Texting and language learning

The use of text-messaging has increased dramatically across the world in recent years, and with it has come an abbreviated, casual writing style, often called textese, characterized by orthographic innovations called textisms. The research summarized in this chapter confirms that the use of textese is not associated with poorer literacy skills in general. In children, it is even linked with better reading and spelling ability, although the picture is less clear in adults. The way that textism use is studied is important, as different methodologies can result in different estimates. As the written language of text messaging continues to evolve, investigators should continue to develop ways of collecting and studying the message data in children and adults. Rather than being a distraction in the cL1ssrnom, mobile technology has the potential to act as a versatile tool for learning, and die research reviewed here could help to inform future studies in this area.