Eye Opener
Text messages promote wrong spelling
Cellphone gadget introduced in the late 90s in the Philippines is causing confusion among teachers and parents as students in their prime youth use crazily the gadget in school and home. Although the gadget has been useful to businessmen, executives and law enforcers, the sending by students and some professionals of text messages using abbreviated words will no doubt confuse high school students, many of whom got below passing scores in the last comprehensive aptitude examination. Parents and kins probably have noble intentions in providing their elementary and high school children this gadget without realizing that many young students learn "Tarzan" jungle grammar because of text messaging.
Moreover, students and even professionals spend most of their time playing with their cellphones. Utilizing their free time texting with their friends instead of studying their lessons, students have become "prisoner" of the gadget and learn English grammar the wrong way. Some of the wrongly spelled messages like: "se u n scol", "Y R U LET YESDAY", "hav a niz di", Kam hom erly", "se u n da movy 2morrow" and "lav u".
The texters may want to save long words in their messages but the wrongly spelled words will later be adopted as "correct" and the students will unwittingly adopt the wrong words in their classroom during examination.
Will our educators and lawmakers do something to correct this wrong practice by our youth who according to Jose Rizal are "the hope of the fatherland"?