Valisno to students: Text right, learn right
May 23, 2010 12:39 pm
MANILA, May 23 — Education Secretary Mona Valisno wants teachers to advise students to practice their writing and communications skills in English when texting to their friends and families.
"How can we improve our English writing, and of course, speaking skills when we do shortcuts in composing text messages?" Valisno said.
"Now that schools are about to open, we want our students to write properly. Practice makes perfect – spelling, composition, grammar – if they do it right always, they will become better at it," she added.
DepEd was alarmed with the effect of “shortcut” texting. Valisno said they are receiving reports of some students failing in reading, writing and comprehension skills.
Due to its increasing use and the call from parents and other observers to curb this method of communication, Valisno ordered teachers to inculcate in their students correct composition of messages.
"I understand that shortcut texting helps save on cost of SMS. Short messaging service is intended for delivering concise messages and not full conversation. This means you can properly compose a 160 character message in full spelling to get your message across," Valisno added.
"Instead of composing long conversational messages, why don’t you meet up? Get some sunlight in you skin; enjoy the outdoors," she said.
Another cause for concern for parents are the "jejemon" trend.
The term jejemon was coined by joining "jeje," that came from "hehe" where "h" was replaced with "j" and "mon" from the cartoon show Pokemon meaning monster.
Website urbandictionary.com defines jejemons as those "who managed to subvert the English language to the point of incomprehensibility and online lynch squads." The term "jejemon" has more than 500,000 hits in an Internet search engine.
“Any incorrect way of composing messages is a concern for us,” Valisno said. (PNA) scs/HCT
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