Thought this was interesting. Wonder how soon this trend will hit the U.S?

New Zealand students may 'text-speak' in exams

POSTED: 7:14 a.m. EST, November 11, 2006

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- New Zealand's high school students will be able to use "text-speak" -- the mobile phone text message language beloved of teenagers -- in national exams this year, officials said.

Text-speak, a second language for thousands of teens, uses abbreviated words and phrases such as "txt" for "text", "lol" for "laughing out loud" or "lots of love," and "CU" for "see you."

The move has already divided students and educators who fear it could damage the English language.

New Zealand's Qualifications Authority said Friday that it still strongly discourages students from using anything other than full English, but that credit will be given if the answer "clearly shows the required understanding," even if it contains text-speak.

The authority's deputy chief executive for qualifications, Bali Haque, said students should aim to make their answers as clear as possible.

Confident that those grading papers would understand answers written in text-speak, Haque stressed that in some exams, including English, text abbreviations would be penalized.

Post Primary Teachers' Association President Debbie Te Whaiti said the authority's move reflects the classroom situation.

Teachers would have concerns if text slang became acceptable in everyday written language in classrooms, she said.

Critics said the National Certificate of Educational Achievement or NCEA, the main qualification for high school students, would be degraded by the authority allowing text speak use in exams.

Internet blogger Phil Stevens was not amused by the announcement. "nzqa[New Zealand Qualifications Authority]: u mst b joking," Stevens wrote. "or r u smoking sumthg?"

OK call me old fashioned, but that's just wrong. lazy lazy lazy!!!!!!!!

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Raingods with Zippo's, a tin man rusts away and slowly falls apart,
Raingods with Zippo's and all he leaves behind a bleeding broken heart.
-Fish-

I have heard some undercurrent in the states here on this ... but,,, I have to go with Lazy,,,Lazy Lazy,,, what is this world coming too?

All the Romance languages started as Latin slang. You can't stop it.

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Numquam non paratus

It makes me wonder why we even bother to have grammar classes in school if we are going to live in a society of anything goes, grammatically speaking. However, some feel it’s their right to speak and write in a manner most comfortable for them.

I think that you would go to school to learn to speak and write better. But, then again, I was raised using common English grammar - perhaps the way they're currently teaching in the classroom is fine for me (and the rest of my 40+ buds) but maybe not for someone raised in the computer age, or even someone who's from another culture for that matter. Maybe some of the young'uns on the site can share their thoughts on this?

I don’t know what the answer is but I do feel sorry for the teachers and professors that will be dealing with this in their classes. Sheesh.

MIR