Clarity and Functional Grammar

Over the years communication has changed. In these times we are now able to speak with people who are miles away in a matter of minutes. Digital literacy has also changed with the help of the social network, Twitter. Twitter allows its users to express thoughts, share opinions and gives them a platform to share news. Digital consumers can now do things they have never imagined doing and it helps in many ways. Twitter doesn't allow their users to do certain things, such as editing tweets, this action causes digital consumers to be more understanding with mistakes in what others write. Twitter has certain restrictions that indeed help its users become more digitally forgiving.

Users aren’t allowed to modify their tweets, and mistakes and “text” speaking are meant to be the norm. Research has shown that text type speaking is linked to vigorous writing and reading skills. Evidently, just as languages are things people can be fluent in, digital consumers can be ultimately adapting the language of “text”. As times continue to change, it has become harder and harder for students to learn the traditional way. “Eighty percent of students are bringing devices to school and using social media to create, collaborate, connect, and self-direct their learning (Richardson and Mancabelli; Bender and Waller, 2011).” According to Stacia Beverly Johnson’s research on ‘Reaping the benefits of using Twitter in advanced Language learning’, Twitter does foster an engaging learning environment.

She ongoingly states, “No matter what was assigned on Twitter, students were attaining mastery levels as they wholeheartedly participated in answering questions, checking replies from tweet-pals or adding a line to a collaborative story (Johnson, 2015).” With the constant use of Twitter in many day-to-day lives, “reading and writing skills must be impacted; whether the affect be beneficial or unfavorable (Swan, 2017).” Teachers believe Twitter is either a good learning tool that can be used both in and out of school, or it is a problem that encourages the use of improper grammar and spelling (Swan, 2017). “Of roughly 1200 Tweets collected from these five participants, the overwhelming majority demonstrated a concern for writing clarity and functional grammar. Two participants described a ‘perfectionistic’ attention to creating tweets, including deleting tweets that needed to be edited, tweets with grammatical errors.

Participants claimed they paid more attention to ‘correct’ grammatical forms (Gleason, 2016, p.43).” Adapting to current forms of literacy holds its pros and with this, the tables can be turned to show the face of the cons. Consumers around the ages of twelve and twenty have partaken in the steady decrease of reading and writing skills (Adolescent Literacy, 2009). Consumers are able to adapt to older styles of literacy with newer forms of digital media. Kayla Swan in her findings on ‘Social Media’s Impact on Adolescent Literacy Development’ states, “Due to the increase of multimodal text, students must now develop skills in all areas of literacy, both past and present. Even so, students are engaged with modern literacy exercises more than ever through their personal use of social media (Swan,2017).”

Twitter can be used in an academic setting, but it may also be used outside of academics. Whether the children notice or not they’re in fact learning. Media communications having a negative effect on spelling and grammar has been confirmed to not be the case. “Data suggests that children require thinking about spelling to select appropriate abbreviations, which ultimately enhances phonological skills. Also, students have to spell accurately to make use of the predictive spelling tools on their devices (Alverman & Harris, 2016, p.221)”.

Cite this page