viernes, garrido chapter 1

1. good revision.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Rationale

Most educators have been claiming that texting hinders children from learning the English language, and that it is degrading the students’ capability to write effectively.

Textually.org states, “Texting is a vital tool for daily communication” (Ha, 2005). Dubbed as “the texting capital of the world”, the country’s 80 million people send 160 million text messages every day. In a country where computer and internet penetration remains low, text messaging is the equivalent of email and instant messaging.

Wikipedia.org defines text messaging or “texting” as the exchange of brief written messages between mobile phones over cellular networks. Texting is cheaper and easy to get across a message, rather than through mailing or calling. Spending hours of texting is common in the youth of the present generation. Estuar (2003) said that Filipino youth use cellular phones not only for communication purposes but also for maintaining their relationships with other people. She added that texting feature in cellular phones provide the Filipino youth the ability to show who they are and to express what they feel. Youth send messages in shortcut form and sometimes in incorrect grammar. Our spelling and grammar skills are important, not only academically, but also in communicating with others. Tiempo (2006) said that code switching, an example of text jargon, add creativity in the Cebuano language. However, he suggested that students should also be taught when is the proper time to use code it.

Nowadays, there have been issues concerning the youths’ excessive use of mobile phones. Since then, teens or teenagers are said to have been using the shorthand method of texting, which caused the deterioration of their spelling and grammar proficiency. Rosen et al. (2009) showed in her study that writing skills of students who use the shorthand way of texting were worse than those who rarely send text messages in shorthand form. However, Laurilla (2009) found out that there is no difference between the language proficiency of both cellular phone owners and non-owners. Aside from that, among cellular owners, there is no significant effect as to how frequent they use the shorthand method of texting.
On a larger scale, we can still hear issues about the negative effects of the use of abbreviations and the like. These topics are presently circulating everywhere. For instance, in United Kingdom (as cited in Proysen, 2009), a report said that a Scottish student passed an essay composition using the text messaging language. She found it more comfortable and easier to use than the standard English, along with the excessive use of cellular phones and the shortened method of texting. However, Streicher (2010) stated that people have failed to see the advantages that could come from text messaging. Streicher also said that in the study of Kristy Winkzer (2009) titled Investigating the Impact of SMS Speak on the Written Work of English First Language and English Second Language High- School Learners, 11th grade students who were reported to have texted more frequently than 8th grade students used the texting language less frequently than the latter.
By looking at these issues, the researchers felt that the exposure of the youth to shortcut texting has possibly affected their spelling and grammar skills. Since the youths’ disclosure to the present technology, they have started sending messages often in wrong spelling and grammar. This problem cropped up because of the people’s desire to know more about the advanced technology. The researchers wanted to find out a better way to improve the language proficiency of the youth despite the temptations of the world’s globalization. The topic about the effects of texting on the spelling and grammar skills of the third year students of UP Cebu has interested the researchers, and so we conducted this research.

Statement of the Problem

This study wants to know the effects of texting that have occurred to the Filipino youths, namely, the third year students of UP High School Cebu. This study is also intended to verify the critics’ insight that texting would result in students’ decline of spelling and grammar skills. Specifically, the study aims to carry out the following objectives:

1. To know how many years have the respondents been sending text messages.

2. To know how many hours they spend every day for text messaging.

3. To know whether they use the shorthand method of texting frequently.

4. To determine if the number of years of cellular phone usage is a factor that affects the spelling and grammar skills of the respondents.

5. To know if the number of hours of text messaging is a contributing factor that results to poor spelling and grammar.

6. To identify whether the use of shorthand method of text messaging affect their spelling and grammar skills.

Significance of the Study

This study will be a barometer on how the third year students of UP High School Cebu have managed to cope with a technological innovation like the cellular phone. The result of this study will be very useful for the respondents, parents and teachers.

This study will help the students become conscious of their spelling and grammar. Aside from that, this study can help the students to take a closer look at themselves and become a point of reflection, deliberating whether text messaging has been a hindrance to their academic improvement.

In this way, the parents and the teachers will be able to guide the students on when to or when not to use shorthand way of writing.