Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Assalamualaikum and Hello Dr Burn,


There are 5 issues that were debunked by Professor David Crystal that I might or might not agree with. The first concern is,

  •        Is texting is done only by kids?


In this situation, I would totally agree with him which it is not true that texting is only done by kids. In fact, in Malaysian context, it is common thing to see adult texting via their smartphone while walking, eating, working and even driving! It is not a fair statement to say that only kid did texting using their phone. I've tried to look for any related literature review to support the notion, however I couldn't find any statement that said the amount of texting between kids/adult are not much different with one another. In fact, some of the information found are contradict with my statement  as for instance, it is stated that a ‘ survey found that both text messaging and phone calling on cell phones usage leveled off for the adult population as a whole. Text messaging users send or receive an average of 41.5 messages on a typical day, with the median user sending or receiving 10 texts daily. Vice versa for the teenage users, the exchange an average of 109.5 messages on a normal day that works out to more than 3,200 texts per month.’

  •       Are kids fill their text messages with abbreviations?

The answer is YES. Most of the kids used abbreviations in their messages and sometimes it can’t be understood by the receiver. I myself been in there situation where I hardly get the meaning of the text that the sender intend to deliver. Luckily, in term of second language texting, all the abbreviations are still making sense and it is indeed used by worldwide. As for instance, ‘gtg’ refers to ‘got to go’; ‘afk’ refers to ‘away from keyboard’. But in term of the first language (Malaysian context), it is worst! Guess what ‘aew pown trakw’ means? Answer: ‘Aku pon taktau’. Sadly, yes.  

  •       Are these abbreviations that the kids use in their text messages are invented by them?


In this situation, I once again disagree with Professor Davis Crystal which I do believe that most of the abbreviations in texting are invented by kids.  The words such as 2moro (tomorrow), 2nite (tonight), 2u2 (to you too) and AMBW (all my best wishes) are basically made up by them. It is uncommon words to be used back then, but now it is an acceptable ‘technology culture’ in our society.

  •        Is it true because of the use of abbreviation, they don’t know how to spell correctly?


The forth statement is a true notion in my point of view. I am not quite agree with the statement given by him which he said ‘ the more you text, the better your literacy scores and the earlier you get your mobile phone, the better your literacy scores’ . It is because, somehow the way they texting to each other affect their way of writing. I did come across several essays written by my students that used words such as ‘btw’ and they even write the 'and' word  as ‘n’.In fact, to be honest, it is a very common issue that need to be overcome by the English teachers. Moreover, based on  British Broadcasting Company (March 4, 2003) reports that 'text messaging has long been blamed for declining standards of spelling and grammar, particularly in paper and pencil writing'. In this situation, it is indirectly affect the way they write their essays (even sentences) in attempting the tasks given by teachers or even during the examination which answered myth number 5. I have different opinion compared to the Professor David Crystal which he debunked the notion given. It may not be that obvious in the westerner’s culture, but here in Malaysia, it did affect their performance especially in term of writing skill.  In addition,The Times Daily newspaper cites a recent report, "Writing, Technology and Teens," which found that the cell phone text-based abbreviated communications teens use are showing up in more formal writing.

Next, I do agree that texting is a good medium for learning or in using English language. However, note to be taken that there must be guidelines, assistance from the educators to ensure that the words use in texting are appropriate and did help them to improve their English. If they were given 100% freedom, it is hard to control the use of words and the impact of it to the students. Educators need to always become the facilitators in order to make sure that the intended goal will be achieved. As proposed by Crystal (2011) himself, as he said, ‘we need to know how to build on the strengths of SMS language and its creative potentials. Cell phones have a lot of expressive potential apart from their basic communicative functions.'

Regarding the conflict between the issue of social and the educational issue, I would say that it is the mixture of both issues. In term of the educational issue, like what is mentioned above, we can see there are lots of lacking to our educational system due to the effect of texting itself. On the other hand, in term of social issue, kids are becoming too attached with the technology/texting. They are holding their phone where ever they go, whatever they do and anytime they want too, including texting while studying or when their teachers/educators talking in front of the class.  Indirectly, it will affect their behavior and attitude as a person also as a student specifically.



Thank you 

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for your blog entry, Hanisah. I appreciate your thoughts on this matter. It is quite difficult to wrap out heads around the idea of texting as good for the English language. I too agree with Professor David Crystal in that texting is more of a social issue than it is an educational issue. However, when in the context of using English as a second language--and due to the fact that learning a second language takes both the form of formal learning and informal learning (i.e., language acquisition)--the idea of texting in learning a language can be a bit suspect. Overall, I guess if the teacher can really harness the powers of technology and use it in good ways, learning can always happen. To me, it is always going to be teachers over technology.

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