The £3,000 'txt-spk' poster that 'undermines English teaching'



It sometimes seems as if the youngsters of today speak another language.

And in a controversial new poster campaign it appears that many local education authorities agree, resorting to communicating with children in ‘text speak’.

Nearly 5,000 posters have been put up in schools, written in a mind-boggling array of numbers and unlikely combinations of letters, in an attempt to connect with children who are more comfortable writing and reading in the abbreviated language used in mobile phone text messages than formal English.

Cn u hr me nw? The Top Tips for Pupils that aims to make the safety message clear for students

Entitled ‘Top Tips for Pupils: Safe surfing at home and at school’, the posters are on display in corridors and classrooms of more than 2,000 secondary schools in London.

One of the nine tips on the poster, which uses the letters XXX to denote an adult, says: ‘nvr agree 2 mEt an on9 pal IRL w/o chekin W a responsible XXX.’



That means: ‘Never agree to meet an online friend in real life without checking with a responsible adult.’

Another reads: ‘u av d ryt 2 feel safe ll d tym, includN wen UzN ICT or yr mob ph.’



That translates as: ‘You have the right to feel safe all the time, including when using information communications technology or your mobile phone.’

The campaign, aimed at making children more aware of the risks while on the internet and in using their mobile phones, has dismayed educational traditionalists.

But bosses at London Grid for Learning (LGfL), the local authority-funded organisation behind the posters, believe text language is the best way to get through to children today.

Brian Durrant, the organisation’s chief executive, said: ‘We think it would raise their interest by using “textese”. It does take some translating, but we want to connect with the pupils.

‘We want them to be aware of the risks when using their mobile and computers. It has been warmly received - I see the posters on show whenever I visit schools.’

The poster aims to help students act safe when using the Internet - but it has been criticised for ignoring plain-speaking English in favour of 'txt-spk'

But the campaign has been criticised by those campaigning for higher standards in education.

Nick Seaton, from the Campaign for Real Education, said: ‘This is a complete waste of money. Posters that go up in schools should be written in standard English and encourage children to read and write standard English.

‘To use text language is to pass on entirely the wrong message and encourage lower standards. The people behind this really should have known better.’

An English teacher in a West London school added: ‘These posters go up on the corridors of the English department, as well as everywhere else, and it undermines everything that we do.’

The posters, which cost nearly £3,000 of taxpayers’ money to produce, were published by the LGfL along with 5,000 further posters written in standard English and 5,000 posters with tips for teachers.

It is just the latest development in the growing influence of text language in education.

In Scotland, text messaging, social networking websites and blogs will be studied alongside books, plays and poetry in schools in future under new curriculum guidelines that were published earlier this year.

The idea is to use modern methods of communication to engage children and prepare them with the skills necessary for the workplace.





