The Evolution of Communication

Remember the memorable scene in the movie "Airplane" with Barbara Billinglsey stepping forward to translate because she "speaks jive"? How much richer is our language due to the contributions of the many co-cultures sharing our world? Language is growing, changing, and becoming more interesting every day. Anyone who chooses not to recognize the value in these changes is rejecting positive communication growth.

As a high school English and ESL teacher, I witness daily, the reality that language is in constant flux. That does not mean that I welcome or permit my students to type "u" instead of "you" or "r" instead of "are" or "b4" instead of "before." However, as a new owner of the dreaded cell phone, I find myself using these abbreviations myself when I am texting my son via my phone. I see little wrong with this provided these practices remain specific to that situation.

I fully expect my son, my students, and myself to be able to alter my communication style for my purposes. That means that work that is submitted to me by my students must be proofread and free of e-lingo. Contractions, informal expressions, slang, may get one's point across on a Saturday night, but need to be omitted from formal writing and speaking.

I frequently remind my students that a strong communicator does not speak in the same manner to everyone in all circumstances. We compare our speaking styles in addressing a younger sibling, or a parent, or a friend in the cafeteria to the speaking style expected when addressing the principal, a prominent member of the community, or a guest speaker.

Communicating electronically is here to stay. I will agree that at times this may add to the challenges that teachers need to make a point of addressing in the teaching of writing, and that it also adds to the challenges that students face in adjusting their practices to fit the many language circumstances they find themselves in throughout any given day. However, I see many of these changes as largely positive.

Ten to twenty years ago, teenagers who zoned out in front of television screens were not communicating at all in their leisure time. Today, they are much more engaged in communicating with people from all over the globe via the internet; and cell phones allow for instant and regular communication both verbally and in writing.

While the internet does not come equipped with a teacher standing behind the user reminding him that it is "than" and not "then" or that "b-cuz" needs to be changed to "because", computers do come equipped with spell-checks, grammar checks, and every possible language answer a student could possibly question, at his or her fingertips.

Young people today are much more aware of language differences among cultures, expressions that may be used in a neighboring state, but not in their own hometown, how to design a web-page that is professional and eye-catching, who in Japan likes the same kind of music that they do, and words that are spelled one way in the U.S. and differently in England.

My parents may be more likely than my students to fully understand when to use the word "shall" as opposed to "will"; however, in many ways, I credit the internet for helping our young people become more language-aware and culturally savvy than any generation before them.

The internet can only be considered to be destroying writing standards among young writers if dry, formal, dogmatic script is all we wish to generate from these young writers. Active writing should model active living, and while I do feel that there will always be a need in much modern text for clear, formal, didactic, written publications, I also feel that there is more out there beyond that not only to be said, but also to be preserved; and who better to preserve it than the most active users of these varied forms of communication - our young people?