The rising popularity of text messaging on mobile phones poses a threat
to writing
standards among Irish schoolchildren,
an Irish education
commission says.
The frequency of errors in grammar and punctuation has become a serious
concern, the State Examination Commission said in a report after
reviewing last year\''s exam performance by 15-year-olds.
"The emergence of the mobile phone and the rise of text
messaging as a
popular means of communication would appear to have impacted on
standards of writing as evidenced in the responses of
candidates," the
report said, according to Wednesday\''s Irish Times.
"Text messaging, with its use of phonetic spelling and little or no
punctuation, seems to pose a threat to traditional conventions in
writing."
The report laments that, in many cases, candidates seemed "unduly
reliant on short sentences, simple tenses and a limited vocabulary."
In 2003, Irish 15-year-olds were among the top 10 performers in an
international league table of literacy standards compiled by the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.