Do you think it is a good idea that people improve their in chatrooms?

[Aleaf]

Recently i stumbled on an english chatroom where many chatters said they came there in the hope of improving their english.

But i found they spoke very easy english and greeted each other repeatedly.Ask the questions they might have asked for tens of times. There were no real topics. Whhat's more, i found there were lots of both grammar and spelling mistakes without being corrected.

What is the use of this kind of chatting?

If there is anyone who is for chatrooms, could you please put forward some advice about chit chat in english chatrooms?

aleaf
_________________
Try to change youself before you try to change others.

[Englishuser]

Hi aleaf,

You should note that certainly not all who chat in English chatrooms are there to improve their English. Some chat just for fun. If the purpose of the conversation is to get to know other people and their ideas then it cleary doesn't matter if grammar and spelling mistakes go uncorrected.

If you really want to improve your English language skills then a chatroom might not be the best place for you. Chatroom English is not the same thing as Standard English, and even native English speakers often write in a very informal and slangish way when they chat on the Net.

EU

[Aleaf]

hehehe But when i asked why they came here , most of them told me they hoped to improve their english

Many chatters there are nonative speakers , chatting there are of no meaning because they can't express themselves effectively and clearly.
_________________
Try to change youself before you try to change others.

[Mkhraim]

Hi there,

I was an old chatter, i was doing chit chat in 2000, 2001 & 2002 and then i left the all thing for me it was a good experiment that improved my English. I learned there many things such as words, shortcuts and many things else. it give me the way to speak English not the grammar.

My friend you should not depend on chatters and English chatrooms to improve yourself in English. I think reading a book or newspaper will help you to enrich your English by words, and if you look wisely you will find the grammar used within the text written there.

That depend on what you are looking for.

[Jamie (K)]

In the ESL classes I teach, I find that it's very easy to recognize the writing of people who spend too much time in chatrooms. They learn a lot of bad spelling, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary from them, and they fail their writing classes, because the habits are so hard to break. If I see that a student's sample paragraph at the beginning of the semester is written in chatroom English, I can bet with near certainty that he or she will fail the course at the end of the term. It's almost a law of nature.

I also notice that both of the posters on this thread who say they have spent time in chatrooms, including you, Aleaf, make fatal chatroom-style errors that would make them fail a writing exam where I teach. One of them is constantly writing i when you're supposed to write I.

You need to follow the advice of our Jordanian friend above, and use books and newsmedia to improve your English. Stay out of the chatrooms.