Texting in School: The Gr8 Db8 Revisited

Irina Averianova, Nagoya Business University, Japan

GloCALL 2011

Cell Phone - History

1905 2011

Cell Phone Statistics - worldwide mobile phone subscriptions

Rank

Country or region

Number of mobile phones

% of population

Last updated

- World Over 5 billion 2010

1 China 906,800,000 67.1 June 2011

2 India 840,280,000 70.23 May 2011

3 United States

302,947,098 96 Dec 2010

4 Russia 220,550,000 151.9 February 2011

5 Brazil 217,300,000 111.6 June 2011

6 Indonesia 168,264,000 73.1 May 2009

7 Japan 107,490,000 84.1 Mar. 2009

Instant Messaging-Development 1995 -0.4 messages per customer per month

2006 - 72% of all mobile phone users worldwide use Short Message Service (SMS).

Finland, Sweden, Norway - 90% of the population

The European average - about 85%

2010 -2.4 trillion

Texting as Electronic Discourse: Written Speech Spoken Writing

(Hybrid, A new computer style, Internet Slang, Internet language, Net speak, Chat Room Shorthand, Tech-talk, Nu English)

DISCURSIVE DRIVES

Economy of writing

Linguistic relaxation

Maintenance of orality in the absence of direct auditory interaction

Electronic Discourse

ABBREVIATION

SIMPLIFIED SYNTAX :Incomplete sentences: Need 2 go; been watching ya; “Contracted” contractions: dont, whats, that’s

EMOTICONS (SMILEGLYPHS, SMILEYS)

:-) “smile” :’-( “crying” :-* “kiss”

:-O “surprise, shock” :-D “laughing” :-@ “screaming”

>:-O “angry/yelling >:-( “angry/grumpy” 

Texting – Linguistic ProfileInitialisms

Words

N – no Y – yes W – with W/O – without W/E – weekend GF - girl friend

Phrases

NP - no problem FTF – face to face

Sentence

OMG – oh my God! SWDYT – so what do you think CMB – call me back

Texting – Linguistic ProfileContractions

attn, rgds, sb, sth,  

Clippings

lab, rep, Jan, Sat, pic

 Vowel omission

Gd – good, pls – please, xlnt -excellent

Logograms

29t (tonight), cu @ 8, 4u

Electronic Discourse in SMS

il b kmg dar 2 mor 2 c S cz I need 2 giv her dr buk kmg wif P vl meet 2 k g’n8 (-: (I’ll be coming there tomorrow to see S, because I need to give her the book. Coming with P. We’ll meet too ok? Good night.’)YYSSW - yeah, yeah, sure, whateverSWYRT - so what do you think? BHME@2 - I will be home at 2 o’clock)

Txtng: The Gr8 Db8(D. Crystal, 2008)

My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc

(In translation: "My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York. It's a great place.") (BBC News, 4 March, 2003)

Texting in academic writing

xs cmpnstn fnds wl b nvstd 4 srvvng fmly mmbrs

(In translation: “Excess compensation funds will be invested for surviving family members.”) (I. Berman, 2006)

Texting in academic writing

Common disclaimer phrases (called “parantheticals”) ofn contract in2 ACRONYMS – they tend to occur @ certain points in a sentence which can facilitate decoding. Some e.g.s.: IMHO – In my humble/honest opinion…

Lol, btw, b/c (N. Baron 2009)

@, $, &

Texting – Other problems Cheating

2002 - University of Maryland, College Park, 12 students

2002 - Hitotsubashi University, 26 students

2004 - England, 287 school and college students

Multitasking

Disruption

Texting – Benefits Teenagers read and write more (B. Bass, Maryland

Writing Project, 2002)

Additional experience in writing (D.Crystal, 2009)

Diversity of writing: “A new generation of teenage writers, accustomed to translating their every thought and feeling into words” (H.Helderman, 2009)

Revising and editing (G. Jacobs, 2010)

Top writing platform >>> Increased motivation of writing tasks

Texting – Concerns Code-switching

Knowledge of traditional writing conventions

Communicative awareness

Texting etiquette

Differentiation between creativity and normative language use

NUCB Survey – 40 faculty, 64 3rd-year English MajorsSMS, MMS, Email: “Never” or “Almost never”?

Teachers Students

48 % never send 4 %

32 % never receive 4 %

NUCB SurveyDo we need to use cell-phone for teaching and learning?

Agree DisagreeNot sure

Teachers

2.8 % 54.3 % 42.9 %

Students

47 % 3 % 50 %

NUCB Survey Students SHOULD NOT use cell-

phone at school

AGREE

Teachers Students

75 % 60 %

DISAGREE

Teachers Students

8.5 % 11 %

What is texting today? “Linguistic decline”, “Crisis”

Nu English, language of the future

PURISM OR FLEXIBILITY?

2b or not 2b th@ts ?

Innovative research!

Innovative practice!