doodletexter00WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS
Textspeak has long been blamed for bad spelling.
Researchers in England gathered children's text messages, counted the shortcuts and tested reading, spelling and grammar. Again and again, the shortcuts went with better scores, or made no difference. The skill that matters is knowing when to switch.
Check a textism01Principles
02THE SHORT ANSWER
Three findings from UK studies
of children's real text messages.
READING
In a 2009 study of 88 British 10 to 12-year-olds, the share of textisms in their messages was positively linked to word reading, vocabulary and phonological awareness.
Check a textismSPELLING
Following 119 children aged 8 to 12 across a school year, researchers found textism use predicted later spelling, while spelling did not predict later textism use.
See the numbersGRAMMAR
A 2014 follow-up found no evidence of negative links between children's grammatical slips in texts and their progress on grammar tests over a year.
What it means03A QUICK TEXTISM CHECK
Pick a kind of texting habit to see what the studies found. The bar shows how much concern the research raises.
Based on Plester and colleagues (2009), Wood and colleagues (2011, 2014) and Veater and colleagues (2011).
04TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING
Two UK studies that followed
the same people over a year.
119
Children aged 8 to 12 followed for a school year
Textism use at the start of the year predicted spelling at the end, after allowing for age, verbal IQ, phonological awareness and earlier spelling. The link just missed significance once rapid picture naming was controlled.
SPELLING · WOOD 2011
243
Participants from the West Midlands of England
89 primary pupils, 84 secondary pupils and 70 undergraduates were tested twice, a year apart. There was no evidence of negative links between children's texting slips and their grammar progress.
GRAMMAR · WOOD 2014
The 2009 authors discuss two possible reasons for the link: more exposure to print, and playful use of language. The 2014 authors note that not every kind of grammatical slip was used consistently from one year to the next.
05FOUR THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
The research is reassuring about texting itself. It does not say anything goes in every kind of writing, and it is about children's own messages, not their school work.
In the 2009 study, textism use went with phonological awareness, the skill of hearing the sounds inside words, which also supports reading.
A text to a friend and an essay for a teacher follow different rules. The skill is choosing the right one.
In the studies, texting habits did not drag down reading, spelling or grammar scores over a year.
The 2014 authors say it matters whether a texter breaks a rule on purpose or does not know it.
06WHY THE WORRY STARTED
There has long been concern that texting abbreviations such as u for you and ppl for people would damage children's literacy. The 2014 paper starts from that concern, then tests it with real messages and standard assessments.
The research team behind these studies tracked the same children over time, which lets them ask which came first. In the 2011 study the answer pointed one way: textism use went before better spelling, not the reverse.
07Questions
UK studies did not find that. Wood and colleagues (2011) found textism use at the start of a school year predicted better spelling at the end among 8 to 12-year-olds.
The 2009 authors discuss two possible reasons: more exposure to print, and playful use of language. Their textism measure was also linked to phonological awareness.
Wood, Kemp and Waldron (2014) found no evidence of negative associations between children's grammatical slips in texts and their progress on grammar tasks over a year.
Possibly. Work cited in the 2014 paper linked young adults' textism use to poorer formal writing for those with some or no college education, but better informal writing for all.
A small 2011 study found no significant difference in how many textisms dyslexic children used, though they preferred non-phonetic abbreviations.
08Sources
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