Amglish In, Like, Ten Easy Lessons_ A Celebration of the New World Lingo - Arthur E. Rowse [60]
Promoters of this new type of language don’t seem to realize that all this already has a name. It’s Amglish.
CRITICS WEIGH IN
Many a parent or teacher has privately bemoaned the state of such language arts and has wondered what the long-range effects might be on young people and their ability to go to college and get decent jobs.
One prominent critic is James Billington, the librarian of Congress. He says he sees “creeping inarticulateness, the demise of the basic unit of human thought—the sentence. If the sentence croaks, so will critical thought. The chronicling of history. Storytelling itself.” After using two nonsentences, he used a few real ones to explain:
The words “community” and “communicate” come from the same root word. It logically follows that greater communication would lead to greater community, would bring us all together. . . . The Internet revolution creates new possibilities for people to be in touch with others, but it could also lead to a gobbledygook language without sentences and punctuation and paragraphs—and with less understanding of the world and its meaning.19
Billington is one of very few public authorities who dare to dis the language of young people. Most teachers and professors tend to be either afraid to be quoted or are unusually inarticulate, probably because they don’t want to lose any remaining rapport they still have with students.
However, Ben Yagoda, a professor of English at the University of Delaware, is not afraid to speak out. He says today’s students seem brighter than earlier ones, but their ability to write clearly has declined greatly in recent years. Referring to bloggery and text messaging, he adds, “The things that suffer the most are spelling and punctuation.”20
TEENS NOT SO CRITICAL
On the surface, today’s teens don’t seem to see anything amiss according to a 2007 survey by Pew Internet & American Life Project and the National Commission on Writing. Of those surveyed, 60 percent said they did not consider texting the same as writing, nor did they believe that technology negatively influenced the quality of their writing.
Yet nearly two-thirds admitted that the texting style—such as acronyms like LOL—slips into their schoolwork. Nevertheless, an overwhelming 86 percent said good writing is important to success in life.
These two findings seem to indicate that many teens are doing more texting than they would like, perhaps because so many of their peers are doing it. They are apparently being swept along by a fear of being labeled “uncool” or “nerdy” by their peers.
According to the survey, parents were more positive than their children with regard to whether computers make for better writers and more creative, better communicators. They were also less negative than their children with regard to the effects of computers on spelling and grammar. But how much do parents really know about what is happening? And how much is wishful thinking?
A government essay test conducted in 2008 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress indicated that only one-third of the nation’s eighth-graders and only one-quarter of high school seniors showed proficiency in writing. These results clearly pleased Amanda P. Avallone, vice chair of the federal testing program involved. She declared, “I am happy to report, paraphrasing Mark Twain, that the death of writing has been greatly exaggerated.”
Her hidden message seemed to be, “Hey, we are trying to keep a stiff upper lip, but considering the times we live in and the pressures on today’s kids, these test results are better than we expected. So let’s all go out for pizza and beer.”
WIRED FOR DISTRACTION
It’s not hard to find reasons for the slipping ability to write sparkling prose. One reason is distractions. Youngsters find it extremely difficult to resist the flood