You may ask what
textism is. Well, textism is the abbreviations used in text massages. Research
states that America’s literacy actually improved due to textism. According to these three articles by BBC
News, Visual Thesaurus, and Enterprising Technology; children have created
their own languages when texting or using social networking. According to the
article Enterprising Technology, in a study for nine to ten year olds, it
showed that textism, “text lingo” has shown improvement in their spelling. Testing
scores were shown and they improved after using a mobile device, to
communicate. Therefore, the question everybody wonders is “does texting improve
literacy”, in today’s society. I believe that it does due to the research that
I have done that all points to the solid answer “yes.” I believe it does due to these three reasons:
Schools should allow texting in their classrooms, students have to refer to the
spelling to make their own language, and lastly testing scores and the improve
or disprove of them. When you take a deeper look into the subjects, texting is
spelling just in a new inventive way.
At
first glance, you may say that texting does not improve literacy but let us do
a little digging in to the paper. I asked many people this question they responded
to it as fast as lightning with a direct “no.” Literacy is everything from
reading to writing; it has traveled the world from Africa to China to the
United States. It is in my best interest that literacy and texting improve one
another, because that all the research informs me greatly although; I believed
that it did before I found out the research.
I believed this before because I personally started texting using full
words, which are the same ideas you have to use in English. Texting is a form
of figurative language, which is part of literacy. Many sources have many
opinionated ideas, as well as well-researched statistics. I first knew what I wanted my topic to be, I
told a teacher my topic and their automatic answer was that texting does not
improve literacy. I introduced this question to them and asked them why, they
had said that in texting, you use too much text “lingo” and that is not
improving our writing, which is part of the big element Literacy. I went home
and asked my mom this question and she told me that she believed it does
especially since texting has a lot to do with the way you read or write.
Therefore, we are going to find out if the many people who said no when first
asked can be proved right or if they are far off.
Visual Thesaurus
conducted an interview with David Crystal and asked him if he felt that texting
should be allowed in schools. David Crystal responded to the question stating
this: “And I think that teachers can build this into the curriculum and teach
the kids about the strengths and the weaknesses- both formally in terms of what
you can do with spelling and grammar, and functionally in terms of
appropriateness- the better.” (Visual Thesaurus) David Crystal was very right in this statement,
I believe that this is true, because in school, we had an online texting poll,
and many of the people when asked said that this was a fun. This quote is stating that teachers should
use their resources to get across their point in the most influentially way to
children. Since, children of today are influenced by technology and cell phones
this will help get the point across the best way possible. In an article written by Sean Coughlan in BBC
News, it states “pupils who regularly use text language-with all its mutations
of phonetic spelling and abbreviations- also appear to be developing skills in
the more formal use of English.” Based upon this statement many people who said
no would be surprised, because that so far all the research read states that
texting improves literacy. The statistics are very powerful and influential,
and are based off not one, but three articles that all say “yes”. In the document “Enterprising Technology:
Using 4G Technology to Improve Literacy Skills,” it states that “studies have
found that social networking sites have contributed to a rise in confidence in
student literacy.” On this document, I find this to be in evident that all
people whom text may have the greatest confidences.
According to all three articles,
they all say students have to refer to the actual spelling to make their own
language. When I read this, I came up
with the following questions: Does text messaging have its own language? Or is
it languages of people combined. According to David Crystal, it states, “Never
predict the future with language,” he says this because years ago he was just
writing about the internet. David talked about how much it had changed, when
“we” improved technology. We have changed technology such as computers we use
today, cell phones, IPods, Tablets, and more. Many of which children of today’s
society uses in everyday life. According
to Coughlan, it states “text language uses word play and requires an awareness
of how sounds relate to written English.” These text languages would be like
the following: brb, ttyl, and smh. These stand for be right back, talk to you
later, and shaking my head; these are some quicker ways of saying this. In
Enterprising Technology: Using 4G Technology to Improve Literacy Skills, it
states, “It is simply a new form of slang that seems all the more alienating to
older people in the written format. It
is alienating to older people because they have not seen this new slang before
and it is all new to their eyes, this supports my thesis because if teachers
influence it more in the classrooms they can know about what children are doing
today.
When we do not
have our phones and we cannot text, it is tantalizingly torturing. We actually
use every day literacy in our texting; for example, I may text my mom “hey mom
how r u today”? That is using literacy but just not using the whole word;
however, this does improve my literacy skills. In the article Enterprising
Technology, it says that when people text there having to refer and connecting
skills to text. Texting would improve our literacy due to the fact that we
receive messages daily and read them, which include words no matter if they are abbreviations or not. I believe
if there were no text messaging our literacy would remain the same and not
improve as it has shown. Literacy improves our texting because if we were
illiterate than we could not be able to spell things correctly or be able to
speak correctly. Testing scores in reading and writing were shown to have gone
up when people used their cell phones to communicate before the tests. (Enterprising
Technology)
From the studies
in all three articles, the following information proves the upper paragraph.
“The more you text the more your literacy scores will be.”(David Crystal) that
is married to the question, “In texting you use words, does it improve or
disprove it? “Instead of texting being a
destructive influence on learners, the academics argue that it offers them a
chance to “practice reading and spelling on a daily basis.” This direct quote goes
hand in hand with the question, Literacy has to do with reading and writing so,
why would texting improve or disprove it? This goes hand and hand with this
because that it answers my essential questions that I had about this
topic. There are many other direct
quotes that go hand in hand in with these questions, in these articles
These questions I picked had to go down the
aisle in this marriage and get those papers. It is easier to prove something
when you have coordinating evidence to back it up.
These questions I picked had to go down the
aisle in this marriage and get those papers. It is easier to prove something
when you have coordinating evidence to back it up.
According to the
site WriteSteps, they believe that texting actually downgrades your literacy.
In this site, it says based on a journal writing, adolescents are more likely
not able to switch between writing text message and using correct English. In a
debate that Suzanne Klein and her friend Chris had, they were on different ends
of the spectrum. Chris believes that there are no problems with texting and the
affect on literacy, meanwhile; Suzanne Klein believes that literacy is affected
by texting. Chris’s teaching is different from Suzanne’s, he provides
activities using text messaging while; she focuses on improving children’s
writing and grammar. This article is from just Suzanne’s point of view. In this article, it was showing how her
friend and she have different points of view on texting and literacy. Suzanne
backed up her points of view and so did Chris, but most information support
Chris although Suzanne has valid information.
During this
project, I have learned a lot at first I could not prove it, but this was until
I read many articles. I had a good time working through this subject that I
picked. When I, chose this topic it was off the top of my head because it was
something that had to do with school and without it. Therefore, in, the very
end the people who was fast as lightning to retaliate to my answer with a “no”,
was not wrong, they just do not know all the facts yet. In, the end this proved
my theory of yes; literacy actually does improve because of texting. In the
article that contradicts my answer, it is a debate between Suzanne and her
friend Chris. Chris took on the side that all my articles had proven while
Suzanne took on a different perspective.
All and All people have their own views on whether or not they believe
texting affects literacy. All my articles support my answer, all except one,
and that contradictory is not strong enough to overpower the yes’s that these
articles have proven. In the end, I am happy to say that I am right, texting
does improve literacy.
