Oompa Loompas, Gangsta Grannies and Greg Heffley
In a writing blog, one simply cannot forget World Book Day. Like many others, our school held a day filled with writing, reading, and (of course) a catwalk of the many costumes chosen and worn by the children.
However, it was interesting to notice that fragile line between book and film. We also (cough, cough) had a number of our young dressed as footballers and, when quizzed, answered that there is indeed a book written about Lionel Messi. How can one argue with that?
From a teacher's point of view, I am happy that my children are reading something, but should I be content with any content? (Clever pun intended!).
Interestingly, there is a definite correlation between a child's reading and writing. American books such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Geek Girl are particularly popular amongst my ten-year-olds, and their written English is not really English at all - filled with abbreviations, Americanisms (OK, Yeah, Hi), and American spelling (mom, color, practice, alright, etc). Let's be honest; we all do it, and some publishers are more open to it than others, but should I be encouraging this in the classroom?
I now know the Americans are extremely proud of their language and have their own dictionary to ensure it stays unique and preserved. I'd always assumed it was some kind of evolutionary product from when the English landed in the Americas all those years ago. But, as an Engish person, I, too am proud of my language and positively glow when faced with a grammatical error that one can confidently correct.
Finally, Americans aside, we have the 'problem' of abbreviations popping up amongst the misspelled words. Abbreviations like" 'U' instead of 'YOU" and "C" instead of "see" and even "LOL" and worse, "OMG"! What on earth did we do before smart phones and texting?!
Some would say, this is the evolution of language, let the children be! But, I wonder, my fellow writers, what do you have to say about this?
Ttyl!
Lovely post, Nikki! Thanks. There is a saying that if life throws you lemons, you make lemonade. If they throw this language you describe above, we will use it to represent the appropriate characters, of the likes of Eliza Dolittle and her father! Blessings
ReplyDeleteHi Nikki, interesting... the evolution of language goes hand in hand with the development of communication technology that (which?) encourages or even demands brevity and speed over grammatical accuracy. My social media feeds are increasingly full of AI-generated content (much of it very convincing), so I'm just pleased to know teachers are still fighting the good fight and inspiring children to learn.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Nikki. I'm pretty finickety (is that an oxymoron and slang in two words?) about the use of English and shudder at most Americanisms, lazy abbreviations, incorrect SPAG (I was also a teacher) and so on BUT the gist of what I remember from various of my English teachers was not to rule out poor English in texts but to point out the difference between slang and correct usage, and why using etc in prose, for example, is worthy of the gallows. And endless spelling tests. So, yeah, introduce everything to children but explain why poor English is poor and good English is good. Oh! And by the way, I'm half-Yank, half-Limey.
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