1

Neliada Memushaj
Department of English Language and Literature,
University College “Bedër”, Tirana, Albania
E-mail: [email protected]
PhD. Cand. Albana Çekrezi
Department of English Language and Literature,
University College “Bedër”, Tirana, Albania
E-mail: [email protected]

THE IMPACT OF TEXT MESSAGING ON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’

LITERACY IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE (MAK GIRLS CASE STUDY)

Abstract
This paper investigates the impacts of text messaging on high school students’ literacy in
English Language. During the last two decades, text messaging has been a method of
communication between people of different ages, especially the youth. Text messaging as a
concept involves SMS and messages sent through online applications like: Instagram,
WhatsApp, e-mail etc. These text messages have indirectly led to the invention of abbreviations
and to textism as an attempt to shorten words while writing. Textism is usually found in informal
messages, but it has also been found in school assignments and other formal texts written by
students, which emphasizes the influence of text messaging on literacy. The target group was
chosen to be the students of Mehmet Akif Girls College. Quantitative and qualitative methods
were used in this paper and the results were built upon conducted survey. Scholars are
concerned about writings which contain new and old abbreviations and lack capital letters,
punctuation, modal verbs and other grammatical structures. According to some of them, textisms
is the reason why people have changed the way they write. Therefore, technology users stuggle
while writing in standard language. Linguists argue on the impact of textism on students’
literacy, as it has become inseparable part of texts.
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Keywords: Text Messaging, literacy, textism, “Mehmet Akif Girls” College, online applications.

Chapter 1

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of Study

Nowadays technology is an utility of daily routine. It has influenced the way people act
and think: starting from our houses where we can see how technology has improved the
kitchen’s equipments: washing machine, refrigerator, the oven and so on. It has reduced the time
we need to do house chores and also the power to do such activities. While reducing the power, it
has made people lazier than any time before, in such a way that they can wait for ten minutes for
the elevator to come, instead of using the stairs to go to the fifth floor.

Nevertheless, domestic facilities mentioned above are not the only fields where
technology has had its impact. What make us concerned is the way how technology changes our
articulation, speaking, writing and thinking. Furthermore, computers and cell phones are the
technological gadgets which seem to have changed people’s behaviors, especially the youth
which is influenced more by technology due to its widespread usage. There are a lot of ways
which researchers can approach this concern since there is too much to study and analyze. So,
this research tends to study the impact of text massaging on high school students’ literacy.

High school students are highly exposed to technology because of their daily usage of
computers and cell phones to communicate or get information. By doing so, they correlate
technology and school in one and even the register of language they have to use in each of them.
The extended usage of text messaging usually tends to change their writing behaviors which are
influenced by several reasons.

There are numerous impacts of text messaging on literacy according to researchers who
are divided into two different groups where each of them strongly supports their own thesis.
Some of the researchers admit that text messaging negatively moderate the way students spell
and write words, since they are all the time abbreviating and they use these shortenings often
referred as textisms even in their formal writings. On the other hand, some researchers think that
 3

text messaging positively influence phonological awareness. According to them, students who
have better phonological awareness and knowledge in language, are more capable to create and
use textisms. Nevertheless, there is to be seen the way students use text messaging and the
impact it has in their daily and school life.

1.2. Problem Statement

The expensive invention of abbreviations which are highly favored by technology and
text messaging usually makes texts not fully understandable by everyone and these abbreviations
are seriously damaging Youth spoken and written language.

1.3. Purpose Statement

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of text messaging on high school
students’ literacy.

1.4. Hypothesis

Text messaging is negatively affecting high school students’ literacy in English language.

1.5. Importance of Study

This study aims to answer the research questions relevant to the target group of
population being used. It obtains data which show the deformation of students’ written English.
It will help the target group in the recognition of specific lexical items in English language and it
will warn the target group of the way they are being affected by text messaging.

1.6. Definition of Terms

Literacy- the ability to perform skills as reading and writing[ CITATION Oxf18 \l 1033 ].

Phonological Awareness- the skill that someone should have in order to identify and
manipulate units of oral language[ CITATION Rea18 \l 1033 ]

Text Messaging- an electronic message sent over a network from one gadget to another by
typing words[ CITATION Mar18 \l 1033 ].

Abbreviation- a shortened form of a word or phrase[ CITATION Mar18 \l 1033 ].

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Textism- the language used in text messages, characterized by the use of abbreviations,
single letters and symbols[ CITATION Mac18 \l 1033 ].

Textese- the abbreviated form of language and slang[ CITATION You18 \l 1033 ].

Instant Messaging- an electronic message sent in real time[ CITATION Dic18 \l 1033 ]

1.7. Research Questions

1) How does text messaging affect students’ written English?

2) Why do students use textism in their assignments?

3) Is technology supporting the usage of abbreviations?

4) Are the old abbreviations substituted with the new abbreviations?

1.8. Limitations

This study also has some limitations. We were able to conduct the survey only in
“Mehmet Akif” College Girls in Tirane, Albania, so in this way the number of participant
would be in the right proportion with the total number of students in this school. Only first and
second year students completed the questionnaires. Third year students were focused on Matura
Examination during the time of survey conduction. The field of this study includes some
approaches to literacy which each of them needs further detailed research to get more specific
result. There was no similar academic study conducted in Albania before, so there were no data
to compare or take as an example.

1.9. Organization of Study

The structure of this study contains five chapters. The first chapter introduces the topic
and its main features to give an overall look of what the other chapters will be dealing with. The
second chapter covers literature review: the theories related to the topic and previous studies
which have been done by scholars and researchers worldwide. The third chapter explains the
methods which were used to conduct the survey and a brief overview of the questionnaires. The
fourth chapter analyses the data gathered from the survey by illustrating every question and
giving the result within its own explanation. Finally, the fifth chapter summarizes the study and
 5

explains the result as an output of the survey. There are also recommendations added to this
chapter.

CHAPTER 2

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

“Technology has done more than extend our vocabulary; it has changed the way we use
language, communicate and express ourselves” [ CITATION Mar10 \p 23 \l 1033 ].

2.1 Text Messaging and the concept of Literacy

Literacy as a concept is known to involve task-based and skill-based elements [ CITATION

Nat03 \l 1033 ]. The task-based literacy is generally acknowledged as the degree where someone
can execute literacy tasks as reading or writing, while skills-based literacy implies the ability an
adult must have to complete the skills mentioned above. Literacy skills are very diverse; they
vary from recognizing skills to higher level of understanding. Importance is given to the
observation of the correlation between literacy and factors which affect and moderate it to an
extent, because of the significant role it plays in developing and improving knowledge in a
society.

Drouin (2011) argues that although “significant, positive relationships between text
messaging frequency and literacy skills (spelling and reading fluency)” do exist, there are also
“significant, negative relationships between textese usage in certain contexts (on social
networking sites such as MySpace™ and Facebook™ and in emails to professors) and literacy
(reading accuracy)” [ CITATION Dro11 \p 67 \n \y \t \l 1033 ] . Moreover, Plester et al. (2009) have
found in their study that texting density “was positively associated with word reading,
vocabulary, and phonological awareness measures”[ CITATION BPl09 \p 145 \n \y \t \l 1033 ].

Ochonogor et al (2012) are more balanced in their conclusion and the result from 324
students showed two-sided influence of text message slangs (TMS). According to them, there are
two ways which TMS affects students’ academic performance: Positive influence because TMS
 6

is used when they want to communicate with family members or for important academic
messages; negative influence when they use IM, SMS, TMS to that extent that they become
addicted. They even use these forms of writing during their academic performance[CITATION
Och12 \p 3 \n \y \t \l 1033 ].

Text messaging is not always thought to be a way of positively modifying the language.
John Humphrys tremendously says that “texters were language vandals who are doing to our
language what Ghengis Khan did to his neighbors 800 years ago”[ CITATION Mar10 \p 23 \l 1033 ].
Other people find hieroglyphs to be the first abbreviations in the history. In contrary, Egyptian
hieroglyphs were complex entities, combination of symbols representing both concepts and
sounds [ CITATION Joh02 \l 1033 ]. There have also been some concerns about computer spelling
checks: “amongst other pitfalls, they do not recognize an error when homonyms are substituted –
words like “to” and “two”, “who’s” and “whose””[ CITATION Mar10 \p 24 \l 1033 ].

2.2 The emerge of Textism

All the way through history, communication has been more efficient by means of new
inventions as gadgets which ease everyday life and all this progression has been part of
education since 1990 [ CITATION Tal15 \l 1033 ], while the Internet is unquestionably the fastest
extending communication technology in the world[ CITATION Mat \l 1033 ]. The language used in
the Internet is identified as the language of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). CMC
has also been acknowledged somehow a language in between spoken and written language,
involving features of both [ CITATION Thu13 \l 1033 ]. The language used in CMC is generally
referred to as “textism and textese” [ CITATION Far11 \l 1033 ] and contains:

 shortenings (bcs),
 clippings (comin),
 letter homophones (l8r),
 symbols (&, :-), @),
 nonconventional spellings (skool, fone),
 accent stylisation(anuva=another) and
 missing apostrophes(Im, cant)[ CITATION Woo09 \p 1 \l 1033 ].
 7

This language is thought to trigger bad spelling and vanish the standards of a
language[CITATION Lin15 \l 1033 ]. However, in another report, young people’s English writing
skills are shown to still have the same progress as before the progression of technology
[ CITATION Cla09 \l 1033 ].

2.3 Different Approaches to Text Messaging

Different studies have shown the impact of text messaging on the development of
interpersonal social skills[ CITATION BPl09 \l 1033 ], inappropriate and dangerous behaviors that
texting may mediate, such as sexting and cyberbullting[ CITATION Dro12 \l 1033 ] ,[CITATION
Par12 \l 1033 ]; distraction to classroom instruction and the reduction of students’ attention and
comprehension[ CITATION Kuz15 \l 1033 ], [CITATION Tin12 \l 1033 ] and its negative effects on
literacy and learning [ CITATION Dro11 \l 1033 ],[ CITATION Dro09 \l 1033 ] ,[CITATION Ros11 \l 1033 ]
and the development of linguistic skills [CITATION Ros10 \l 1033 ],[ CITATION DeJ12 \l 1033 ],
[ CITATION Dro14 \l 1033 ].

Nevertheless, some scholars argued that “the claims of casual links between and the
declining standards of literacy were taken to extremes” [ CITATION Thu06 \p 678 \l 1033 ] and are
unproven; that “there is inconsistent evidence for negative relationships between adults’ use of
textisms and their literacy skills”[CITATION Gra14 \p 855 \l 1033 ]; that “the increased exposure to
print, facilitated by texting, is positively associated with standard English literacy” [ CITATION
BPl09 \p 158 \l 1033 ]; that there is a “growing evidence for a positive relationship between
texting proficiency and traditional literacy skills”[ CITATION Kem11 \p 18 \l 1033 ] ; and that
“causal conclusions may be drawn based on found repeated positive relationships between use of
text register language and traditional literacy skills”[ CITATION Ple09 \p 1108 \l 1033 ]

2.4 Text Messaging and Phonological Awareness

“Not only is technology responsible for non-traditional encounters with the written word, it
is also assisting in the growth of new words and concepts” [ CITATION Mar10 \p 28 \l 1033 ] .
According to David Crystal (2002) new lexical items are created due to the modification of
language from Internet usage [ CITATION Cry02 \p 7 \n \y \t \l 1033 ] . ‘Phonological awareness’
 8

implies the profiency linked with spelling and reading since the very early developing of
skills[ CITATION Woo09 \p 145 \l 1033 ] . Linguists suggest that there is a connection between
abbreviations and texting and it is closely related to phonological awareness [ CITATION Bev08 \p
138 \l 1033 ], while texting seems to be profoundly associated with phonological awareness in
students[ CITATION DPo13 \p 59 \l 1033 ]. Stedje and David Crystal suggest that abbreviations
have existed for as long as the written language has existed [ CITATION Ast01 \l 1033 ] , [ CITATION
Dav08 \l 1033 ]. A way to refer the literate difficulties students are facing is the identification and
the evaluation of the correlation among texting and abbreviations [ CITATION Placeholder1 \p 188 \l
1033 ].

2.5 Literacy Skills: Writing and Spelling

De Jonge and Kemp (2012) investigated high school and university students on their hand
written and typed message considering numbers and types of textism, spelling and texting
behaviors. By doing this, they concluded in “significant negative correlations between texting
behaviors and more traditional literacy and language skills”[ CITATION DeJ12 \p 64 \n \y \t \l 1033
]. In addition to that, “texting and other forms of computer-mediated communication are
becoming increasingly prevalent at increasingly younger ages, and further research will be
necessary to clarify the interactions”[ CITATION DeJ12 \p 65 \n \y \t \l 1033 ]. Similarly, “when
compared with those performing a single task, participants alternating between distinct activities
required additional transition time and demonstrated more errors”[ CITATION Van08 \p 1251 \l 1033
].

Baron (2005) in her study suggests that there are two dimensions in which we can
linguistically interpret CMC: “On the one hand, such a dichotomous perspective ignores the
variation in online communication, reflecting age, gender, education level, cultural background,
personality, and years of experience with the CMC platform or the purpose of the communiqué
(a well-crafted email message applying for a job vs. a hasty blitz mail note arranging to meet at
the library at 10); on the other hand, many evils attributed to CMC, especially as practiced by
teens, can be traced back to Arpanet days” [ CITATION Bar05 \p 30 \n \y \t \l 1033 ] . Nevertheless,
according to her “the most important effect of IM on language turns out to be not stylized
vocabulary or grammar but the control seasoned users feel they have over their communication
 9

networks”[ CITATION Bar05 \p 30 \n \y \t \l 1033 ] , and “knowledge of contemporary CMC style

(and the social control IM and other media offer) is empowering” [ CITATION Bar05 \p 31 \n \y
\t \l 1033 ].

In contrast, Searight (2011) chose another method to measure the impact of text messaging
on academic performance. Thirty seven students during the lecture were engaged and not
engaged in text messaging. Their task was to listen to a ten minute lecture on a specific topic.
During the lecture, a group of students received fifteen standardized questions, while the others
continued listening to the lecture. At the end, they were asked to answer some questions related
to the lecture. The group of students which continued listened without interruption had a better
performance than the students who were engaged in text messaging [ CITATION Rus11 \p 7 \n \y
\t \l 1033 ] . The effects of cell phone usage during the lesson were also studied by Jasmin
Chanon. She gathered data to a normal classroom through surveys. Most of the students accepted
texting during the lesson but they did not change this behavior [ CITATION DJa12 \p 323 \l 1033 ] .
Students also predicted that they would score better if they were not texting[ CITATION DJa12 \p
326 \n \y \t \l 1033 ] . Once, when a group of educators were asked, “they said that they believe
that texting has a negative effect on students’ writing skills”[ CITATION Ver13 \p 595 \l 1033 ].

According to Baron (2008), if students are emailing and Instant-Messaging and text
messaging using degraded language, then it’s no wonder that spellings such as U for you or B4
for before are cropping up in school assignments [ CITATION Nao08 \p 162 \n \y \t \l 1033 ] .
Cingel and Sundar (2012) found text messaging to have a general negative impact on students’
grammar skills. They reached this conclusion while testing 228 students in a midsized school
district on the East Coast of the USA. The test consisted on two parts: 16 questions based on
homophones, possessives, apostrophes, use of correct tense and noun verb agreement; second
part required them to select the right spelling of a sentence [ CITATION Cin12 \p 1315 \n \y \t \l
1033 ]. On the other hand, other researchers argue that the misconception of the negative
influence of text messaging is discredited and students are able to “switch to the appropriate
register or style when writing formally for academic purposes despite the fact that texting is their
common way of communication” [ CITATION Azi13 \p 12890 \l 1033 ].
 10

Standard language exams taken by 16 years old British from 1980 to 2004 were collected
and observed. The conclusion showed the increase of writing quality and gave evidences that
electronic communication did not have a negative impact on 16 years olds’ ability to
write[ CITATION Thu06 \l 1033 ]. Similarly, According to the British Press: “Fears that text
messaging may have ruined the ability of teenagers to write properly have been shown to be
unfounded after a 2-year study revealed that youngsters are more literate than ever
before”[ CITATION FRE05 \l 1033 ]. “In fact, the more creative students are with technology, the
better their literacy skills at school become”[ CITATION Woo09 \p 145 \l 1033 ].

Rosen et al (2010) questioned if there is a positive relationship between textism and

informal writing and a negative one with formal writing. They also measured the usage of
texism. As a conclusion, people without any college education used more abbreviated words and
had bad formal writing. One the other hand, people with college education did not show negative
correlation of their writing abilities. Moreover, “the data from the current study found negative
associations between reported use of textisms in everyday electronic communication and writing
skill, particularly for formal writing”[CITATION Ros10 \p 437 \n \y \t \l 1033 ] .

According to New York Times, Lee (2001) describes textism “as an ongoing attack of
technology on formal written English”[ CITATION Lee02 \p 1 \n \y \t \l 1033 ] . Furthermore,
Humphrys (2007) believed that texting “is a type of vandalism that is gradually destroying the
language; and it is pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences and raping our vocabulary
and they must be stopped”[ CITATION JHu07 \p 1 \n \y \t \l 1033 ] . Besides, Uthus (2007) puts
emphasis on the modification of English language and blamed textism to give negative progress
in writing ability[ CITATION EUt07 \p 17 \n \y \t \l 1033 ] . Another study showed the impact of
texism use on English literacy which consisted of decline in formal writing , damage to
grammatical skills, confusion in vocabulary spelling and the extended usage of informal
conversations[ CITATION Tay12 \l 1033 ].

“While it is debatable that the new technologies are negatively impacting literacy
standards, one thing is for sure: they are definitely shaping our written language, communication
and expression”[ CITATION Mar10 \p 24 \l 1033 ].
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CHAPTER 3

3. METHODOLOGY

The purpose of this study was to gather enough data in order to analyze the influence of
text messaging on high school students’ literacy. In this way, survey was conducted to prove the
hypothesis of the study. Data were collected by using quantitative and qualitative research
methods, due to the questions involved in the questionnaire.

“Mehmet Akif College” Girls was the high school where the survey was conducted with a
maximum of seventy completed questionnaires. The age of the students varies from 15 to 17
years old. The reason why this school was chosen was the English taught courses that it offers
where only four subject are taught in Albanian and the rest is in English. It was easier and more
reliable to study the impact of textism in this school because of the considerable exposure to
English Language during their daily school experience.

The questionnaire contained two parts. First part was mainly related to English language
and their habits of reading and writing. It also involved some specific questions whose purpose
was to know the way students of these ages communicate with their peers, if they abbreviate and
why they do so. On the other hand, the second part of the questionnaire required students to write
the abbreviations they use the most and to give meaning to some chosen abbreviations in order to
make the distinction between old and new abbreviations and their understanding which is closely
related to phonological awareness.
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Number and field of questions in the questionnaire

Learning experience of 5 Q3-Q7
English Language
Communication methods 2 Q8-Q9
Abbreviations usage 6 Q10-Q13; Q15-Q16
Abbreviations meaning 2 Q14; Q17
Table 1 Number and field of questions in the questionnaire

The last question of the questionnaire consisted of six abbreviations and students had to
give their meanings and show if they were sure about the meaning or took a guess. If they did not
know, they had to tick the box “I do not know”. Four of the abbreviations were new(ASAP, L8r,
IDK, LOL) and invented by textism users, while two of them (i.e., NB) were standard
abbreviations of English Language.
ASAP = As Soon As Possible
L8r = Later
i.e. = For instance
IDK = I don’t Know
LOL = Laughing out load
NB = Nota Bene
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CHAPTER 4

4. ANALYSIS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE

This chapter will show and analyze the data gathered by conducted survey to high
school students. Each question from the questionnaire will be illusrated with table, its data
and an analysis of the result.

4.1 Results from the first part of the questionnaire

Every question on the questionnaire had its own purpose in order to give a possible
answer to research questions of this study. The first part of questionnaire asked students in
general about their experience related to English language learning and reading habits

AGE
15 yrs old 16 yrs old 17 yrs old
4%

32%

64%

Figure 1

The majority of the students who completed the survey were 16 years old students
(64%), followed by 17 years old (32%), and at the end with a minority of 15 years old students.
 14

2. Grade
First Year Second Year Third Year

44%
56%

Figure 2

The second question was about their grade. Only first and second grades were able to
complete the questionnaires because third year students were dealing with Matura Examination
during the time when the survey was conducted.

3.      How many years have you been learning

English?
3%
3 years
13%
4 years
5 years
6 years
more than 7 years

84%

Figure 3

The majority, 84 % of the students said they have more than seven years of learning
English. This fact helps us to approximately reach to an accurate conclusion because this long
period of learning let us know that these students can make the distinction between formal and
informal written English and may perform different tasks which involve literacy skills.
 15

4.   How often do you read written English

(newspaper, book, magazine etc.)?
4%
Always
21% Often
29% Sometimes
Rarely
Never

46%

Figure 4

When students were asked about their reading habit in English, most of them often read
written English (46%). Quarter of the students said they always read these kind of text while
none of them chose the option “Never”. However, the percentages are divided into the scale and
students showed an interest in reading written English.

5. How often do you hear native spoken English (news,

radio, TV etc.)?

7%
Always
27% Often
Sometimes
30% Rarely
Never

36%

Figure 5

Still, the majority admits to often hear native spoken English and this result is close to
“Sometimes” and “Always” options. Listening skills are closely related to phonological
 16

awareness which are being affected by text messaging. With the fourth and the fifth question we
wanted to see if students are close to written and spoken native English in order to know if they
can be able to understand both formal and informal English, since the majority of text messages
are written in informal language. The fact that they almost every time listen or read native
English, let us knows that they may have good phonological skills in English which help them to
create and use abbreviations on their own.

6.      Do you use English outside English lessons at

school?

22%
Yes
No

78%

Figure 6

As it is visible, these high school students do spend time with English language in their
everyday life. A majority of 78% accept using English outside lessons while almost the quarter
said the opposite. The result of this questions positively favors the hypothesis because with this
majority of confirmation, we can get the data we need to see the influence of textism.

7.      Do you use English in your daily

communication?

Ye
37% s
No

63%
 17

Figure 7

The students admitted using English in their daily communication with a majority of
63%, relatively significant percentage if it is compared with 37% of students who do not use. Let
us recall the fact that English Language is not an official language in Albania and the result of
this question shows that students do use English as part of their life and communication. In this
way, English language and its innovations have had their influence to Albanian students. This
frequency of language usage makes the students understand English better and create their own
vocabulary which is shaped by all these years full of experience.

8.      Choose the application that you mostly use to

contact people:
4%
Telephone Call
Social Media
SMS
E-mail
53% 43%

Figure 8

After asking different questions about language habits, we involved questions which will
define the way they use to communicate with each other and see if there is any existence of text
messaging and its own impacts and components. We had to gather data related to these
applications that students use to communicate, in order to prove that text messaging is part of
everyday life and one of the most common ways of communication. The categories which
students chose the most were “Social Media” and “SMS” where both of them are applications
which apply text messaging. 53% of students said they communicate via SMS and 43% of them
use Social Media as a way to share and receive information. Students no more tend to
communicate via e-mail and only few of them (4%) call people. Actually, it is a trend to
teenagers to write to someone instead of calling them. Most of the time, phone calls frustrates
 18

them because while writing to someone they can still do other things like listening to music or
surfing on the internet. The opposite happens when they call someone, all they can do is a direct
verbal communication which prevents them from other technology related activities.

9.      How often do you use text messaging in

English?
9% Always
16%
Often
Sometimes
Rarely
39% Never
37%

Figure 9

The ninth question required them information about their writing and communication
habits but we needed to know if they use English language in their text messaging. They had to
specify the frequency of English language use in text messaging. The survey was conducted to
albanian students, so we needed to see if they use this language in their daily communication. As
a result, most of the students chose the option “Often”(38%) and “Sometimes”(37%), which
show great usage of English language in text messaging. Within this question, students admitted
using English in their text messages.
 19

10.      How often do you use abbreviations in these

text messages?

10% Always
Often
34% Sometimes
20%
Rarely
Never

36%

Figure 10

After being asked of English usage in text messaging, students were asked how
frequently they abbreviate. Not surprisingly, there is a dramatic increase of the percentage of
“Always” and almost eight students out of ten abbreviate. Some students (20%) “Sometimes”
use abbreviations, which is double as the ones who use them “rarely”. Again, none of them chose
the option “Never”.

Purpose: Percentage:

To send the message faster 26%

Save time 42%
To finish the conversation 8%
 20

It is cool 8%
Laziness 6%
To write faster 10%
Table 2

The reasons of this great amount of abbreviations differ from one person to another. That
is why they were asked to write down the purpose of abbreviating. As it is shown in the table
above, 42% of them think that while abbreviating or using textisms, they save their time. 26%
use it to send the message faster and others think abbreviations can finish the conversation faster,
they are too lazy to write long sentences and some of them think it is cool to abbreviate. Only
one student wrote: “I do not feel comfortable using abbreviations”. Students find abbreviations
as a way to save time while writing or in this way they can send the message faster. In order to
be part of a group of friends, they use the same applications as their friends and have their own
codes of communication. People, especially youth are so lazy to write full words since the screen
of a cell phone limits the number of characters and the display of the message. If they would
write letters like people used to do decades ago, than there will not be any blank part displayed
on screen, which frustrates people. Massive texts make people lose concentration and the desire
to continue reading. For this reason, students between their groups abbreviate in order to be
updated with the new trends.

12. Do you find it difficult to understand your

friends’ texts messages with abbreviations?
3%

Yes
No

97%

Figure 11
 21

The last questions of the first part of the questionnaire was the twelve one which asked
them if they find it difficult to understand their friends’ text messages with abbreviations. As it
was expected, 97% of them said they do not have difficulties and only 3% accepted having
problems while reading their friends’ messages.

4.2 Results from the Second part of the Questionnaire

The second part of the questionnaire includes questions which can gather data related to
textism usage during their lessons.

13. Do you use abbreviations while taking

notes?

20%
Yes
No

80%

Figure 12

The first question of this part required them to accept or deny the abbreviations usage
while taking notes. There is no rule or theory on how to invent textsim, so everyone can create
and use their own abbreviations. There are some factors which influence these inventions as
culture, language, age, gender, dialects and so on. In this way, different groups of students have
their personalized abbreviations. The majority, 80% of them accepts using abbreviations, which
is a considerable percentage and at least they are aware of abbreviating not only in text messages
but also while taking notes.

Abbreviated form:
Homework HW
Substance Sub
 22

Example/exercise ex
By the way btw
Somebody sb
Approximatelly appr
Participle part
Table 3

We also required them to write some of the abbreviations they use the most. We received
lot abbreviations and most of the time they apply the same method of abbreviating: using the first
letters of the word or omitting vowels. Furthermore, some students use an abbreviation different
from some others. For example: “ex” was used for “example” and others used it for “exercise”.
In this way, students may misunderstand the text if they share their notes with each other. Most
of the abbreviations were easily understandable like: “sb” for somebody or “thnx” for thank you.
Moreover, some other abbreviations were more personalized compared to the majority, as you
needed time in order to guess what it means. For example: a student wrote “part” which meant
“participle”. If we compare this abbreviation with “thnx” we see that we do not lose time
thinking what the second one means while we stop and think for the first abbreviation.

15. In which subject do you use abbreviations the most?

2%
5% All subjects
12% 29% Chemistry
Mathematics
Biology
English
26% Physics
12% History

14%

Figure 13
 23

Students had to choose the subject in which they use abbreviations. 29% of them said
they abbreviate in every subject, which is the biggest percentage in this pie chart. It is followed
by “Biology” with 26% and “Mathematics” with 14%. The rest chose “Physics”, “Chemistry”,
“English” and “History”. As it is shown, abbreviations and textisms are not only written in text
messages but also in their writings.

16. Do you find difficulties while reading notes which

contain abbreviations?

6%

Yes
No

94%

Figure 14

The following question asked them if they find difficulties while reading, in this case
notes, which contain abbreviations. Still, the majority denies having this kind of problem and
only 6% of them accepted facing difficulties while reading the others’ notes. Here we can apply
the same analysis as the question where we asked them if they had difficulties reading text
messages which contain abbreviations. No matter if you ask them for text messages or notes;
they will not accept the struggles they may experience while reading these kinds of text. Since
they find textisms as cool and attractive, they feel good while using textisms and also
professional enough of how and where to use them.

4.3 Abbreviations Meanings

Meaning I'm I'm a bit I took a I do not

certain uncertain guess at know
of the of the what it
meaning meaning could
mean
ASAP
 24

As soon as possible 51 2 4 13
L8r
Later 43 7 6 12
Letter 2
Listening and Reading 1
i.e.
For instance 32 6 2 30
IDK
I don’t know 62 1 1 6
I don’t care 1
LOL
Laughing out loud 53 3 3 8
Lots of love 3
NB
No body 17 3 9 57
Nota Bene 2 1
Nothing Better 1
Table 4

The last question of the questionnaire required students to give meaning to six
abbreviations where four of them were new and two of them were standard abbreviations (i.e.
and NB). In case they were not sure about the meaning, they could choose the option “I do not
know” or just take a guess of what it could be. The abbreviation they knew the most was “IDK”.
On the other hand they barely knew “NB”.

4.3.1 ASAP

ASAP is a new abbreviation which means “as soon as possible”. Most of the students (51 out
of 70) gave the right meaning and only 13 of them did not know what it stands for. The
reason why this abbreviation was chosen is its wide usage in internet including messages and
the length of the phrase which contains four words. Teenagers prefer to abbreviate the phrase
instead of writing the full version of its which involves sixteen letters. This abbreviation is
used among students but it will be inappropriate if it is used in formal language. None of the
students gave another meaning to this abbreviation.

4.3.2 L8r

L8r (later) was the second new abbreviation in the list. Majority of students gave the right
meaning while some others also gave meanings as : “letter” or “learning and reading”. The
 25

fact that students give another meaning when they do not know it, is connected to
phonological awareness and ability to create meaning based on what the abbreviation
reminds them of. While completing the questionnaires, some of the students were asking
about these abbreviations. In order to make them understand the task we required them to
read the abbreviations out loud. After doing so, they were able to understand the letters and
numbers and give the right meaning.

4.3.3 i.e.

The first standard abbreviation on the list was “i.e.” which means “for instance”. Half of
students gave the right meaning and there was another possible meaning. Compared to
another study conducted to university students[CITATION Nel17 \l 1033 ], there is difference
regarding creative thinking. University students gave much more possible answers than high
school students, especially to the standard abbreviations which they did not know the most.
Nevertheless, the proportion between the answers was positive because students usually tend
to know better new abbreviations instead of standard ones.

4.3.4 IDK

I don’t know was the abbreviations they knew the most. 64 out of 70 gave the right meaning
except of one student who gave the meaning “I don’t care” and six other students did not
know what IDK stands for.

4.3.5 LOL

LOL stands for “laughing out loud”. There are some people who also give the meaning of
“lots of love”. This abbreviation has always confused people and sometimes put them in
trouble because of the double meaning it has. According to the questionnaire result, this is
the second abbreviation students knew the most with 59 right answers. Not only is LOL used
in daily communication but it is also part of other activities: there is a movie titled LOL.

4.3.6 NB
 26

The last abbreviation on the list was NB which is a Latin phrase and it is used for “Note
Well”. NB was the abbreviation they did not know the most and there were also given two
other meanings: “nobody” and “nothing better”. Most of students gave the meaning
“nobody”. If we compare with university students questionnaires, there is still lack of
creativity because they were able to give seven more possible answers [CITATION Nel17 \l
1033 ].

CHAPTER 5

5.1 Conclusions

The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of text messaging on high school
students’ literacy. After considering all the gathered data from questionnaires, it appears that text
messaging most of the time is negatively affecting high school students. In general, these
generations have enough knowledge and experience in English language, since the majority of
them have more than seven years of studying this language. In this way, they are able to
understand and perform different tasks related to English language. Technology as a part of their
everyday life supports the usage of some shortened form of words as abbreviations and textisms.
Students tend to send message instead of calling people when they need to communicate. Even
though their mother tongue is Albanian, they still use phrases in English while texting. The
reasons why acting in this way are different. They differ from “texting in English is cool and
trendy” to necessity because the applications do not offer emoji or gif in Albanian language. For
instance, if they write a funny joke in Albanian, at the end they have to use an English emoji or
gif like “LOL”. These codes of communication are easily understandable and there is no place
for confusion among peers.

If we take daily communication into consideration, it is easier for students to send and
receive textisms. Nevertheless, informal conversations are not the only one where they use
abbreviations. Students also use them during their classes. Most of them accepted using
abbreviations while taking notes and they said they do not find difficulties while reading
someone else notes which contain these shortened forms of words. They are self aware of using
 27

textisms but it is hard for them to accept the difficulties they may face while encountering
abbreviations. This happens because they find abbreviations as cool and part of their lifestyle and
it is hard for them to admit that they cannot understand what their friends are talking about. The
conducted survey contained some questions which required them to accept or deny the
difficulties of abbreviations understanding. Students answered negatively to both of the
questions, so they did not accept finding difficulties while reading text messages or notes which
contain abbreviations. Considering the reasons we mentioned above for not accepting these kinds
of difficulties, the last question of the survey was structured in that way that we could understand
if they do or do not face difficulties.

As a result, students knew the new abbreviations but not at the same percentage as they
answered the previous questions; and they hardly knew standard abbreviations of English
language. Most of the time they substituted these abbreviations with new ones. While conducting
the survey, we were expecting a brilliant creativity, especially to the last question with
abbreviations meaning. Unfortunately, there was no creativity at all. It looks like all of them
think in the same way and know the same abbreviations. Perhaps, technology is killing their
creativity because they have kept in touch with it before they were teens, an age when creativity
is developed and reaches its peak.

5.2 Recommendations

We cannot separate technology and literacy, but we can improve their correlation through some
methods while teaching high school students and not only by:

1. Using technology in classrooms to see which are the difficulties that students encounter
during literacy skills related performance.
2. The stimulation of students who correctly perform literacy skills and good formal
writings.
3. Showing them good examples and importance of standard language use, but never
criticize their own style of writing.
4. Using textisms in the best possible way while teaching, in order to increase their
phonological awareness through different games.
 28

5.3 Further Research

Textisms and abbreviations do involve and develop phonological awareness but they also
cause serious problems in spelling, writing and reading. Creativity is another field where we can
see the impact of technology and textisms and it looks like they are killing this incredible ability
of authentic ideas. Nevertheless, further research need to be done in order to study the impact of
both to those generations who have kept in touch with technology since they were young.

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