Illiteracy Rates in America May Rise As Education Boards Remove Writing From Exams and Students Begin Using Slang in the Classroom

Courtesy of NBC News

Only 400 students are enrolled as English majors at the University of Maryland, proving that the interest in writing is dwindling down more and more each year. As technology increases, texting lingo becomes more popular, and different colloquialisms mix throughout the nation, America is slowing losing its Standard English Language. Standard English refers to whatever form of the English Language is accepted as a national norm in any English-speaking country.

While some argue language is a form of self-expression, other educators argue that there is a time and a place for self-expression, but the classroom is not that place.

The inability to settle on what language is allowed in the classroom has left many students questioning their ability to write, and many education systems removing writing from their curriculums as a whole. However, this decision has resulted in students assuming they can speak and write however they please, even in the workplace, by using curse words and acronyms, and riddling their papers with careless typos.


The College Board Eliminates the Writing Section of the SATs as a Way to Say Language is No Longer Important 

In March 2014, the College Board made the executive decision to make the essay portion of the SATs optional starting in 2016. Grammatical questions will be incorporated into the reading section of the exam, eliminating the Writing Section as a whole. There will be 1,600 points total instead of the current 2,400.

Officials stated that these changes were made to better align the exam with what students actually learn in their high school classrooms, and by eliminating the writing portion, students can focus on the skills they will truly need for college.

However, students appear to already be lacking strong writing skills more than anything, based on the National Average SAT Scores of 2013. Without the pressure to ace the Writing Section of the SAT Exam, students will slowly put in less and less effort to language acquisition.                      

Lisa Sopher, an Advanced Placement English and Creative Writing teacher at Hereford High School argues that by removing the Writing Section from the SATs, the colleges to which future student will apply will quickly realize students' inability to think creatively and critically because of their lack of writing practice.

Sopher is not the only one worried about the loss of proficient writing. College admission counselors are now receiving college applications with essays that contain slang words. Many counselors, advisers and professors at the university level are getting fed up with the casual language, and view it as "a dumbing down of culture." In fact, college admissions counselors have just been throwing away essays that do not represent appropriate, academic writing.

Educators and Students In Favor of Eliminating Standard English Argue Slang is the Cool New Effective Rhetorical Language, Thanks to Social Media

Surprisingly, not all educators believe there needs to be a Standard English in the classroom. Assistant Director of the Writing Center at the University of Maryland, Doug Kern, argues that there is not a Standard English to begin with. According to Dr. Kern, language is constantly changing, and with the increase in rapid language being used everyday, such as abbreviations used in texting, students are learning a new language all together.

Dr. Kern views slang and colloquialism as languages that follows their own set of grammatical principles. However, this opinion may have grown out of generational differences.

Younger students and teachers are more engrossed in social media than professors who grew up without. Technology-savvy Americans are arguing that social media has a large impact on the way we write--a good impact. In fact, many educators are arguing the 140 character limit on Twitter has taught students how to be short and concise and to cut out what many teachers call, "the fluff."

By using concise and to-the-point language, many students are figuring out ways to say what they need to say as fast as possible, through the use of abbreviations such as the words displayed below in the short Texting Lingo 101 hand guide.

However, the argument still stands: is this an appropriate way to speak to educators, employers, and colleagues in a professional setting? Will the students of today land jobs if they no longer understand the difference between an independent and dependent clause?

The problem is that technology is never going to evaporate, and students will continue using shorthand language in order to share the most words as fast as possible. In 2011, when the simple, iPhone 4 was finally a huge hit, 84% of high school students were already engaged in electronic communication, such as texting, tweeting, posting Facebook statues and sending emails.

As of today, those numbers have only increased. When US News interviewed students from Maine South High School in IL, students admitted to using language shortcuts in their papers, and said that it was simply the older teachers who were upset about it.

Terry Wood, a teacher with over 10 years of experience at the school, reported that the students do not even capitalize words or use punctuation when they email teachers anymore.

While students brush it off, assuming this rejection of cool, shorthand language is simply due to an age gap, employers argue otherwise.

Employers Warn That If American Students Continue to Use Poor Grammar, Students From Others Countries Will Snatch Up All the Jobs

CEO of iFixit, Kyle Wiens, runs one of the largest online repair companies. Wiens recently wrote an article for The Harvard Business Review titled I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. As a person who fixes social media, he takes the stand with Lisa Sopher stating that "people judge if you can't tell the difference between their, there, and they're." Companies seek future employees who will represent their company with strong credentials... not typos and numerous grammatical errors in the business letters.

Sopher agrees that if people do not know the difference between their, there, and they're, then "LOL" certainly won't fly in the workplace.

Sopher believes there must be one standard way so that everyone is on the same page of what is required and what is accepted. The problem, however, is that if students are making such horrific errors in their writing and not getting hired because of it, America may be facing a larger problem.

As American students awkwardly dabble between academic language and social language, other nations who have stronger values on language may be pulling ahead. In fact, many European students come to American to perfect English as their second language, and still get better grades than American students who speak English as their first and only language.

In fact, more than 50 percent of the European Union is bilingual. The United States is below 20 percent. Because majority of Americans already speak English, citizens do not need feel the need to learn a second language.

However, studies show that learning a second language can help you understand your own. Because of America's monolingualism, the United States is now lagging behind 16 other countries in terms of student literacy.

Over 70 percent of fourth grades in 11 major U.S. cities are reading below the grade level. Meanwhile, Asian students are thriving above and beyond simply because they have been raised by hard work, and not by iPhones.

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Younger Generations Engage In News More Globally as They Become Less Culture-Oriented by Katie54 and Lauren19

Globally, over the past two years, from 2012 to 2014, nearly every country's consumption of news has increased, while the United States has interestingly decreased in it's consumption of news. According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report for 2014, Japan leads the world with nearly 81% of it's nation in accessing the news more than once a day. The United States staggers in last place, with only 54% of the population checking several times. This rate has decreased by 6% in the last four years. Clearly, the idea of individualization is on the rise in other nations for the first time.

Young Individuals Focus More on the Self, and Less on the Overall Culture of the Nation

As Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and other social media sites take over personal devices, the individual is drawn further away from family values, community, and culture, and is engaged in more topics revolving around the self. As seen in the graphic below, Lists/Stories are the most popular type of news stories for nearly all 10 countries listed. This reason this may be so, is because the younger generations are most interested in personal narratives that are relatable, compared to dry news articles that are primarily fact. Therefore, personality is promoted through social media, and it encourages users to share their stories since more people are likely to read such things.

The Hand-Held Device Hooks Users to Individuality 

As of this year, tablets are dominating the world of technology. Users no longer take the time to sit down at a computer to engage in news and media. They enjoy gathering information on the go, which is why the smartphone has been such a success. However, the tablet now combines the screen of a computer to the accessibility of the smartphone, making it the most popular device globally. The large screen, the ability to hold in one's private hands, makes it an individualized device that hooks users to the easy access of apps, internet, photos, and social media networks. Therefore, the frequency of using these devices increase as well.

Generational Difference Effect the Global Consumption of News

While it is shocking that the United States is falling behind the most in news engagement, it is interesting to see countries like Japan and Italy are increasing their consumptions. These nations have cultures that revolve around the family, not the individual, and to see their rates of individual consumption increase, proves that the younger generations are weeding out the older generations who engaged in news through printed papers and occasionally the television. Even more importantly, a shift in gender roles changes the dynamics of consumption as well. According the slides provided below, more men are interested in global issues, why females (who are seeking more power and gender equality) are more interested in narratives, and entertainment sources that give them a voice on the Internet.

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Why Pay Attention When Its All Online: ELMS and Blackboard Hinder Students' Motivation to Listen Up In Class

We've all had that one professor who spews facts out of his mouth at the rate of ten historical dates per minute. We've all had that professor who rapidly clicks through PowerPoint slides, constantly reiterating that students are entirely responsible for knowing the information that flashes on the screen for the big upcoming exam.

As professors fly through various topics, fingers fly on keyboards. Laptops allow students to take down words, verbatim, in the shortest time possible. However, students are not actually listening to what is being said. They are listening only to transfer the verbal word into the written word--not to comprehend the significance of the information.

In Pam A. Mueller and Daniel M. Oppenheimer's recent research article, The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard, evidence proves that note-taking on laptops is detrimental to retention. In a way, students sit in class on auto-pilot, mindlessly transcribing what they hear, and not what they understand. Writing notes longhand, however, forces the student to comprehend the information for its meaning because they must quickly paraphrase.

While this lack of comprehension is problematic, and greatly affects test scores as proven by Mueller and Oppenheimer, the real problem with comprehending information stems from the perceived benefits of laptop and Internet usage.

"Perceived benefits" refers to the idealizations students have about how useful technology really is. These idealizations are usually false. Students think taking notes on laptops helps them gain more information. They believe access to the Internet in class allows them to have more resources for research.

One perceived benefit in technology in the field of education is the online learning management system, sometimes better known as Blackboard, ELMS, Canvas, etc.

What these online learning management systems do is organize assignments for each individual student. Every assignment is posted online with the due date. Instead of making an announcement to the class about the specifics of the assignment, many professors will simply tell their students to check ELMS.

ELMS becomes the hand that jots down notes.

Liyan Song, along with several other Assistant Professors and Adjunct Faculty of Towson University's Department of Educational Technology and Literacy, have recently completed research on perceived benefits of technology in education. In this study, Song and colleagues survey 111 students at a Mid-Atlantic university on how they perceived the benefits of technology, and online educational systems such as Blackboard.

One student who participated in Song's study, stated that she was extremely appreciative of "Having access to email and blackboard just about 24/7" because she could get her "questions answered in a fast pace time."

Another student proudly stated, "Using Blackboard in college [helps me] feel more organized and less stressed because if I miss a class or forget about an assignment I can pull it up on Blackboard or use it to email my professor."

Right there, in the middle of that student's quotation, is precisely the problem. She states that she relies on this information system when she misses a class or forgets about an assignment. Clearly, students no longer have the capability or motivation to remember what the homework is, so they rely on these information systems to remind them.

It all leads back Mueller and Oppenheimer's conclusion that unless a student takes the time to jot down notes, whether it pertains to the PowerPoint in the class, important verbal information, or an announcement about homework, the information will not be retained. The students will never fully understand what an "e-Portfolio assignment" is, until they read the description on ELMs. They will not remember how many math problems to complete, until they find the problems on Blackboard. The professor's voice is overridden by the information online.

However, Song's research proves that students will continue to support the installment of learning management systems. She found that 87% of the 111 students surveyed found it useful to have access to course information online.

And as a student, I agree that ELMS makes life easier. I can find assignments quickly, I save paper, and it guarantees that I know the deadline. The issue, however, is that even I feel it is acceptable to miss a class or go on Facebook while the professor is talking, because I know I can just check ELMS later to see what is going on.

Peter Bradford similarly addresses this issue in his analysis of the Blackboard system, and states that "The technology will undoubtedly become less of a goal in learning and more of a tool." Tools may be useful in helping students find easier ways to complete assignments, but if there is not goal, or motivation to learn, then the system is essentially useless.

So while Blackboard, ELMs, and Canvas may improve time management for some students, just like how laptops speed up the note-taking process, online systems that provide a description of the entire semester's curriculum ultimately lead to a lack of motivation to attend class and a drastic decrease in the desire to absorb information.