INTERNET IMing teaches teens how to write, converse

Many teachers praise the influence instant messaging has on students' skills.
By KARA KRIDLER
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
For Nathan Lott it's as part of his daily routine as brushing his teeth -- maybe even more so.
"I am online before school, as soon as I get home and all night," Nathan said. But Nathan's not spending the bulk of his time surfing the Web, he's instant messaging his friends.
"IMing," as it's fondly referred to, allows users to juggle multiple, on-the-spot conversations at a time. It's instantaneous, so it's quicker than e-mail.
Nathan, 13, is at the prime age for IMing. In 2001, a report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 13 million teens were instant messaging.
For Nathan, it's the main way he interacts with friends.
"Everyone has a screen name," he said. "I mainly talk to four basic people on IM. My screen name is on whenever I am home, except when my mom wants to use the computer."
When Nathan instant messages his friends, he uses an abbreviated version of the English language. Terms such as "ttyl" (talk to you later), "c u l8tr" (see you later) and "lol" (laugh out loud) are common among IM users.
"It's much more informal than writing a paper," he said.
Writing skills
Teachers and other educators are starting to see the effect of instant messaging on teens' writing skills and are using the new kind of slang to teach better communication.
Don Blake, a senior technologist at National Education Association, says that the impact of IMing is positive.
"IM-savvy kids actually increase their effective writing skills," he said.
Noting that IM etiquette is something that must be taught, Blake said, "Most teachers tend to see this as a learning opportunity, especially with younger kids who truly don't understand that [IM abbreviations] in a formal writing assignment are like wrong answers on a test.
"Teachers have a big role to play in this process," he said. "Any kid who says 'c u l8tr' any other way is likely to be ignored -- or perhaps even booted from an online chat room.
"Teachers who make the connection for their students between online social etiquette and the real world, where a misspelled word can result in exactly the same type of experience, are taking advantage of a powerful learning opportunity," he said
Appropriateness
Billy Bednarz, a grade-school teacher at Mater Dei, an all-boys private school in Washington, D.C., says his students know to avoid using IM terms in classroom assignments.
"I never see [instant messaging slang] creep into their writing," Bednarz said. "They know not to use it in their papers. They know better."
By the time students are in sixth and seventh grade, "they know to differentiate between IMing and school," he said.
Blake, however, stressed that IMing can be beneficial to teens in terms of learning how to communicate.
As for the future of English language, Blake does not think IMing will have much of an impact.
"The idea of online lingua franca creeping into and destroying the English language is, in my opinion, unlikely," he said. "Look at spoken slang. 'Wassup' has been a common spoken greeting for years now. It has been adopted by IMers and still hasn't made it into Webster's."