'Teenspeak' youngsters are becoming unemployable due to limited vocabulary

If the youth is the future then perhaps it is the old farts who are lacking communication skills?

While it may or may not be true that teenagers today have a smaller vocabulary when compared to teenagers a decade or two ago, a study based on teen's blogs doesn't reveal anything about their vocabulary whatsoever. In a personal blog a person doesn't generally tend to express themselves as if they were writing a novel or a scientific report. It is a quick way to vent the frustrations or joy of the day and it is treated as just that.

I wouldn't contribute someone's lack of vocabulary to television or to any form of new media except perhaps as much these outlets detract from reading, which varies from person to person. I know that I personally didn't begin reading for pleasure until after I graduated high school.

Either way, it may just be that people are developing their vocabulary later in life. Vocabulary grows out of necessity, whether it be social circumstance or simply that someone doesn't know a particular word they have read and they look it up because they want to know.

I suppose we could drill 6-12 year olds with vocabulary quizzes, but I don't know that what would be accomplished would be worth much.

Well perhaps people could try actually talking to the "yoof" of today rather than highlight how different they are and further alienate them

Blah, blah, blah. They're young, let them speak in whatever drivelling patois they prefer. They'll grow out of it. Why the nannying?

I have a bad feeling that the vocabulary range in terms of American teens numbers far less than those in the UK. Just a hunch...

Brevity is the soul of wit.

These old folk be reading too much.

Wow, I laughed at a majority of the comments made here. You ppl are acting like the world is ending and the youth will die and shrivel up because of a lack of english.

I have one of the worst vocabularies among the people I know, and in school. However it has no effect. It doesnt effect my knowledge of the world, it doesnt effect my abilty to write amazing speeches and essays, it doesnt effect my ability to socialize. I do all of it with a limited vocabulary. I think what is more important is if the youth are able to think about issues deeply, care about issues deeply, try to learn things, etc... If someone wants to have an amazing vocabulary then so be it, good for them. If someone doesnt care about having a good vocabulary and instead cares more about human rights, then so be it, good for them.

why are they calling this "teenspeak?"

They should call it "duckspeak" like in 1984. George Orwell theorized that people would be dumbed down to a point of being so inarticulate, that all they do is quack.

operation: dumb it down

I'z totes rezentin' dis article. S'like me m8z n' i no tunz of wurdz. plenty, ye? Fooks sake. Booyakasha. *snaps fingers*

LAUGHING MY FUCKING ASSS OFF!

read a book.
learns you some shit.

This is a good thing, i don't want to have to speak txtese to order a meal at a restaurant. communication is key

time to learn and seek out answers for yourself...because you have proof that your school system or government cant keep up with the times...1LOVE...

More ammunition to teach vocabulary to my students!

Modern public education has been reduced to an idiotic set of nationally standardized zombie tests---behold "No Child's Behind Left"

800 words. LOL My German Sheperd (RIP) understood at least 100!

I HATE talking to my husband niece on the phone. That girl sounds stupid as hell.

Isn't the girl in the pic from Doctor Who?

This is surprising?

One thing to note that this is a critique on how kids are using made up words. What do they decide, to make new stupid word called teenspeak because they are to lazy to write out the phrase "under literate teen" This kind of laziness was obviously rewarded with a job.

Here is a thought. You ever think how that it can affect a kid's confidence by constantly badgering they way they talk naturally. As well, as the way being this rigid about vocabulary hinders our ability to talk across communities and across country. There could be a benefit to recognizing and respecting a new development in language rather than slapping it down because it does not agree with convention.

Especially to those where vocabulary and use of words come naturally, try to put yourself into the shoes of someone who has enormously useful skills in say, Math, Science, Construction or Art, that, also has difficulties articulating speech.

The underlying message here looks to be that conventional industries and business are completely out of touch with what our needs going to future are.

It seems to be more that the amount of work you do is more important than the quality of your work. Until the powers that employ us decide that quality is far more important than just shear growth this will be the case. In the US this translates to a cheaper less-educated work force. This is no accident.

i aint bovvered.

what is limited vocabulary?

It needs to be said. ROFL-copter.

This is one of those lowest common denominator stories that by nature is popular among everyone that’s not a part of the minority of individuals with actual speech problems. It’s really a sensational piece pure and simple. While everyone is freaking out about the dangers of teenspeak which is really just text-speak what are we doing to stop all those other instances where we abbreviate words or suspend the rules of grammar in an effort to make a point a little quicker?

Really, I don’t see anyone petitioning the government to stop the dastardly process of court room reporting. What about Morse code, and all those emailed and letters ending in XOXOXOXO or SWAK. Come on now it’s not that big of a deal. Languages evolve and part of that process includes trying out things which may or may not be for the betterment of the system as a whole.

If there is a problem here I’d say it lies with the argument that anything new and not submissive the rules and regulations of our holy grammar code is wrong and STUPID. Wow way to be progressive people.

Right, for anyone who doesn't know, the Daily Mail is Britains version of Fox news in terms of accurate reporting. Just so you know

Jean Gross is a politician who is shaking things up so she can get noticed. She uses factoids and statistics that aren't exactly scientific.

It's great that she advocates parents becoming more actively engaged in their children's lives. But the truth, from a purely scientific standpoint, is that there is no connection between television and speech development problems.

Another issue that is overlooked in this article is that teens change their speech style depending in the context of the situation- we all do. A teen is going to use teen-speak to other teens, but maybe a more standard speech to adults or authority figures.

Also, about the 800-word vocabulary of teens- it doesn't really mean anything. Notice how she fails to compare that number (800) to the number of words an employed adult uses. She can't, because we don't have that number. There are no accurate methodologies that can tell us how many different words we use each day. Try and find some statistics on the internet- you won't be able to. 800 different words per day may be perfectly normal for an average adult.

I believe every word of this. When acronyms are the only things kids can spell properly, there’s a problem.

Orwell was right...

This speaks to many problems with our system as a whole. The standards are getting lower and kids are passing with no effort. There's too much tv watching as a whole as well, something that I'm guilty of. Rather than reading a book and actively sounding out words and sentences, teens are passively consuming the pretty colors and sounds coming from their tvs. Also, communication is accomplished through texts rather than good old fashioned talking.

I went to a Jesuit Catholic College Preparatory High School, so it was like going to college for four years of high school. My favorite class was English and Creative writing. My teacher, Mr. Caldwell, loved Emily Dickinson and Edgar Alan Poe. We had to memorize all the prepositions in alphabetical order and recite them verbally in class as a test.

Aboard, about, above, across, after, against, along, amid, among, around, at, before, below, beneath, besides, etc...etc....you get the idea.

We all hated it, but this teacher was so effective, and I am convinced that having him as a teacher in my life enriched my writing skills immensely.

Thanks for posting this article, as if we need a reason for current users to feel even more self righteous.

Technology, is both to blame and yet, such a huge score for being able to properly learn to speak correctly? This site, for example for the most part, has some-what intelligent people on here, who do their research and have the ability to speak in proper English...... thanks to spell check.
But, at the same time, there are SO many shitty websites out there, encouraging kids, teens. to keep acting like some of the MORONS we see representing their generation.

Blame texting and chat acronyms. 800 words is pathetic, but not hard to believe, seeing as how I see kids every day at school and wonder how they even graduated high school.

^ That is very true calm...

I think for an internet generation guy who is only 18, I have a quite expansive vocabulary, and I use it a good amount...

On the flipside, English majors have always been unemployable. :)

As a recent high school teacher, I was appalled when I first saw the way many students are writing nowadays. They'd turn in papers loaded with text abbreviation and jargon, and it seems that not enough teachers are making the point that this illiterate style of writing has no place in the classroom. When I mentioned it, so many kids seemed confused to hear that writing "4 u" instead of "for you" is incorrect. Its not just the slang and abbreviation - it's the the fact that they seem unaware that this isn't correct English, and that they are being perceived as mildly illiterate. The students who would turn in work that WASN'T riddled with "Teen Speak" were hailed as "advanced," when in actuality, they were simply aware enough to know that there is a difference between text-speak and literate English.

I remember thinking, on more than one occasion, "How are these kids going to get into college or land a job, when they don't even know how to write in complete sentences at ages 16, 17, 18..."

I knew this text generation would catch up to us. So much for our the future of our nation...

See the movie, Idiocracy, and you can see where the world may be heading in the form of education.

Personally i think this may have began or at least gotten bigger with text messages, first it was shortening words so you could fit more conversation in a text and that it was easier cos it was shorter to write, but now i see people typing this way on facebook etc, and there is just no excuse for such lazyness

that's how we went into the dark ages the first time!!!! :O

Sorry to always be the bearer of bad news... but it's gonna get worse (unless drastic changes happen). Widespread stupidity WILL eventually kill us (in subtle ways), even though it's fun right now. Seriously... we're de-evolving and it will eventually stop being funny.

The most frustrating examples of this are in college classes. Sometimes I'm amazed that some of my fellow classmates even made it into college. When these people go up to present or speak to the class or the professors their lack of sofistication in speech is evident.

Even foreign students (which are numerous where I attend) speak in a more coherent way than some of my fellow classmates. I see it as a sign of shallowness of the mind because in my opinion, the way you speak and write is indicative of the way that you think.

I feel bad because I feel that sometimes this makes me elitist or an asshole. It just pisses me off that these people are in college and yet they still have trouble putting together their thoughts into coherent sentences.

I think it starts inside your mind. If you have a simple, stupid mind, then your sentences and your speech will reflect that, unless of course you have an accent, have recently learned the language or have a speech impediment.

y is that such a big problem. r they not learning enuf in school... rofl

OMG! WTF?

Omigod, I like, was on Current and they were all, we can't like work, because, I'm all unemployable, because I like talk weird. Isn't that like, stupid? But like, who cares right? They're like in England or something.

Well after a drug-test and a background check you are left with a bunch of stupid pricks with no drive a desire to break out of their preconceived perimeters. Not to mention public education is in shambles and an education is not respected enough for proper funding..

I don't think that blogs are the best things to study. Their actual speech may be more complex - or not. The word count would be quite different anyway, with "like" and "ya know" topping the oral list.

what a hella wicked pissah!

I can understand how shortened sentences could be a hindrance. As a rather "mature" adult, I have to take the time to disseminate what some young people are saying because of the shortened speech pattern.
Since most people that are doing the hiring are probably my age or somewhat younger, I can understand the frustration of not being able to understand right away.
Speech and words change with society. The word "gay" used to mean a happy person, male or female. That is the nature of words, and all must keep up with the times in that respect.
However, shortened speech patterns, some slang and other "new words" should not be used a professional setting.

Blogs and "transcribed speech" cover a pretty broad range of English grammar and spelling; so I'm hoping they took a balanced sample from each genre. Judging from the top used words I'd say they limited their selections to the UK area.

Across the pond, most of the Seniors in my high school English class would stumble over simple things like commas or semicolons. Not to mention the molasses pace that ensued if a word consisted of more than three syllables.

There was a brief spot on the evening news brushing off "1337 speak" saying it has no negative effects on vocabulary; even saying it aided language skills... The study was sponsored by AT&T. I jest. Still I feel as more services like Twitter (which encourage compounded speech) become popular, this trend will only exacerbate.

Maybe I'm missing something, but don't these kids have to take English classes?

The article even says they can understand the words. I'm sure I don't use 40,000 words in my everyday vocabulary, either.

Let them grow ,and they will eventually learn something new! that happened to me, to my uncles,parents, I mean everybody! it's the circle of life! XD