Efffects of Cell Phone Text Language

Cellular telephone or Mobile telephone commonly referred as mobile phone or cellphone is a long-range, portable electronic device that is used in mobile communication. In 1990’s, few messages were sent through SMS (Short Messaging Service), but in year 2000 text messaging has been develop and gain popularity so the number of subscribers increase. In the late 60’s, cellphone were initially introduced in the Philippines and was made popular by Motorola Philippines. In the mid 70’s, GSM (Groupe Spécial Mobile) was introduced by Nokia Philippines, with advanced features such as text messaging, call waiting, call forwarding, and call hold. It started a new breed of mobile users, who made text messaging as the cheapest means of communication in the country. Today, the popularity of cell phone has become increasingly evident among college students’.

It became a necessity like their notebooks and textbooks. The most widely feature of cell phone is text messaging service us or more mobile phones. SMS is often used by college students they mostly text in class, in the mall, while doing their household chores, while eating and watching TV and even texting while doing their home work and project. They also used text messaging to multi-task. However, multitasking has negative aspects such as decrease of performance and distraction that affects how we remember information (Gaither, 2008). Text messaging is convenient, fast and easy and cell phone users do not need to answer back text right away.

Because of the convenience, college students find texting as one of the most suitable way of communicating with someone. Because of this, the growing concern among educators, parents, researchers and general public that this practice is damaging the use of language in writing and will affect the standard forms. The focus of this study is to find out if there is an implication of cell phone texting to the written communication skills of students. As most of the exams, assignments, reports and assessments are usually in written form and if there’s an implications on the spelling and punctuation the students use in their writing.

Therefore, the debate for it effects arises in the World Wide Web, one of the online debates about the effects of texting to written skills can be found at the website www.ehow.com. The debate entitled “The Effects of Text Messaging on English Grammar” In this debate they discussed the unscientific poll conducted by Edutopia.org, that out off 1028 respondents 50% felt that texting is harming the student’s writing and grammar while 27% felt that texting does not have negative influence and the 20% thought that text messaging may have some impact but they do not think it is a major problem.

With this alarming issue the proponents decided to conduct a study about the effects of cellular phone texting language to written communication skills of the college students, especially in the College of Arts in Sciences in BatStateU ARASOF – Nasugbu. Hence, the purpose of this study is to account the effects of cellular phone texting language to written communication skills of the College of Arts and Sciences in BatStateU ARASOF – Nasugbu.

Statement of the Problem
This study aims to know the effects of cellular phone texting language to written communication kills of the College of Arts and Sciences in BatStateU ARASOF -Nasugbu.
Specifically the study attempts to answer the following questions:
1. What is the level of usage of cellular phone texting as regards to:
1.1 number of hours use
1.2 and number of SMS sent by the participant?
2. What is the level of writing skills of the respondents as regards to:
2.1 spelling
2.2 grammar
2.3 and punctuation?
3. Is there a significant relationship between the level of usage of cellular phone texting and level of writing skills of the respondents?

Background of the Study
The researchers, who are third year Bachelor of Arts in Communication students aim to contribute to the debate of the effects of text messaging language and to find out how it affects student’s writing skills in a country like the Philippines. It is a mere fact that English is not the country’s first language and with the use of the evidence to be obtained from the survey it will then be prove the negative impact or otherwise of cell phone texting on students written communication skills and to make recommendations as how its negative effects, if any, can be mitigated. The researchers are also motivated by the fact that the cellular phone users are increasing every year and it became a necessity for communication and a vital part for the student’s social lives.

Setting of the study
This study will be conducted at the Batangas State University ARASOF – Nasugbu, which is located at R. Martinez St., Barangay Bucana, Nasugbu, Batangas for the main reason that the proponents are currently studying at the said University. In addition to that, the researchers will conduct the study in this place because they will be able to seek the help and guidance from the professors and instructors of the College of Arts and Sciences who will provide them relevant information vital to the study.

Significance of the Study
The result of the study is expected to be beneficial and will be of great help to the following:
The Administration. The result of this study may be used as a tool in helping the institution attain their goal in fostering the culture of the research campus. The College. This study may help in the promotion of quality education as the output of this study which is the implication of cell phone texting to written communication skills can be used in enriching the curriculum. The Instructors. The result of this study can possibly be a tool in providing another perspective for the teachers. The Students The outcome of this study maybe utilized by the students to develop and enhance communication skills as a future professional communicators. The Future Researchers, This study may help and serve as one step forward for further studies about this matter.

CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES
This chapter presents a review of literature that has relevance to the study. It also includes the theoretical and conceptual framework, scope and limitations and the definition of terms use.

Conceptual Literature
Philippines has the largest population of mobile subscribers. An average of 20 text messages sent daily by a subscriber, because of this, the Philippines was considered as the text capital of the world. On 2007 alone, there are 42.70 million people who are subscribers of mobile phones. Text messaging is very popular in the Philippines because it is a cheap and reliable means of communication. In 2010, the so called Jejemon invaded social networking sites and mobile phone text messaging. Basically, anyone with a low tolerance in correct punctuations, syntax and grammar can be called Jejemon. It was derived from two words jeje from “hehe” means laughter and mon a japanese influence suffix in pokemon.

The Jejemons are said to be the new “jologs”, a term used by Filipinos of the lower income class and they are often attributed to be of inferior intellect, but this belief may be wrong as a number of them exist in exclusive schools, science high schools and popular colleges. The parameters of being classified as a Jejemon are still unclear, and how the different levels of Jejemonism are reached, although there are levels such as mild, moderate and severe or terminal. This current research leads to the formation of the research question that guided this study on how text messaging languages influence the students writing skills.

As text message or SMS is the cheapest form of communication, SMS is a communication protocol that is use to deliver a short text messages that is up to 160 characters also it is the most popular communication tools worldwide (“Short Message Service” 2008). Approximately 90% of teenagers send SMS with their peers, with an average message length of 71 characters (Grinter and Eldridge, 2003). SMS language affects two aspects of learner’s language proficiency the skills to express themselves eloquently through writing and the skills and ability to use words appropriately in context. Texters tend to write the spelling of some words as they pronounce it and omit punctuation and overuse it in their tests, assignments and reports which sometimes hamper comprehension of the sense they want to convey.

They are thus unable to differentiate the situation for the use of SMS language. They do not only mix these with formal writing but consider as right since they are surrounded by this language in the form of text messages, television, billboards, comics, books, newspapers and sometimes circulars from their institutions. At the same time, texting has been considered as a sign of creativity and proficiency by some researchers. For David Crystal (2008) the student will develop their writing skills if they often practice writing. Also he pointed out that the language is in the process of the revitalization not destruction due to technology, texting helps develop vocabulary and reading skills rather than damaging the language based to Baron (2008) and also according to him as soon as the child learn how to differentiates the formal writing to informal writing of language then the SMS language will not affects his/her literacy. Another observation on student writing,

Thurlow (2011) cited by Shazia Aziz et al. (2013) called texters as a ‘novel, creative’ way of improving close relationships and existing social circles. Friess (2003) noted that students seemed to communicate academic thoughts, but it seems they didn’t know its y-o-u not u. As for Leung (2008), college students use text messaging for escape, affection, convenience, entertainment, coordination, and sociability. Thurlow (2006) shared by Shazia Aziz et al. (2013) claims that the growing body of scholarly research deals with two types of public observations the first one is the general influence of texting on the standard languages and on popular notions of good communication, second, concerns about the specific influence of text messaging language on conventional literacy.

Few scholars insist that texting has a negative influence on standard writing, spelling and grammar (Siraj and Ullah 2007), most experimental studies maintain that texting does not pose a threat to Standard English learning and teaching. Some of the research on the issue of standard illiteracies from Plester and her colleagues shows a positive relation between texting and literacy (Plester, et al. 2009 b, Plester, et al. 2008; Plester, et al. 2009 a).

Research Literature
In a study conducted by Salome Geestsema et al. (2011) entitled Short Message Service (SMS) language and written language skills; educators perspective concluded in general opinion of educators that the SMS language has negative influence in the written language skills of learners in English. The majority of educators encounter G-clippings, non-conventional spellings and sentence structure, length is also perceived to be influenced as sentences are shortened and simplified. Furthermore punctuation is also perceived to be influenced. The most encountered in the written language task of learners are incorrect use of full stops, commas and exclamation marks. Whether the educators perceived the influence of SMS language on written language skills as either negative or positive depends on the educator’s expectation of the learners to adhere to Standard English.

The perceived negative influence of SMS language on the written language skills of learners combined with the high expectation of their educators has implication for academic achievement of their learners. The study conducted by Heidi Hemmer (2009) entitled Impact of Text Messaging on Communication showed that text messaging is displacing face-to-face communication. Technology displaces face-to-face communication and the displacing began with the radio, newspaper and television. Most of college students are unaware that they are displacing face-to-face communication when they are using a text message or when they are texting. Perhaps, displacing is not only by texting but by all new technology. The study conducted by Shanthi Vaidyanathan Ravichandran also shared the positive impact that the Parents and Caregivers (PACG) perceived that mobile phones are very useful devices for communication and co-co-ordination of activities they found out that mobile phones are compulsory to use as safety devices especially in emergencies.

The negative impact is it’s become a distraction in study time and other important activities of teenagers there are also some major problems that the PACG perceived, the bullying and abusive messages, overall the finding of this study are not satisfactory. A study entitled SMS Texting and its potential Impacts on students Written Communication Skill conducted by Solomon Ali Dansieh (2011), the study generalized the positive impact of SMS text messaging on student literacy as Crystal and others claim that it could be misleading in view of addictive effects of text messaging.

Students get use to it that they may no longer realize the need for standard English construction in their writing that suppose to be formal, O’Conor (2005) describe it as “Saturation” with findings that obtained from the survey conducted among the staff and students of Wa Polytechnic, it is evident that SMS text messaging could pose a threat to students writing skills and therefore must not entertains by the students in their assignment and examination. Based on the study of Shazia Aziz et al. (2013) there are some area of language that are affected in students writing skills and some of these are, spelling, punctuation, grammar and tenses, based on this study almost 72% is affected by SMS language and some educators who teach English reveal 100% of their students are also affected by SMS language.

Some of the most affected area in language are the spelling which is 80% of the students is affected, while in punctuation is 13 % of the students are affected and in grammar and tenses 7% of the students are affected the result of their study says that spelling and punctuation is the most affected area of language which include 50% of commas were missed by the students in their academic writing, apostrophe which 0.02 % were also missed in each students in this study they found that question mark and the semi colon is not affected by the SMS language because this is the most basic punctuation marks.

In this study were students in undergraduate level they find texting as their common way of communication and that’s why they use abbreviated forms and miss the punctuation while texting /typing. These type of errors are has some factors like the carelessness and lack of knowledge. The results of this study indicate that people’s concerns about the impact of SMS language on the academic writing of students and about standard language being in danger of destruction are exaggerated or misplaced. The discussion indicates that the study has demystified the popular belief or misconception that the students writing is adversely affected by texting and thus the future of Standard English is in danger.

At least at the level of students participated in the study said that they are generally aware of the context in which they are writing and they can switch to the appropriate style when writing formally for academic purposes despite the fact that texting is their common way of communication and they use abbreviated forms and miss punctuation while texting whose context and limitations demand that they do so because the urgency of turn taking and the ease of typing and the urge to save time and space are the underlying motives while texting. As for the effects of texting on academic writing, there are marked evidence in the findings of the study that the spelling is not generally affected because of the students is being conscious on the context in which they are writing. The study has demystified the myth that SMS is having disastrous effects on language in general and students writing proficiency in particular.

Theoretical framework
This study aims to deepen the information about the effects of cellular phone texting language to written communication skills of the college students under the College of Arts and Sciences in Batangas State University ARASOF – Nasugbu. Through this, the proponents will be able to research about the written communication skill and cellular phone texting language.. 1 Signaling Theory

It is a theoretical work that examines the communication between individuals. The central question is when organisms with conflicting interests should be expected to communicate honestly (without any assumption being made of conscious intention) rather than cheating. This theory is convenient to describe the behavior when two parties, individuals or organizations access different information. 2 Cultivation Theory by George Grebnerin

The central claim of this theory is the persistent long term exposure to media content that has a small but measurable effects on the perception of the audience members and when a person is always exposed with the message provided by the media, the more that person believe that the message is real. 3 Writing Theory

Claude Shannon’s Model
The value of Shannon’s model for the theory of writing is its emphasis on encoding/decoding and on the effect of noise. It overlooks the motives of both the sender (writer) and receiver (reader). People have reasons for writing and reading. A Model Based on Ulric Neisser’s Work

This model fits the writing process well. We begin writing motivated by our current ideas, beliefs, motives, etc. As we write, we explore and discover information. This new information feeds back into our starting ideas and motives, changing or reinforcing them. From this point, we can engage in another round of exploratory writing. A Model Based on Michael Polanyi’s Work

His model is simple; a person discovers meaning in an experience. Subsequently, the person writes something like a poem, a novel, an essay, a letter and a journal that expresses the meaning found in the experience. Finally, someone reads the text and discovers meaning in it. The reader may be the writer himself or herself, the reader may be a complete stranger. An important implication of this model is that the text does not convey the original experience to the reader. Instead, it conveys meaning to the reader. Further, the meaning the reader discovers in the text may not be the meaning intended by the writer. In other words, a text cannot convey an experience; it can only convey meanings. Many texts do not convey a single, unequivocal meaning to all readers: These are the texts we call literature.

Conceptual Framework
The paradigm of the effects of cellular phone texting language to written communication skills of College of Arts and Sciences in BatStateU ARASOF – Nasugbu A.Y. 2014-2015 is presented in the next page.

Input Process Output

Fig. 2.1 Research Paradigm of the Study

The paradigm of the conceptual framework uses the System Approach Input –Process – Output for evaluation. The following is hereby presented to serve as conceptual framework of the study. Frame 1 shows Input describes the level of usage of cellular phone texting gender and course, level of awareness of the implication of ownership and duration of cell phone use, negative effects of texting and the course of action may be taken to help mitigating the negative effects of texting. Frame 2 presents the Process illustrates the sequence of steps to be use in the fulfilment of the study.

Frame 3 shows the Output describes the Implications of cellular phone texting to written communication skills of College of Arts and Sciences of BatStateU ARASOF -Nasugbu A.Y. 2014-2015.

Scope and Limitations of the Study
This study is mainly concerned with the effects of cellular phone texting language to written communication skills of College of Arts and Sciences in BatStateU ARASOF – Nasugbu A.Y. 2014-2015. It will determine the level of usage of the respondents with regards to number of hours spent and number of SMS sent. This study will also explore the level of writing skills of the students. Furthermore, this study will explain the correlation between the cellular phone texting language and the written ability of the respondents.

This study will utilize the descriptive survey method. The respondents of the study are the College of Arts and Sciences students of BatStateu ARASOF – Nasugbu A.Y. 2014-2015. Questionnaires will be distributed to the respondents. The study is limited to the freshmen and sophomore students of the College of Arts and Sciences in BatStateU ARASOF – Nasugbu A.Y. 2014-2015 as this student is currently taking English as their minor subject and due to financial and proximity reason as the proponents are also under the same college.

Definition of Terms
For clarification, the terms operationally used in this study are defined as follows: Implication refers to the possible future effect or result. Cellular phone it is a long-range, portable electronic device that use for mobile communication. Texting is a process of sending and receiving written messages using cell phone. Texter refers to a person who communicates by text messaging. Written Communication refers to a medium for communication that entails the written word. Communication refers to the process of sending and receiving messages via various mediums. Jejemon according to urban dictionary.com it is a person with a low tolerance for correct punctuation, syntax and grammar. SMS is the act of composing and sending a brief, electronic message between two or more mobile phones. GSM is originally named Groupe Special Mobile is a wide area wireless communications system that uses digital radio transmission to provide voice, data, and multimedia communication services.

CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the research methodology which includes the research design, the respondents of the study, the research instrument, process involved in data gathering and its statistical treatment.

Research Design
This study aims to know the effects of cellular phone texting language to written communication skills of students from the College of Arts and Sciences of BatStateU ARASOF – Nasugbu for the A.Y. 2014-2015. To be able to accomplish the objectives of the study, the researchers will utilize the descriptive method of research which uses survey questionnaire as the gathering instrument. It is known to be the most sophisticated research design method in examining a hypothesis. The researchers will prepare a set of questions that will focus on the effects of cellular phone texting language to written communication skills of the students from the College of Arts and Sciences in BatStateU ARASOF – Nasugbu.

Participants of the Study
The respondents of the study will be the first year and second year students from the College of Arts and Sciences in BatStateU ARASOF – Nasugbu, A.Y 2014-2015.

Data Gathering Instruments
Construction
The researchers will use a survey questionnaire in gathering data. The questionnaires of this study will be constructed through reading of different sources such as published materials, journals, and internet sources. The questionnaire consists of three parts. The first part focuses on the demographical profile of the respondents. The second part focuses on the level of awareness to the implication of ownership and duration of cell phone use. The third part focuses on the common negative effects of texting to written communication skills and the last part focuses on the possible ways to mitigate the negatives effects of cell phone texting to written communication skills.

Data Gathering Procedures
The researchers will formulate their survey questionnaire. They will adopt the procedure on how to construct the questionnaire by searching in the internet and published thesis. The final copy of the questionnaire will be validated by the experts. The researchers will hand the questionnaires along with the letter of request to the adviser and to the Associate Dean of CAS for their approval and signature. The researchers will distribute the questionnaire to the respondents. The researchers will then request the respondent to answer the questions in the questionnaire with great sincerity and honesty and the researchers will assure the respondent’s answers will be treated with most confidentiality and will be used solely for the research. Then the retrieval and analysis of the result of evaluation and validation of the respondents answer will follow. The collected data will be tallied, analyzed and interpreted.

Statistical Treatment
The researchers will utilize the weighted mean and frequency to present the data that to be gathered from the respondents. The weighted mean will be used to determine the most common negative effects of texting to the written communication skills of the students under the College of Arts and Sciences in BatStateU ARASOF – Nasugbu. Frequency will also be used to determine the awareness of the students on the implication of ownership and the duration of cell phone use.

The weighted mean will be used to measure the typicality of the responses with the following formula:
WX= Ts x Tr/N
Where:
Ts= Total score
Tr= Total responses
N= Total Number of Respondents
The interpretation of the data will be gathered concerning to the most common negative effects of texting to the written communication skills of the College of Arts and Sciences students in BatStateU ARASOF – Nasugbu. The interpretation and description of the scale that will be utilized in this study will be presented later on the following chapters.