Texting and Literacy

I read a Donald Clark's comment that texting "Helps rather than hinders literacy." He further quotes three studies from City University (London), Coventry University and Finland, that purport to show positive links between texting and literacy. And research is slowing beginning to show that texting actually benefits literacy skills. The studies are few, with small numbers of children, so we must be cautious, but a picture is emerging that texting does not harm writing abilities, and may even help it."

The first study shows no difference in grammar and spelling skills between texters and non-texters, while the other two show that texting provides fresh opportunities for linguistic creativity and positive links between the use of text language and the the skills underlying success in standard English.

I was also told that this comment was reflected in a comment in Newsweek (Aug, 2, 2008), which stated "in one British experiment last year, children who texted -- and who wielded plenty of abbreviations -- scored higher on reading and vocabulary tests. In fact, the more adept they were at abbreviating, the better they did in spelling and writing. Far from being a means to getting around literacy, texting seems to give literacy a boost." "The same study also found the children with the highest scores to be the first to have gotten their own cell phones." From: http://www.newsweek.com/id/150449

As far as what is to count as literacy probably depends on the person's background and experience. However, since David Crystal the writer of these comments is a linguistics professor and has also written a number of books and papers on the subject, It would be fool hardy to dismiss his views. If you are interested, you can read his biography here (in addition to reading some of his articles):http://www.davidcrystal.com/David_Crystal/biography.htm