There is this myth out there that all of the communicating teens are doing with technology, whether it's instant messaging or texting, is making them less literate by writing in shorthand. The reality is that while teens do use shorthand to communicate, it's not as often as you might think and it is actually fairly inspired. They are being creative with the language in a medium that is inherently short form.

Sali Tagliamonte, a professor at the University of Toronto, studied the IM chats of 71 teenagers for two years. She charted how frequently the following acronyms were used per 100,000 words by teens:

IM term and frequency of use per 100,000 words
lol (laughing out loud) - 195
omg (oh my god!) - 107
brb (be right back) - 31
ttyl (talk to you later) - 30
btw (by the way) - 22
nvm (nevermind) - 7
gtg (gotta go) - 5
np (no problem) - 4
nm (not much) - 3
lmao (laughing my ass off) - 2

One of the teachers I interviewed for the book tipped me off to this NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) article published in 2003 about what teachers can do when these types of acronyms accidentally creep into student papers. They can teach! From the article:

"Valorie Carmer, who teaches at Grain Valley High School in Missouri, says students give her 'a perfect introduction into writing for an audience' when they use an e-mail form of abbreviation in final copies of assignments.

After fielding questions such as 'Why would you be writing to this audience?' and "What type of vocabulary would be appropriate for this audience?' she says students generally find their way to talking about how the abbreviations aren't really acceptable beyond conversations with friends.

Carmer says the effort is worth it. 'I find my students begin to think more about whom they are writing to after we have had this discussion.'

So instead of seeing teen texting or IMing away as the death knell of the English language, try viewing it as a positive and an opportunity to teach about when it's appropriate to use acronyms...and when it's not. TTYL.

P.S. Google launched Google for educators today. The site offers "a teacher's guide to 12 Google products, including basic information about each tool, examples of how educators are using them, and lesson ideas." Looks like a great classroom resource...