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IMing Is Creative Language, Study Says By Barry Levine August 1, 2006 1:00PM The researchers found that instant messaging is actually closer to a written version of normal conversation than to writing a letter or email. For many teenagers and pre-teens, instant messaging serves the social functions that long telephone conversations served for preceding generations of adolescents.   Related Topics Instant Messaging Cell Phones Latest News Endeavour Inspected for Damage Autism Risk for Kids of Older Mothers Go Online and You Can Save the Planet In Haiti, Relief Gaps Are Spreading U.S. To Form Climate-Change Agency if u think ur kids cant talk rite cuz of iming then we mite lol. That's the takeaway from a study conducted by researchers from the University of Toronto, to be presented this week at the annual meeting of the Linguistics Association of Canada and the United States. Rather than hurting language skills, the researchers found, instant messaging shorthand helps kids master how language works. Sali Tagliamonte, an associate professor of linguistics at Toronto who conducted the study with a student assistant, said she was "blown away" by the command of English, the creativity and the fluidity of language shown by the kids studied. IMing, cell phone texting and chatroom-speak are "an expansive new linguistic renaissance," the study says. Supports Other Studies Parents should spend their time worrying about whom the children are talking to, not about how they are using language, she said. Tagliamonte, who has four children, said she began the study when she noticed her own kids spending inordinate amounts of time instant messaging with friends. Jennifer Simpson, an analyst with Yankee Group, said that this study was supported by others showing how IM and email is helping to revive writing skills. "But the skills may vary from place to place," she said, depending on the culture. "If nothing else," she said, "IM and email increases the ability for teens to communicate across cultural as well as physical borders." Flexible Combination In the study, Tagliamonte and his assistant followed the instant messaging of 71 Toronto-based teenagers between the ages of 15 and 20. They compared their use of language in IMs and conversation, and recorded interviews with 30 of the teens. The researchers found that instant messaging is actually closer to a written version of normal conversation than to writing a letter or email. For many teenagers and pre-teens, instant messaging serves the social functions that long telephone conversations served for preceding generations of adolescents. Among other things, they also found that instant messaging is really a flexible combination of formal speech, colloquialisms and abbreviations. Acronyms, such as lol ("laughing out loud") and emotional text speech (such as "ha ha") usually represented less than 3% of instant messaging, the researchers said.   Tell Us What You Think Your Comment: Also Visit: iPad Info Center Billions of Bytes Mobile Device Now Apple Info Center TopTechWire.com Advertisement  Computing 1.   MS: Windows 7 Doesn't Hurt Battery 2.   Tips for More Windows 7 Productivity 3.   The Pros and Cons of Apple's iPad 4.   IBM Power7 Server Takes on Big Load 5.   China Cyberattacks: Pervasive Threat EPIC Objects To Google-NSA Ties Cyberattack meant to rattle Google? Average Rating: Symbian 3 Is Now Fully Open Source But mobile OS remains linked to Nokia. Average Rating: Google Attack Highlights Black Market Paying for bug info is hotly debated. Average Rating:

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