Effects of Text Messaging on Teen Literacy - Essay Example

Effects of Text Messaging on Teen Literacy In all campuses and high schools, it is normal to walk past people stuck on their mobile phones, typing with great speed. All over the globe, everyone who owns a mobile phone has sent a text message at least once. Study from the center of science education at the Sheffield University have unearthed found ninety percent of teenagers own mobile phones. Ninety- six percent of them use their mobile phones for texting. Americans use mobile phones for texting than to make phone calls or for browsing. Teenagers report that texting is their most preferred mode of communication. Mobile phones have made a huge impact on how people communicate. Nowadays, teenagers no longer use their phones to make calls to their family and friends, they use text messaging (Coe and Oakhill). The use of text messaging services has grown rapidly since the year 1992 when the first text message was sent. In the year 2011, sixty percent of people from all over the globe were active in text messaging; this is a mind blowing 4.2 billion people. Teenagers form the largest share of text message users, and this has created concern for parents, teachers, and linguists who claim that texting has affected the students school work. In the United States, teachers are of the belief that students are making countless mistakes in essays and other writing assignments because of the abbreviation language style common in text messages. Pew Internet and the American Life Project found in their survey that sixty-four percent of teenagers have admitted to using some text messaging abbreviation style in academic writing (Coe and Oakhill). Positive Effects of Texting on Teenage Literacy Texting has positive and adverse impacts on the literacy skills of students. Educators claim that texting has adverse effects on the writing skills of their pupils. The issue of text messaging on teen literacy has received a lot of attention over the years. It is now common that "textisms" have adverse effects on teenage literacy, but some studies have shown that they have positive effects depending on the situation they are employed in. With much of the media attention being directed on the adverse impact of texting, some studies have shown that texting has positive effects on the students. One study showed that the more the abbreviated words were in use, the more the verbal reasoning tended to be. The study showed a clear relation between textism and verbal reasoning. Another study conducted on British students revealed that proficient literacy skills were used to decipher text messages; this shows that text messaging is leading to a development of literacy skills on teenagers. According to Drouin and Davis, text messages are associated with emoticons, acronyms and removing of excess grammar and spelling parts. Powell and Dixon noted that exposure to textisms led to positive effects on spelling. In their study, they gave their participants two spelling tests. One test was administered before the participants were exposed to textisms and the other after being exposed to textisms. The test administrators found that scores on the second test were higher after the exposure to textisms. Kemp and Busnell also run their study and noted that their participants were not any faster at composing messages than the usual English communication. In this study, participants took part in a literacy test and a textism portion. The members read out loud the two text messages and wrote two as well. In the writing phase, they typed the two spoken messages. The result highlighted that those who did not text had better performances than the ones who texted. It leads to the suggestion that textisms do not have adverse effects on the literacy skills and that textisms are only used for faster communication. According to Kemp and Bushnell, teenagers who type and decode text messages have high skills in vocabulary awareness and literacy. It is also noted that using various abbreviation techniques shows that the individual understands language phonemes. In a literacy test, the effects of textisms are just as useful to perceiving the right word spellings before a spelling assessment. Texting gets teenagers to improve their language skills. It is also helpful to write about the possible texting benefits because it gets adolescents and children to start writing. There exists an apparent relation between texting and literacy since texting incorporates abbreviations that depend on phonological awareness. Textisms on teenagers makes writing more efficient, and as we move forward they may no longer be thought of as wrong since our language is always changing. Teenagers also note texting as just an informal mode of writing that is similar to salutations and phone calls. Negative Effects of Text Messaging Evidence has also been found to show that texting has negative implications for teenage literacy skills. Almost all individuals of Thirteen to Nineteen years of age in the United States own a mobile phone. Adolescents use their mobile devices for texting purposes. When composing these texts they ignore proper capitalization and punctuation, these two aspects form an integral part of good writing. A study whereby participants were placed in a classroom for the test administrators to gather information on mobile phone use in the classroom highlighted the negatives. A survey carried out before shown that participants were expecting to lose around thirty percent on an assessment while texting, surprisingly, they lost around that predicted mark. Teenagers also agreed on the survey that using mobile phones to text is distracting but continue using them while in class. Students also noted that they would perform much better if they were not texting (Rawan et. al) In that same study, students who engaged in texting took longer to read a passage than their colleagues. (Rawan et. al) The test administrators noted a thirty-seven percent decline in students who engaged in texting. They noted that time spent while texting is correlated to low test scores. The information clearly shows that texting in the classroom is not conducive to learning the information presented to students. Teenage students are consistently turning in their academic work with textese in them. In a study to find out whether using phonetic language creates a rise in adverse literacy effects, students were asked to transcribe between textisms and common English (Rawan et. al). There were missed words, mistranslated textisms and misspellings while transcribing to English. It shows that teenage students who text more have worse results on their non-verbal measures. Some of the students failed to alternate between normal English and text speak while in class. It is the main reason educators note the adverse effects of texting while learning, students who regularly text score less on literacy tests and non-verbal reasoning (Rawan et. al) Students who constantly text are not able to distinguish between formal and informal contexts and are using the texteses on wrong instances. Texting in teenagers is signaling the death of the English language and even threaten social progress. It is discovered that text messages sent by teenagers are harder to read, and people make errors while attempting to read them (Verheijen). Students who use such techniques are relying on more on auto-correct features while typing proper English. Punctuation on students who use instant messaging is almost non-existent; they no longer have the knowledge of proper punctuation. They no longer use capital letters in their rightful place. Teachers are constantly complaining because papers are turned in with improper punctuation, full of grammar mistakes and contain characters like #,& and @. According to students, these mistakes are unintentional since they are used to seeing instant messaging lingo. Use of computers is also affecting how teenagers and young students communicate. Handwriting is becoming worse, spelling, grammar, and punctuation is becoming concerned. This has the potential of destroying writing in America since ninety percent of Americans have computers. Phones and computers automatically correct spelling mistakes, and this affects how students punctuate, spell and handwrite. Text messaging and updates on the social network have character limitations, and the majority of users are teenagers who are obviously in school. They are introducing these writing habits into schools thinking that shortened responses get the job done (Verheijen). Conclusion Texting will continue to be a daily engagement to teenagers with the majority of these texts containing textisms. Research has shown the negative and positive effects of teenagers using text messaging. The primary concern is that students are failing to note the times to write formally or use textisms. More research needs to be carried out to find concrete answers on their effects on proper grammar. But for now, it would be wise to encourage teenagers to stop using textisms. Works Cited Coe, J.E.L., and J.V. Oakhill. ‘Txtn Is Ez F U No H2 Rd’: The Relation Between Reading Ability And Text-Messaging Behaviour. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 27.1 (2011): 4-17. Web. Drouin, Michelle, and Claire Davis. R U Txting? Is The Use Of Text Speak Hurting Your Literacy?.Journal of Literacy Research 41.1 (2009): 46-67. Web. Kemp, N., and C. Bushnell. Childrens Text Messaging: Abbreviations, Input Methods And Links With Literacy. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 27.1 (2011): 18-27. Web. Powell, D., and M. Dixon. Does SMS Text Messaging Help Or Harm Adults Knowledge Of Standard Spelling?. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 27.1 (2011): 58-66. Web. Rawat, Surya Rashmi et al. Impact Of Texting Over Teen Literacy And Social Communication.Journal of Knowledge & Communication Management 3.2 (2013): 121. Web. Verheijen, Lieke. The Effects Of Text Messaging And Instant Messaging On Literacy. English Studies94.5 (2013): 582-602. Web. Read More