Some experts believe that slang is acceptable in spoken language, but never in the written form, although a certain amount of slang keeps the text from being too academic.

Truly, the way students communicate with each other has evolved, if not changed, over the years due to an overdose of tweeting, facebooking, and texting.  The modern slangs that students use while interacting in the social media are creeping into our classrooms making students terrible writers.

Slang terms and text-speak such as IDK (I do not know), SMH (shaking my head), and BTW (by the way) have become a common sight on student assignments––flummoxing some teachers who are unsure of how to fix this growing problem.

Several teachers have reported a dramatic decline in the writing abilities of their students due to their constant interaction in the social media. “They do not capitalize words or use punctuation anymore,” resents a teacher with 10 years of in-class experience. “Even in emails to teachers or on writing assignments, any word longer than one syllable is now abbreviated to one,” she adds.

Although advocates of slang words may view this trend as an evolution of language, some senior professors have expressed their disapproval, calling the trend “a broken level of communication.”

Colleges today are complaining about getting admissions essays of the kind they have never seen before. Admissions officers who encounter these kind of essays––deeply rooted in this technological culture of cutoff sentences where you are writing as if you speak––are simply tossing them aside while evaluating.

According to a survey of 700 students in the 12–17 age group, 85 percent of the respondents reported using a form of electronic communication, whether through instant messaging, text messaging, or social media.

So what do students have to say about this? “Growing up in a technological era, we students don’t actually realize that we are using language shortcuts in the classroom,” quips a rising senior at a high school.  “When we’re using all this social media, we’re not thinking about spelling words right, so naturally that’s going to translate into the classroom.”

Students are also of the notion that teachers who are older and are not familiar with all the social media devices are the ones that are really bothered by this trend, whereas the younger generation of teachers do not actually mind it.

Whatever is said and done, bemoaning the technology that facilitates the use of slang will not help the case at all. Instead, educators need to consider new teaching techniques that clearly delineate the parameters of formal language usage. For example, allow students opportunities to engage academically both formally and informally (say through the use of Twitter or texting).