Teenspeak

Question

I am a German student of English and very much interested in 'teenspeak', a phenomenon that seems to have emerged under the influence of instant messaging (SMS, socil networks etc.). I wonder what you think and how you feel about it: Is it obstructive or rather creative? Does it harm teenagers or is it an indication of one's being communicative?

Thank you in advance!

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

I have a 13 year old daughter. I grit my teeth when I see emails she's sent to her friends. I don't oversee her online chatting. I assume it's even "worse."

However, when I read the essays she writes for school, she uses standard English. I will keep my fingers crossed that she will be able to keep the needs of the two communication forms distinct.

Philip · Answer

Languages have different "levels" of usage.  Of course this word implies a top-to-bottom ranking, making the top one the best.  The current [ever-changing] technology has created many oddities in English used because of space and time constraints.  I can only hope that people who use the abbreviated "cute" shortcuts will keep in mind that this style is not at the top of the levels of English.  The best way to prevent overuse and misuse of the abbreviations and phrases is to keep a high level of instruction in English classes.  Reading good literature is also a way of keeping the "correct" forms in one's mind.  HAGD

Alex-93 · Answer

Oh yes, I've experienced "teenspeak", as you call it, in german and in english. I think there's a modified teenage language in every language. I don't think it just harms your english, it also hampers yourself to do progress. If you are using common expressions like "gonna,gotta,wanna etc." you will forget important english grammar rules. Mistakes become more frequent.
I'm using teenage language in german while chatting, sometimes. It goes faster, and everybody here knows what is meant by abbreviations. Normally I try to circumvent that. I consider my german as good, I'm reading many books. So I'm sure that it doesn't influence my german.
In english it's different. I try to avoid contact with any of these expressions!

Kooyeen · Answer

What do you mean by "teenspeak"? I think it is about "speech" (not spelling), that is, about the kind of English teenagers speak.
Young people have always spoken their language differently from older people, as far as I know. I don't think many people speak exactly like their parents. I certainly don't. They use expressions I would never use, and neither would any of my friends.
I think teenspeak is different mainly because of some slang and some new words, and many of those words seem to originate from the internet.

Some examples might be the verb "lol" (I lolled so hard), the verb "own" (I'm gonna own him at Scrabble), or collocations or interjections like "epic fail".

Anonymous · Answer

Hi,

I am an English Language student in Australia and English is my first language. While i may speak 'teenspeak' with my friends I am also able to use Standard English within the classroom. While some people may think 'teenspeak' is limiting our use of words, due to having to use Standard English in everyday situations; eg, school or work, our lexis has a large range and can be quite creative. While 'teenspeak' is becoming more porminant now it has actually been around for a long time. Eg the baby boomers used words such as 'groovy' and they started the use of 'cool' in its connotative meaning when they were teenagers. As long as teenagers maintain thier ability to use Standard English I don't see there being any harm in 'teenspeak'.

Teenspeak

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions