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BRITISH CULTURE: Text messaging Language
INVESTIGATING
A. How often you send text messages? Who do you send them to? How many
texts do you send per day?
B. What things do you send text messages about?
C. Do you use any abbreviations in your text messages? What short forms do
you use and what do they mean?
D. Here is an essay that a Scottish schoolgirl wrote in text message
abbreviations. What do you think it means? Now check with your teacher
and see if you were right!
"My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kids
FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc."
Bt my Ps wr so {:-/ BC o 9/11 tht thay dcdd 2 stay in SCO & spnd 2 wks up N.
Up N, WUCIWUG -- 0. I ws vvv brd in MON. 0 bt baas & ^^”
Abbreviation: a shortened form of a word or phrase.
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READING
A. Do you think text messaging is bad for the English language? Read this
article and decide if you agree.
Is text messaging destroying the English language?
When a 13-year-old Scottish girl handed in an essay written in text message shorthand, she explained to her
flabbergasted teacher that it was easier than standard English.
She wrote: "My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8
plc." (In translation: "My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York
to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York. It's a great
place.")
The girl's teacher was not impressed, saying: "I could not believe what I was seeing. The page was full of
hieroglyphics, many of which I simply could not translate."
Text messaging, e-mail and computer spell-checks have long been blamed for declining standards of spelling
and grammar. A publisher of a new dictionary warned last Friday of a "degree of crisis" in university students'
written English. Despite the arrival of predictive text, which completes words as you write them, and even the
launch of next generation mobile networks, it seems that the simple texting skills people have learnt in the
last three or four years will be around for a while yet. But could the anonymous Scottish schoolgirl be right?
Could txt take over more of our expression because addicts simply find it easier than normal writing?
Already, text message shortcuts have been adopted by those keen to get their point across in as little space as
possible, be it advertising copy, poetry or Biblical passages. Imagine reading Shakespeare in text message
shorthand:
 2b or not 2b thats ? (To be or not to be, that’s the question)
 a @(---`---`--- by any otha name wd sml swEt (A rose by any other name would smell so sweet)
 rm rm w4Ru rm? (Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art though Romeo?)

It may be just a coincidence, but when invited to pick a classic text to read together for World Book Day this
Thursday, BBC News Online readers voted for the slimmest volume on the list - Heart of Darkness, a dark but
short read at only 96 pages. Rewritten in txt, Joseph Conrad's novel would be even shorter still. Text speak
would make epics such as Tolstoy's War and Peace - at present an enormous 1,400+ pages - into a handy
pocket-sized read.
But linguistics expert Dr Joan Beal doubts this will happen any time soon. "The only books I can envisage
written in text message shorthand would be aimed at the teenage market, if at all. For it would rather spoil
the pleasure of reading, having to work out all those abbreviations."
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Article adapted from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2814235.stm
B. Decide if these sentences about the article are true or false and say why.
1. The Scottish girl thinks that Standard English is more difficult than text
message language.
2. The school teacher was very pleased with the student’s essay.
3. The girl didn’t enjoy her summer holiday.
4. Text messaging is the only thing that is making English spelling and grammar
worse.
5. The author thinks that text message language won’t last.
6. People who can’t spell properly use text message shortcuts.
7. Tolstoy’s War and Peace is a very long book.
8. Maybe in the future Teen novels will be written in text message abbreviations.
C. Find these words in the text and highlight them. Then match them to the
correct meaning.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Flabbergasted.
Hieroglyphics.
Blamed.
Declining.
Shortcuts.
Launch.
Anonymous.
Coincidence.
Enormous.
a) A form of writing used in ancient Egypt using pictures or symbols to represent
words.
b) A way to save time or effort.
c) To say someone is responsible for doing something wrong.
d) To start a new activity or business.
e) Very surprised.
f) Very big.
g) Becoming smaller or less.
h) Not identified by name.
i) Unconnected events that happen at the same time.
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LISTENING / INTERNET
A. What do these abbreviations mean? Use the teen chat decoder to check.
http://www.teenchatdecoder.com/
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
C u ltr.
GR8.
How r u?
Tks.
LOL.
BTW.
BRB
8. FYI.
9. CMB.
10. I h8 skool.
11. GF/BF.
12. Msg
13. Cu2nite.
14. Txt me.
B. Now write a message for another pair. Now read their message to you and
translate it. Write a response and continue your text conversation.
SPEAKING
A. Prepare to have a debate. One group will argue that text message language
is a positive thing and is not destroying standard languages. The other
group will argue that text message language is a negative thing and will
ruin standard language and people’s ability to use good spelling and
grammar.
Work in your group or with a partner and prepare as many points as you
can think of for your argument. Remember you don’t want the other group
to beat you!
B. Now have your debate. Don’t forget to explain why you think each point you
make.
Whose argument was
-
The most convincing?
The most realistic?
Would you like text message language to be used all of the time? Why?
Why not? Tell your group.
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Answers
Investigating
D.
“My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New
York to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three screaming kids face to face. I
love New York, it's a great place.
But my parents were so worried because of the terrorism attack on September 11
that they decided we would stay in Scotland and spend two weeks up north.
Up north, what you see is what you get - nothing.
I was extremely bored in the middle of nowhere. Nothing but sheep and mountains.”
Reading
B.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
True.
False, she wasn’t impressed.
True, she said it was a waste of time.
False, email and computer spell checks are also being blamed.
False. “…it seems that the simple texting skills people have learnt in the
last three or four years will be around for a while yet”
6. False. They are used by people who want to get their message
across in as short a space as possible.
7. True.
8. True.
C.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
E.
A.
C.
G.
B.
D.
H.
I.
F.
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Listening
A.
1. See you later.
2. Great.
3. How are you?
4. Thanks.
5. Laugh out loud.
6. By the way.
7. Be right back.
8. For your information.
9. Call me back.
10. I hate school.
11. Girlfriend/boyfriend.
12. Message.
13. See you tonight.
14. Text me.
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