Methods and Links with Literacy
Bushnell, C. & Kemp, N. (2010). Children’s text messaging: abbreviations, input methods and links with literacy
Introduction
The article aims at analysis the literacy effects that the constant use of mobile phone texting has on children. The study focused on finding out whether the text messaging abbreviations has an overall effect on the literacy skills levels of children. Literacy skills in this context refer to the ability of the children to effectively spell and read. Over the years, technological has been modified and changed significantly. One such technology ids the mobile phone, it is an important communication device that has become so common in our society that children also own them. However, has the presence and use of mobile phones affected the literacy skills of the children in terms of the language use as well as the writing skills?
Discussion
According to Cupitt, 2008, the advent of mobile phones has significantly affected the ways of communication and this is especially so in children who are curious and eager to use the new technology. A survey conducted by the Australian government in 2008 also indicated that close to 90% of children in grade 7-12 reportedly send at least ten texts in every week.
The use of mobile phones for the purposes of communication has also led to the emergence of a new mobile phone writing style known as textese. According to Plaster & Wood, 2009, textese is a combination of written and spoken English as a mode of writing through the phone. The study was conducted with the aim of determining the efficiency of textese to both the writer and the readers; the pros and cons of using textese to pass on information to a reader and the effect of overuse of this form of writing on the learning of the conventional writing styles to a child.
For the study a total of 86 children with an aged range of between 10.4 to 12.4 years were used. This subject group consisted of 26boys and 60 girls all in either grade 5or 6 in Australian schools. To be considered as a participant of the study the subjects have to be fluent in the English language and also use English when texting. The materials for the study involved the sue of four text messages in which each was written in the conventional English language and also in the textese style that involved the use of numerical and short forms of words.
Each of the subjects used in the study was tested through the administrations of a literary and mobile task. The phone task involved giving the participant two messages to read and two other to write depending on whether they considered themselves as texters and non texters. Those that acknowledge that they were texters were asked to conform whether they were predictive or multi-pressers. Determination of such information enabled the researcher to preset the mobile phone according to the style that the texter prefers. For the reading task the participant s were asked to read out two messages where one was in textese and the other was in the conventional style.
The study came up with the finding that most participants use texting as the main form of messaging, over 60% use the predictive method whereas close to 40% use the multi-press method thereby confirming that most pre-teen Australians use text messaging as the main form of communication and that the predictive entry is fast gaining popularity. It was also found our that many of the children took a longer time to read through a textese message as compared to reading a message written in the conventional style.
The slow reading was experienced across all the ages regardless of the experience of the knowledge and the use of textese. The speed between the text users that preferred to use textese and those that preferred to use the conventional English method was surprisingly no different as they texted at almost the same pace. The texting method that the children used however determined the performance of the children.
Children who preferred the predictive method of texting were twice as fast at writing both the conventional and the textese form of messages as compared to those that preferred the multi-press method as well as those that were non-texters. The study also brought forth the discovery that exposure to textese doesn’t improved the fluency in reading. This was so as it was found out that the multi-texters were slower at reading the conventional messages and the textese, they were however fast in composition of texts than non texters.
Conclusion
Textism has gradually gained popularity among the children of Australia. This is so for reasons such as save on space therefore saving on money as well as saving on time. However the use of textese does not affect the literacy ability of the children. Therefore contrary to popular fear that the use of textese would affect the literary skills in terms of spelling and writing skills the findings did not show any significant difference.
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