UnNews:Texting 'improves children's spelling'

This article is part of UnNews, your source for up-to-the-picosecond misinformation.

13 June 2014

Some children are so creative when texting, their advanced spelling becomes impossible for non-creative adults to understand.

A study haz bin publisht 2day sayin dat txtN cn elp chldrn 2 lern 2 wrte.

jst ovr 160 kidz, btwen 8 & 16 yrs old, frm d UK, tuk pt in d study.

d profrs lukt at spellin & gramr in xams & in txt msgs. d rslts showd d most cre8ive txtrs wer d bst spellaz.

Jwana Cory, prof ov psych & eductn @ Oxfrd Uni, sed d rslts cud b put dwn 2 d fact dat txt abbr wz fneticly basD.

"wen chldrn r playin wiv cr8ive wayz ov uzin langwij, dey hav 2 praktis thR comprhnsion ov leta sownd crrspndnce: a skiL wich iz taut az fonics in primry skul."

However, some social commentators are not convinced. Craig McMahon, president of Spellbound, a society which tries to encourage traditional spelling on social media, said, "How on earth can reading and writing in a version of English that has no application in the classroom or the workplace be good for literacy? These kids should be reading Shakespeare."

Now are our browes bound with victorious wreathes,
Our bruised armes hung vp for monuments,
Our sterne alarmes changd to merry meetings,
Our dreadfull marches to delightfull measures.
Grim-visagde warre, hath smoothde his wrinkled front,
And now in steed of mounting barbed steedes,
To fright the soules of fearefull aduersaries.

"Now that's good English."

Sources

• Leverage, "Texting 'can boost children's spelling and grammar'" BBC, June 13, 2014