Is e-communication a bad thing?

A number of people, especially language experts, maintain a rather pessimistic view towards the influence of these newly emerged words and structures on formal usage like education. Yet, is it really the case? Is electronic communication necessarily a bad thing?

There does not have much statistical evidence to support such a claim that cyber language is the culprit. In the educational perspective, the most concerned group would probably be young students who have the most time to spend on e-communication as compared to other age groups. However, when it comes to formal education, they seem to be quite aware of the inappropriateness of using these kinds of cyber language in formal situations. For instance, they will not use emoticons or Romanized form of Cantonese in their English composition and examinations.

According to the Candidates’ Performance issued by Hong Kong Examination and Assessment Authority every year after the end of open examinations (i.e. Hong Kong Certificate Examination, and Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination), examiners indeed recommend students to take advantage of the advanced technology nowadays and use media to broaden their horizon. Especially, these could enhance their knowledge in current affairs happening in society, though examiners did emphasize that students should increase their exposure to ‘authentic’ English.

Furthermore, it may actually be a good thing to know the words since the rationale behind e-communication is largely based on efficiency. For example, during the listening section in open examinations, candidates could take advantage of these abbreviations and terms to help jot down the most information out of the recording.

The few of the negative impacts of e-communication on education would be the tendency of making more spelling mistakes. It is mostly due to the presence of auto-correct function in many electronic devices and computer software, such as iPhone, and Microsoft Word. This could lead to a reliance on electronics and, hence, the language users will start to forget the spelling of the words.