21]but it means prevent. [01:25.85]Professor Johnson suspects [01:29.46]a strong link between the rise [01:31.79] of instant and casual [01:34.28]communication online and [01:36.82]an increase in writing mistakes. [01:39.29]But she admits there may not [01:42.78]be much scientific evidence, [01:45.09]at least not yet. [01:46.63]David Crystal is a British linguist [01:50.47]who has written more than [01:52.81]one hundred books, [01:54.40]including the book [01:56.04]"Language and the Internet." [01:58.58]He says the actively changing [02:01.78]nature of the Internet makes [02:04.72]it difficult to stay current [02:07.06]in studying its effects. [02:09.27]But he believes its [02:11.82]influence on language is small. [02:14.33]"The main effect of the Internet [02:17.47]on language has been to [02:19.27]increase the expressive [02:20.87]richness of language, [02:22.47]providing the language [02:23.86]with a new set of [02:25.15]communicative dimensions [02:26.17]that haven't existed in the past." [02:27.86]Erin Jansen is founder of Netlingo, [02:30.70]an online dictionary of Internet [02:34.03]and text messaging terms. [02:36.12]She says the new technology [02:39.17]has not changed existing language [02:42.26]but has greatly added [02:44.42]to the vocabulary. [02:45.99]"Basically it's a freedom [02:48.79]of expression," she says. [02:50.24]And what about teachers [02:52.37]who find these new kinds of [02:54.81]mistakes in spelling and grammar [02:57.56]in their students' work. [02:59.35]What is her message to them? [03:02.40]"I always advocate, [03:03.79]don't get angry or upset [03:05.33]about that, get creative. [03:06.89]If it's helping the kids [03:09.08]write more or communicate [03:10.64]more in their first draft, [03:12.24]that's great. [03:13.10]That's what teachers [03:13.86]and educators want, [03:14.76]is to get kids communicating." [03:15.95]But Erin Jansen and David Crystal [03:18.90]agree with Eleanor Johnson [03:20.79]on at least one thing. [03:22.50]Teachers need to make sure [03:25.17]students understand the uses [03:28.01]and rules of language. [03:30.74]And that's the VOA Special English [03:34.82]Education Report, [03:36.42]written by Lawan Davis, [03:38.96]with reporting by Rachel Abrams. [03:42.05]We want to know what you have [03:44.39]to say about the effects of [03:45.99]the Internet on language and writing. [03:49.25]Post your comments at 51voa.com. [03:54.87]I'm Bob Doughty.