Prof David Crystal - Text & tweets - myths and realities

Prof David Crystal’s work is well known to most people with an interest in the English language.   As either author or editor of over one hundred books relating to the language he is perhaps the ultimate authority in the field. In the interview featured below Crystal’s relaxed style and unassuming manner are at the forefront as he discusses the impact of texts and tweets on written language use.

Crystal is actually quite positive about their impact and discusses findings relating the number of texts a student sends and their attainment in formal testing – contrary to conventional wisdom texting is actually positively related to school achievement.   He also discusses the use of abbreviation in electronic texts with a benign smile – and why not, if, as he says, Queen Victoria used to write “c u later”,  what’s all the fuss about?

At 30 minutes in duration this is not a short session – but it is well worth grabbing a coffee and listening to an expert with research to support his statements.