The language teenagers use has come under fire from a government adviser in the UK, following a survey by that found that young people limited their day-to-day speech to a vocabulary of 800 words on average.

Citing the research, Jean Gross, the newly appointed "children's communication tsar," said that teenagers were "spending more time communicating through electronic media and text messaging, which is short and brief."

"We need to help today's teenagers understand the difference between their textspeak and the formal language they need to succeed in life — 800 words will not get you a job."

Professor Tony McEnery, a professor at Lancaster University in England, carried out the survey on behalf of Tesco, which is now one of Britain's largest employers. The supermarket chain's CEO Sir Terry Leahy was concerned about "woefully low standards" in schools.

However, linguist David Crystal is critical of the media coverage of the issue, describing reports as "nonsense."

"People know and use far more words than they think they do," the popular broadcaster, author and academic wrote on his blog. "It's totally fallacious to think that the words you elicit from someone on a particular day or from a particular sample is an accurate index of all the words they know or use."

Crystal suggested that teenagers most likely had the required vocabulary, but were unable to use it in formal contexts, such as job interviews.

"Acquiring the lexicon of areas outside your immediate situation is an important index of educational achievement," he said, quoting the Reader's Digest maxim that "It pays to increase your word power."

Miss Gross, whose official title is Communication Champion, will launch a nationwide campaign in 2011, focusing on language skills to help teenagers succeed in the classroom and in the workplace.

10 January 2010