The possible effects of text messaging on the written work of grade 11 English first additional language learners at a public high school in Pretoria.
Thubakgale, Katlego Ngaletsane Success
Thubakgale, Katlego Ngaletsane Success
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Abstract
This study set out to investigate the possible effects of text messaging language on the written schoolwork of grade 11 English first additional language learners (EFAL) at a public high school in Soshanguve, Pretoria. It was informed by the views by Thurlow and Brown (2003) and Mahmoud (2013) that many young people seem to be addicted to the growing practice of text messaging so much that they use their mobile phones during lessons, and that a core feature of almost all young people’s mobile phone use is text messaging. Thus, the study had two objectives: to identify the use of text messaging in the written schoolwork of grade 11 EFAL at a public high school in Soshanguve; and to establish the possible effects (positive or negative) that text messaging had on these learners’ written schoolwork. The participants for the study were thirty eight (38) grade 11 learners (n = 38, M = 10, F = 28, mean age = 17.4 years) who had mobile phones and liked text messaging. These participants were selected through three sampling techniques: opportunistic purposeful, voluntary and convenience sampling techniques. In addition, three (3) female grade 11 EFAL teachers were requested to participate in the study. The data for this study were collected using the following materials: learner written tasks (a two-paragraph text message task and a page-long essay task); a learner questionnaire; and a teacher questionnaire. Some of text message features the study detected from written learner activities were shortenings; contractions; acronyms/initialisms; g-clippings; letter homophones; number homophones; no apostrophes, no full stops; omitted words; incorrect capitalisation; spelling errors; and non-conventional spelling errors. Two of the findings of the study are: text message features as a percentage of the word count in both learner activities had a lower prevalence in the written work of the learners; and except for spelling errors, it was possible for a majority of these learners to write their essays without much reliance on the text message features identified in above. On this basis, the study concludes that text messaging did not have a possible negative effect on learners’ written work
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Submitted with fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree Magister Technologiae: Language practice in the Department of Applied Languages Faculty of Humanities.
Date
2025
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Tshwane University of Technology
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Keywords
English First Additional Language (EFAL), Written Work, Language Interference, Adolescent Literacy, Text Messaging