MONDAY AUGUST 13, 2012, 9:26 AM
BY ELYSE TORIBIO
STAFF WRITER
www.northjersey.com
If the average American teen sends a staggering 3,000 text messages a month, you can be sure that there are more than a few letters, commas and apostrophes missing.
But taking a lax approach on grammar and spelling on mobile phones can have a lasting effect on schoolwork: A new study has found that students who had recently sent or received a text message performed considerably worse on a grammar exam than those who had not.
The study, of 228 children ages 10-14 by the Pennsylvania State University’s Media Effects Research Laboratory, shows that this phenomenon is no LOL matter.
S. Shyam Sundar, professor of communications and co-director of the laboratory that conducted the study, said that shorthand texting lingo, or "tech speak," is "the culture of mobile communication — quick back and forth — inevitably, there are compromises on traditional, cultural writing."
Sundar explained that the study’s findings, published in the August issue of the journal New Media & Society, show that young adults who consistently use tech speak are less likely to switch back to traditional grammar when appropriate.
"Routine use of textual adaptations by current and future generations of 13- to 17-year-olds may serve to create the impression that this is normal and accepted use of the language and rob this age group of a fundamental understanding of standard English grammar," the study said.
Sundar recommends that parents avoid the use of tech speak when they send text messages to their kids.
"We show that the number of received word adaptations critically determines the number of sent word adaptations, which in turn predicts poorer grammar scores," Sundar said.
But linguistics experts like Susana Sotillo, an associate professor at Montclair State University, disagree with the results of the study.
"Children know that when you’re in school, you do not use texting language," Sotillo said. "It’s up to the teacher to say it’s not acceptable."
To see the impact of text messaging on the grammar and language skills of adolescents, or on any other demographic group for that matter, would require a study of thousands of people across a variety of backgrounds, Sotillo said. She said that for more telling results, linguistics experts should play major roles in future studies.
"I’m very careful about the generalizations one can make," she said. "And no one is destroying the English language; the English language just keeps changing. It’s not a good idea to present change as a negative aspect."
Sotillo is currently studying the effects of text messaging, and has found correlations showing that people who regularly switch between texting language and standard language are actually more likely to have an expanded vocabulary.
Regardless of the study, there’s at least one area where texting definitely pays off – the Seventh Annual LG Texting Championship was held live in Times Square on Aug. 8. The contestant with the quickest thumbs, 17-year-old Austin Wierschke of Wisconsin, took home $50,000 for the second consecutive year. The winning challenge: A punctuated 149-character message typed in 39 seconds.