2 Text Or Nt 2 Text?

Kids

oi-Staff

By Staff

Wednesday, February 25, 2009, 16:20

With the cell phone growing to become a vital part of our lifestyles, communication through text messages in the recent times have seen a drastic raise. The messages like 'wot u doin 2nite' or 'waz up' have caused concerns over children's spelling abilities.

A latest study has revealed that this particular texting style does not affect a child's literacy, in fact it might also help to improve it. A study carried out by Beverly Plester and her colleagues at Coventry University in the UK, involved 88 kids aged between 10 to 12 to write text messages describing 10 different scenarios.

This rate of textism was compared to a different group of students for a study of children's reading ability, it was discovered that those children who used textisms were better readers. The follow-up study and its preliminary results showed that textism rather improved literacy.

Pleater believes that this could be basically because the textisms are phonetically based."Phonological awareness has long been associated with good reading skills," New Scientist quoted Plester, as saying.

It was also found that any amount of exposure to the written word in any form is also linked to improved literacy. "These kids are engaging with more written language and they''re doing it for fun," Plester added.

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