1. Txt Spk
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Answer the following questions in the forum of the unit:
- How often do you use your mobile phone?
- What do you use your mobile for?
- Do you have a smartphone?
- How often do you send text messages?
- What other communication apps do you use?
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Imagen en Flickr de Slightly Everything bajo licencia CC
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Today's electronic means of communication have moved slang from the realm of the spoken word to the written word with a greater degree of acceptance.
With so much of our daily communications taking place online these days - and that doesn't include just e-mail, but text-messaging on increasingly teenier devices - it seems everyday English has been reduced to a code of accepted abbreviations, mysterious combinations of numbers and letters, and even symbols masquerading as facial expressions. :) Often in all lowercase letters.
SMS language or textese (also known as txt-speak, txtese, chatspeak, txt, txtspk, txtk, txto, texting language, txt lingo, SMSish, txtslang,or txt talk) is a term for the abbreviations and slang most commonly used due to the necessary brevity of mobile phone text messaging, in particular the widespread SMS (Short Message Service) communication protocol. Some similarities and overlaps in properties and style can be found within SMS language and Internet-based communication such as email and instant messaging.
Certain numbers, "2" and "4" in particular, play starring roles - replacing, respectively, "to" and "for"-but the far more intriguing development is the embrace of the number "3" for the letter "e" ("b3" and "th3"), and the number "8" for the sound it makes ("gr8" and "l8r" for "great" and "later").
While some of these brave new acronyms can actually be self-explanatory ("u" for "you" and "ur" for "your") or fairly logical ("b4" for "before"), or can highlight the sounds the letters make ("qt" for "cutie" and "cu" for "see you") or act as abbreviations ("cuz" for "because"), or can be just straightforward acronyms ("bff" for "best friends forever"), some do border on strange ("peeps" for "people").
And, in one ironic case, the slang term exceeds its shorter ancestor ("i luv u" is now "i heart u").
Some terms that have been in circulation for quite a while are pretty recognizable: "lol" ("laughing out loud"), "btw" ("by the way"), and "imho" ("in my humble opinion").
Some, meanwhile, are bafflingly enigmatic: "iykwim" ("if you know what I mean"), "mtfbwy" ("may the force be with you"), and "wysiwyg" ("what you see is what you get").
At times, this alphabet-soup vernacular feels downright dizzying to everyone but linguists and computer geeks. But it's difficult to argue with its speed - or even its necessity - when forced to use a toothpick-sized contraption to reply to an office memorandum while driving a car (not recommended or legal but, unfortunately, all too common).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_speak
Listen to David Crystal, world-famous English language expert,on It's Only a Theory, defending the proposition that texting is good for the English language:
And here is an article from The Telegraph that asserts that texting is causing a decline in standards of grammar and spelling in teenagers.
Rellenar huecos
Match the text speak expressions with their meanings.
A step ahead
Play the game Mobile Madness to learn some more text speak.
Then, Visit a text speak Website with includes more than 5,090 English language acronyms in use.
Finally do this British Council listening activity on mobile phones.