Justification
It is
evident that texting has taken over a part of the social life of teenagers
since it presents an advantage in promoting fast and frequent communication.
Previous researches on this topic have been conducted on a wider scope that involved
social media messaging. Thus, narrowing down to text messaging and teens will
reveal a clear picture of the situation on ground. Also, since text messaging
may be official or unofficial, it is necessary that research concerning this
topic targets a specific social group. Therefore, there is need to closely
investigate the effects of using text in the literacy levels of teenagers.
Background
research
Text
messaging became popular by a student who worked in Nokia Corporation and found
this to be the easiest way of quick communication without waiting for a longer time.
With increased exposure, people started to use text messaging for delivering
all kind of messages amongst their social circle. Texting has different kinds
of effects on literacy. It stands a high chance of negatively influencing the
writing skills, verbal communication skills, vocabulary level, and phonetic
language of most adolescents.
Data
collection procedures
Since
the research focused on effects of text messages on literacy, I chose to
collect data from a school setting for an increased accuracy of the findings.
To collect enough data for my research, I conducted a survey with a total of 15
copies of questionnaires. Each copy of the questionnaires contained 10
questions that were to be answered by both teachers and students. The reason I
included teachers was to ensure that I collect as much information as possible
especially since teachers also experience the effects of texting as they
interact with students both verbally and in writing.
The
results and interpretation of the findings.
Results
From
the research, 20% of teenagers send text messages continuously. The majority,
40%, said that they text every 2-3 hours while the least, 13.33%, claimed that
they text every 6-8 hours. The statistics from the respondents show that 33.33%
of the youngsters prefer texting to calling. The research shows that majority
of these young people, approximately 26.66%, use slang language while only
13.33% consider the use of proper grammar and spelling. The rest, 60%, claimed
to use both language types equally. Also, 86.6% of the teenagers who responded
during the survey confided that text messaging has affected their academic
language especially in assignments. About 40% of the persons who filled the
surveys stated that they were afraid of facing examiners and interviewers. To
sum up, 60% said that they use text-messaging language in their class projects.
Interpretation
of the findings.
Frequent
texting results to weakened use of vocabulary. One can attribute this to the
use of incorrect grammar and spellings since majority of the teenagers view it
as a norm to use slang and incorrect grammar while texting. From the findings, 73.33%
of the youngsters involved in the research said that they did not face any
difficulty in understanding the text language of other teenagers. This may be
due to the use of the same language level during texting. Consequently, there
is limited use of vocabularies, hence limited knowledge on the usage of the
terminologies.
Since
writing skills are nurtured through practice, frequent use of slang and
incorrect grammar and spellings reflects in the written assignment at school. Frequent
texting has resulted to limited ability of some teenagers to differentiate
between formal and informal language. The findings indicate that 13.33% of the
respondents claimed that they faced difficulty in judging correct spelling of
most frequently used words. This may be because it is habitual for most people
who text to limit the number of characters when typing the message. In
addition, this research finding supports the psychological notion that this
texting habit can be transferred to other activities that a person engages in.
for instance, due to engagement in limited context; students readily get bored
when they attend long lectures.
In
conclusion, text messaging poses various disadvantages to the literacy level
among the teenagers. It results to reduced use of vocabulary and deteriorated
grammar due to its accommodation for incorrect grammar and slang. The writing
skills of the youngsters have also worsened since the texting language is
reflected in their class assignments. In addition, some teenagers have a low
confidence level when facing examiners and interviewers due to language use.
Thus, although texting has facilitated communication among the teens, they
should take caution not to affect their level of literacy.
References
Houser, P. T.
(2005, May). Using mobile phones in English education in Japan .
Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2005.00129.x/abstract
Keats, W. (2014). The Effects of Text Messaging on
Students’ Literacy . Retrieved from
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-lib/awards/upload/W-Keats-2014-First-Place.pdf
Niaz, A. (2015, Nov 26). ‘Is texting and CMC detrimental
to literacy?’ . Retrieved from
https://languagedebates.wordpress.com/category/text-messaging-and-literacy/
