Work

The structure and features of the SMS language used in the written work of Communication English I students at a university in South Africa

Year: 2015

Type: article

Abstract: Employing an explanatory design, this study set out to investigate the morphosyntactic structures of the SMS language of Communication English I students, and the types of SMS language features used in their written work at a university of technology in South Africa. The study randomly sampled 90 undergraduate students (M = 40; F = 50) enrolled for a national diploma programme during the first academic semester in 2013. Their ages ranged from 19–22 years; they all spoke English as a second language, whilst having one of the five black South African languages as their home language. The study had two types of data: participants’ mobile phone text messages (in two sets), and their writing samples. Two of the findings of the study are: the morphological structure of the textisms used in the participants’ text messages deviated from that applicable to formal, standard English, whereas much of their syntactic structure did not; and, the frequency and proportion of textisms in participants’ writing samples were lower than that reported in studies by Freudenberg (2009) and Rosen et al. (2010).

Source: Reading & Writing

DOI: 10.4102/rw.v6i1.83

Authors: Chaka Chaka, Mampa L. Mphahlele, Charles C. Mann

Institution: Tshwane University of Technology

Language: English

Topic: Digital Communication and Language

Subfield: Linguistics and Language

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $718