Mobile Phone and Literary Skills

A Study on the Effects of Text Messaging to the Literary Skills of the High School Students in Lyceum of Cebu School Year 2012-2013

Researchers:

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 I. Introduction * Rationale of the study * Theoretical Background * Theoretical Framework II. The Problem * Statement of the Problem * Significance of the study * Scope and Limitations of the Study * Definition of terms
Chapter 2 III. Related Literature and Studies * Related Literature * Related Studies
Chapter 3 IV. Research Methodologies and Procedures * Research Method * Research Environment * Research Respondents * Research Instruments * Research Procedures * Statistical Instruments
Chapter 4 V. Interpretation of Analysis and Data VI. Conclusion VII. Bibliography

Chapter 1
Introduction
Rationale
Millions of ludicrous emails are surfacing on the web, sent from students and job seekers to professionals, using made-up words like "i" and "come2u." It may not be the fault of schools, friends or even television, but because of the vastly popular communication craze, text messaging. Text messaging, even more so than emails, uses choppy lingo and sloppy spelling to get a quick and short message across. While teachers and professionals are pulling out their hair trying to figure out why text message spelling has become mainstream, not all studies about the phenomena are telling people to worry. People 's abilities to write and speak English properly may still be safe, or even bettered by text messaging, as long they know when to leave it on their cellphones. The mainstream media claims that the short hand and abbreviated characteristics of text messaging are making children lazy, not forcing them to use the proper grammar and spelling that they learn in school. The resulting opinion is that text messaging is to blame for low literacy rates of students. Yet as more scholarly researcher is done on text messaging as well as other digital literacies such as IM, emails, and blogs, they are discovering that the public opinion and mainstream media reports are not in line with the true interactions of children with new technologies and how it is changing the face of literacy.

What are some of the effects that texting is having on our society? That is the question that our group explores in this paper. We conducted surveys and took a look at articles, looking to find some of the effects that the modern day texting phenomenon is causing. We examined the impacts that texting is making on our language and writing skills.
Theoretical Background With the revolutionary new forms of communication that technology has introduced comes a debate on what effect these new digital mediums have on literacy. Text messaging is quickly becoming a primary form of communication for many people around the world, yet the research behind the rhetorical situation of text messaging is very limited.
Text messaging or "texting" was only developed and released to the public in the mid-1990s. By 2009, 60 percent of the world 's population already had access to a cellphone, and texting was the second most common way to use the technology to communicate, after speaking person-to-person. Studies about how text messaging affect reading and writing began emerging in the early 2000s. It was obvious that with an almost universal limit of 160 characters and a tiny, awkward keyboard that was usually QWERTY-based, the majority of text message users would likely sacrifice correct use of language for speed.
The media tends to take a binary approach to new technologies, stating that they are either completely or good or completely bad for the future of our society. They see text messaging as a breakdown of the literacy of the youth. Journalist John Sutherland has been quoted as saying that text messaging is thin and unimaginative…mask[ing] dyslexia, poor spelling and mental laziness and penmanship for illiterates. Many news reports use examples of students using “textspeak” (a term coined by David Crystal) in classroom essays and standardized tests. Most of these stories are exaggerated and facts are not correct. Yet most of the public use media outlets as a basis for their own opinion on social issues like technology and literacy. Student literacy is constantly under scrutiny. The current wave of fears over illiteracy points fingers at emerging technologies such as text messaging and IMing as a cause of this issue. Yet most people do not see the potential that these new technologies have in developing new digital literacies. Many scholars are looking more critically at the media reports and public opinion on these issues and discovering that text messaging could in fact expand a student’s critical learning skills.
For a number of years teachers and parents have blamed texting for two ills: the corruption of language and the degradation in spelling of youth writing. Since 2003, complaints of textisms creeping into formal school register language have been raised from around the world. In a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 64 percent of US teens admitted that some form of texting has crept into their academic writing (Lenhart et al., 2008). Even in South Africa (SA), many teachers lament the problem of text creep in South African schools. It appears as if learners are not able to use appropriate language in different contexts: their informal textisms appear in formal writing assignments.
In general, texting has provoked a very strong, negative response from teachers, parents and language experts. It has been described as the “continuing assault of technology on formal written English" (Lee, 2002), and the work of “vandals who are doing to our language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbours eight hundred years ago ... pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences; raping our vocabulary” Text messages in different countries around the world have produced varying ways to spell and write in English. In the United States, abbreviations (e.g. "ur" for "your" and "you 're"), word shortenings (e.g. "feb" for "February"), and acronyms are very common. In Sweden, on the other hand, text message users more commonly write in all lowercase or all capital letters, omit spaces between words, and alter the spelling of words from correct to phonetic (e.g. using "beecuz" instead of "because"). The impact of this is that, after prolonged use, spelling mistakes like this become unintentional. Additionally, if English-speaking countries around the world begin adopting different ways to write, there will be communication barriers in the future. On the other hand, teenagers everywhere are writing and editing more nowadays than in any previous generation.
When considering the increasingly digital lives of young people – who have been referred to as “generation text” (Thurlow, 2003) and the “thumb tribes” (Butgereit, 2008) – taking a broader view of literacy is crucial in their education, formally in classroom settings and informally in home and public settings. Further, leveraging the extensive reading and writing that happens – in the form of texting – holds potential for literacy development.

Theoretical FrameworkText Messaging
Text Messaging
Breakdown of the literacy of the youth
Breakdown of the literacy of the youth
Expand a student’s critical learning skills
Expand a student’s critical learning skills
Holds potential for literacy development
Holds potential for literacy development
Corruption of language
Corruption of language
Degradation of the spelling of the youth
Degradation of the spelling of the youth
Continuing assault of technology on formal written English
Continuing assault of technology on formal written English
A primary form of communication
A primary form of communication
The Effects of Text Messaging to a Student’s Literary Skills
The Effects of Text Messaging to a Student’s Literary Skills

Statement of the Problem The main purpose of this study is to find out whether text messaging helps or harms the literary skills of a high school student? The study attempts to answer the following sub-problems: 1. How many Lycean High school students and teachers own a cellular phone? 2. Do they observe proper punctuation marks, spelling and capitalization when texting? 3. Do they use “text language” in texting? 4. Does the use of the “text language” affect the academic writing of a student? 5. Does texting do have negative effects on student’s writing skills?
Significance of the study The study would be most beneficial to the following entities: the students and the teachers.
Scope and Limitations In this study, the researchers are aware of the following limitations: the study is limited only to the selected high school students of Lyceum of Cebu school year 2012-2013. The respondents should own a cellular phone.

Definition of Terms * Text messaging * is the act of typing and sending a brief, electronic message between two or more mobile phones or fixed or portable devices over a phone network * Cellular phone * is a device that can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link while moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile phone operator, allowing access to the public telephone network. * Text language * is a term for the abbreviations and slang most commonly used due to the necessary brevity of mobile phone text messaging, in particular the widespread SMS (Short Message Service) communication protocol.

Chapter 2
Related Literature and Studies
Review of Related Literature There are many negative aspects to the rise of technology, but there are many positive aspects as well. With the uprising of technology many are concerned about the social ramifications that texting holds, particularly on younger generations. Between teenagers and their friends “cell-phone texting has become the preferred channel of basic communication” (Lenhart) and it’s becoming commonplace for children at younger and younger ages to communicate with their friends via text messaging as opposed to phone conversations or even face-to-face.
A majority of modern teenagers, defined by the Pew Research Center as ages 12-17, will text their friends at least once a day. A smaller percentage call theirs friends daily and an even smaller number talk to friends face-to-face. More specific numbers are given in the table.

Interested in texting, and its effects on literary skills, Clare Wood, Sally Meachem, and their research team investigated text messaging and spelling ability in children aged 8-12 years in 2011.
The team concluded from the results of their study that the use of ‘textisms,’ or text-message spellings does affect spelling performance, but when strong phonological skills are present, spelling skills remain intact.
Although unexpected, text messaging’s positive affect on literary skills seems plausible when you consider more deeply Wood and Meachem’s claim that strong phonological skills may be one of the contributing factors of the of text message senders continued spelling accuracy in traditional written language exercises. This result lends support once again to the theory of the strong role of phonological awareness and perception in orthographic processing and spelling ability, and partially answers the question of how texting can improve literacy.
For decades, reading research has focused on phonological awareness and reading attainment. Researchers have shown repeatedly that children who receive explicit phonological awareness instruction eventually improve their literary skills. More importantly, much textism depends upon senders and receivers having good linguistic abilities and some acquired linguistic skills for successful texting to take place. Therefore, to all intents and purposes, texting, through its text manipulations and creations, provides a platform for young people to create and practice phonemic activities that enhance phonemic awareness. This vital skill is eventually readily transferred to reading and writing acquisition, and furthers literacy development.
Overall, text messaging has taken a similar course of most new technologies follow as they emerge on the social and academic scene. Many people are cautious and untrusting of new technologies, worried about the riff it could cause in the discourse of literacy. But as it settles into a stable place within society, the benefits will be more evident and people will see the shift in thinking it has caused. It is important for academics to understand the importance of bringing everyday literacies used by younger generations into the classroom to engage them more critically in the discourse of language and technology.
Related Studies
Over the last ten years, several researchers have studied the effect of text messaging extensively, coming to a variety of conclusions, some of which appear to support this most recent research.
Back in 2003, Dr. Crispin Thurlow, an expert in language and communication, described the language of text messaging to be ‘adaptive and additive rather than necessarily subtractive,’ meaning that texting can have positive linguistic advantages. However, Thurlow’s remarks were made almost a decade ago and research highlights substantial increases in young people’s use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and shows that text messaging is one of the most widespread digital practices. A 2010 study clearly supports this by revealing that US teens alone send over 6 text messages per waking hour, and send and receive and average of 3,339 texts monthly.
In 2009, Beverly Plester and Clare Wood, taking interest in the question of the influence of texting on literacy, focused on the use of text messaging by pre-teen British children. In this study, the researchers paid specific attention to the abbreviations and characteristic language used within text messages, also known as ‘textese’ and ‘textisms.’ Their results did not conclusively support the negative reports surrounding cell phone use and texting. Quite the reverse, they discovered that textese and textisms assisted the development of literary skills.
Plester and Wood’s findings, in particular, appear surprising, since over the years, research has shown that the mental template of a written word, although supported by the sound system of a language, is established principally through exposure to whole word formats. A survey of research of over more than two decades supports this by revealing that producing, or being shown, misspelled words can adversely affect spelling skills. There is a more extensive group of research done on digital literacies and new technologies in the classroom, which text messaging falls under. Many new media studies reports discuss the importance of introducing new technologies into the classroom, integrating technologies that students use outside of school on a daily basis into a pedagogy that helps the students look more critically at communication, language, and networks (Albers and Harste, 2007; Braun, 2007; Doering, Beach, and O’Brien, 2007; Meskill, Mossop, and Bates, 1999). There have also been instances of text messaging benefiting the social environment of the public sphere. J. D. Applen looks at the evolution of civil actions and technology, citing citizen revolutions that use text messaging and other handheld communication to stay connected, under the radar of the government, creating a new public sphere in order to come to together for their cause (Applen, 2004). Chapter 3
Research Design and Methodology
Research Method This study used survey method of research. It involves data gathering from a self-conducted questionnaire. This study will determine the effects of text messaging to a student’s and teacher’s literary skills.

Research Environment The study is conducted in Lyceum of Cebu Main Campus founded by Ret. Judge Esperanza Garcia, located in Capitol Hills, Cebu City.

Research Respondents The respondents of this study are the selected students of Lyceum of Cebu high school department during the school year 2012-2013.

Research instruments The researchers formulated a 5–item multiple choice questionnaire. The researchers are using questionnaires in gathering data from the respondents and are following a survey method.
Research procedure The researchers used sampling method in selecting the respondents for the study. The researchers will distribute the questionnaires on their convenient time and will be collecting them right after the respondents are done answering.

Statistical treatment To carefully analyze the result, the mean method is applied. This will further give a clear analysis about the study. Herein below is the formula:
X= ∑f/N
Wherein:

X – Mean
∑ - summation f – Frequency N – Number of respondents

Chapter 4
Interpretation and Analysis of Data

Table 1
Do you own a cellular phone? Responses | Tally | Percentage | Yes | | | No | | | Total | | |

Table 2
Do you observe proper punctuation marks, spelling and capitalization in texting? Responses | Tally | Percentage | Always | | | Seldom | | | Never | | | Total | | |

Table 3
What type of language do you often use when texting? Responses | Tally | Percentage | Text language | | | English language | | | Dialect (Cebuano or Tagalog) | | | Both English & dialect | | | Total | | |

Table 4
Does the use of the “text language” affect your academic writing as a student? Responses | Tally | Percentage | Yes. It affects my academic writing. | | | No. My writing skill is not affected. | | | Total | | |

Table 5
Do you think that texting has negative effects on student’s writing skills? Responses | Tally | Percentage | Yes | | | No | | | Total | | |

Interpretation of Data

Conclusion

Recommendations

* To the Teachers

* To the Students

* To the Parents

* To the further Researchers

Bibliography * http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1572/teens-cell-phones-text-messages * http://www.ehow.com/about_6501816_text-ability-write-speak-english_.html * http://youthvoices.net/discussion/texting-gone-wrong * http://www.decodedscience.com/text-messaging-basically-addictive-or-essentially-additive/7597 * http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/fashion/02BEST.html? * www.jencwaters.com/Link/Writing/texting%20biblio.pdf * http://www.ehow.com/list_5828172_effects-text-messaging-english-grammar.html kani!!! * http://www.articlesbase.com/cell-phones-articles/the-effects-of-text-messaging-5348512.html *

* How Does Text Messaging Affect the Ability to Write & Speak in English? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6501816_text-ability-write-speak-english_.html#ixzz2EKGBgdBF

Bibliography: * http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1572/teens-cell-phones-text-messages * http://www.ehow.com/about_6501816_text-ability-write-speak-english_.html * http://youthvoices.net/discussion/texting-gone-wrong * http://www.decodedscience.com/text-messaging-basically-addictive-or-essentially-additive/7597 * http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/fashion/02BEST.html? * www.jencwaters.com/Link/Writing/texting%20biblio.pdf * http://www.ehow.com/list_5828172_effects-text-messaging-english-grammar.html kani!!! * http://www.articlesbase.com/cell-phones-articles/the-effects-of-text-messaging-5348512.html * * How Does Text Messaging Affect the Ability to Write & Speak in English? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6501816_text-ability-write-speak-english_.html#ixzz2EKGBgdBF