POPULARITY OF SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE (SMS) USAGE & ITS EFFECT ON WRITTEN LANGUAGE DETERIORATION

POPULARITY OF SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE (SMS) USAGE & ITS EFFECT

ON WRITTEN LANGUAGE DETERIORATION

ASSIGNMENT
OUMH1203
ENGLISH FOR WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

STUDENT NAME : GOH SEE JIUN

STUDENT ID : 820822065772001
SEMESTER : 2ND SEMESTER
TUTOR NAME : MS. FAUZIAH ALIAS

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 POPULARITY OF SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE (SMS) USAGE & ITS EFFECT ON WRITTEN LANGUAGE DETERIORATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENS ______________________________________ 1

ABSTRACT _______________________________________________ 2

INTRODUCTION __________________________________________ 2-3

LITERATURE REVIEW ____________________________________ 3-6

METHODOLOGY __________________________________________ 6-7

RESULTS OF SURVEY _____________________________________ 7-10

CONCLUSION _____________________________________________ 10-11

APPENDIX ________________________________________________ 12-13

REFERENCES _____________________________________________ 14-15

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ABSTRACT
Communication technology is changing our way of life. Language is no exception. Some
language researchers argue that written language is deteriorating due to the increase
usage of electronic communication. The present study investigated 50 mobile phone
users selected randomly using Short Messaging Service (SMS) as one of their daily
communication tools with the purpose to find out whether SMS language will cause
written language deterioration in Malaysia. SMS language is defined as using
abbreviations, newly created words, code-switching, code-mixing and emoticons in the
messages. The findings indicated that the majority of the respondents agree that SMS
language causes written language deterioration. This could be because messages are full
of spoken-like spelling, unconventional use of punctuation and abbreviations, and
ungrammatical sentence in order to conform to the conditions of electronic
communication to reduce space, time and effort. Although the language change due to the
advancements in electronic communication technology is inevitable, we have to bear in
mind that the negative impact on the written language has to do with the technology users
not the technology itself.

INTRODUCTION
What is communication? Communication is a process of transferring information
whereby information is enclosed in a package and is channeled and imparted by a sender
to a receiver using a channel (Wikipedia, 2010). In recent years, mobile phone has been
viewed as an important communication tool and has become an integral part of the
Malaysian society. Nowadays, it is very common to see Malaysians chatting or texting
on their mobile phones in the streets, in the shopping malls, while waiting for public
transportations to the point that the mobile phone has become an essential item to some
people especially the younger generation. The mobile phone first appeared in Malaysia
in 1998 and was mainly used by professionals. It was bulky, expensive, and built with
basic features such as voice call. Today, mobile phones are equipped with other hi-tech
features that allow faster communication and entertainment such as Short Message
Service (SMS), MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3) player, games, internet and videos. These
additional features attracted people from all walks of life including the younger

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generation, and consequently led to the increase in the number of mobile phone users in
Malaysia.

According to the survey conducted by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia

Commission (MCMC), there were 24,253,000 mobile phone subscribers in Malaysia at
end March 2008. It was also reported that as many as 50.7% mobile phone users send
out an average of five (5) SMSes a day. Compared to 2004 which recorded a percentage
of 31.7%, the number of mobile phone users sending out an average of five (5) SMSes
per day has increased by 19%. The factors which have contributed to the popularity of
SMS usage could be due to its widespread usage, mobility, low cost and convenience.
For example, sending a message via text to a family or friend across the country or even
living abroad, would be cheaper than the cost of roaming and long distance phone
charges. SMS is extensively used not only for communication purposes, but also as a
major marketing tool due to its low cost. Besides that, it is also very convenient for
mobile phone users. A message can be easily and quickly transmitted just by pressing a
few buttons instead of the conventional method of waiting for the telephone call to be put
through or waiting to leave a voice message after a lengthy and annoying answering
machine message.

Due to character limitations and restrictions in a SMS message, it is a common practice

for SMS users to maximize the contents of the messages sent by using abbreviations,
newly created words, code-switching, code-mixing and emoticons in their SMS
messages.
How has this increasingly popular practice affect our written language then? As most
Malaysians are multi-lingual, will the widespread use of SMS cause language
deterioration?

This research aims to investigate and analyze the relationship between SMS usage and
whether it causes language deterioration in Malaysia by using abbreviations, newly
created words, code-switching, code-mixing and emoticons in the messages.

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LITERATURE REVIEW
Short Messaging Services (SMS) messages are generally understood or defined as texts
read on small mobile phones screens typically capable of presenting 15 to 20 characters
per line. The messages are written with numeric keypad on the phone, normally requiring
more than one key press per character, with messages restricted to 160 characters in
length (Svendsen et al., 2006). Abbreviations and slang most commonly used in mobile
phone text messaging are so called SMS language or Textese. It can be likened to a rebus,
which uses pictures and single letters or numbers to represent whole words (e.g. "i <3 u"
which uses the pictogram of a heart for love, and the letter “u” replaces “you”). The users
usually will remove the vowels from a word for those words which have no common
abbreviation and the reader is required to interpret a string of consonants by re-adding the
vowels (e.g. text becomes txt and keyboard becomes kybrd).

SMS is a fast, easy, convenient, and an easy way to multitask (Grinter & Eldrige, 2001).
We can send SMS to someone when we are brushing our teeth, singing a song, having
meals, in class, playing games, or at work. The convenience of SMS is that we do not
need to answer the message right away. We can answer the message whenever we want,
similar to e-mail, and it will be there. Sometimes, there is only one message we want to
transmit such as, “Where are we going for dinner?”, so SMS may be easier than calling.
On top of that, SMS saves time.

SMS has been classified as a form of communication services within mobile commerce,
grouped together with voice call, MMS, video and e-mail that allows people and
organization to send and receive SMS from a mobile phone in near real time. (Harris et
al, 2005) SMS, an almost instantaneous communication medium that connects people, is
now a phenomenon that has grown and spread around the globe at an amazing speed
compared to other types of mobile commerce services. SMS is extensively used not only
for communication purposes but also as a major marketing effort due to its low cost. As a
highly interactive medium, SMS enables the recipient of the message to reply to it
immediately, which establishes a direct dialogue between the advertiser and the potential
customer. This enables companies to offer personalized, timely and relevant information,

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which in turn strengthen the customer relationship and strengthen the emotional
relationship between a brand and its customers (Nysveen et al., 2005). SMS owes its
popularity to its low cost mode of information delivery and its instantaneous
communication medium which operates on a “store and forward concept”. With the
increasing number of mobile subscribers in the world, SMS has gained its popularity and
has become an integral part of people’s lives and has significant implications for
communication and information transmission.

SMS is also used a lot among teenagers who are still pursuing their study in schools,
colleges and universities. According to Lee & Perry (2007), SMS may even be addicting.
Most of the college students use SMS with their friends to coordinate plans. Hagen and
Rice (2007) found text messaging was mostly used for coordinating. The purpose of SMS
sent could simply be used to plan and coordinate with their friends for that night or the
future. In fact, according to Adams, Baker, Daufin et. al (2008) SMS and other interactive
communication make up 31% of the time are spent communicating, listening takes up
56% while actual talking makes up of only 13% of the time on mobile phone usage.

However, SMS with all its popularity and promise do have its critics, especially in the
area of education. John Humphrys (2007) who is Welsh journalist and television
reporter has criticized SMS language as "wrecking our language". According to
Humphrys (2007) the editor cites ambiguous examples such as "lol" which may mean
"laughing out loud" or "lots of love", depending on the context in which it is used. In
addition to that, Humphrys (2007) also describes emoticons and textese as "irritating" and
essentially lazy behaviors, and surmises that "sloppy" habits gained while using textese
will result in students' growing ignorance of proper grammar and punctuation.

David Crystal (2008) has countered the claims that SMS has a deleterious effect on
language with numerous scholarly studies. The findings are summarized in his
book “Txtng: The Gr8 Db8”. Despite scholarly research to the contrary, the popular
notion that text messaging is damaging to the linguistic development of young people and
to the English language itself persists.

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On the other hand, some researches seem to dispute the negative impact of SMS in
education. According to Petrillo (2006) referring to a quote by Dr. Beverly Plester, a
research psychologist and professor at Coventry University who said, “Newer research
shows a stronger causal relationship between text abbreviations and literacy skills.”
Plester argued that text messaging provides more exposure to the written word, which
positively relates to greater literacy attainment (Petrillo, 2006). Adults often worry that
teens who text using emoticons and other textisms such as letter/number combinations
(such as “2moro” for “tomorrow”) or shortened forms (such as “bro” for “brother”) lead
to less proficiency in spelling and other aspects of traditional written communications.

However, a study reported in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology that there
was no correlation, or relationship, between students’ use of textisms and their capacity to
use traditional spellings and language features (Plester, Wood & Joshi, 2009).
Teens are well aware of different registers, or norms for using language. They know what
to say when teachers or parents are listening and how to communicate with their peers.
This is the same for adults too. The language one uses in the break room at work may be
substantially different from that used in a sales presentation or in a conversation with a
supervisor. Some theorists, such as Tom Welch in a 2007 interview, explored responsible
use of technologies. Tom Welch thinks of textisms as a separate register or even dialect to
which students can readily adapt. Simply put, there is nothing wrong or improper about
teaching teens to use language in different ways depending on the context and medium of
the communication (Wolsey, 2007).

METHODOLOGY
A small scale study was conducted by adopting a questionnaire survey form to investigate
the effect of SMS language practice to language deterioration among mobile phone users
living in the city of Kuala Lumpur. Result of the survey was obtained by the responses of
50 mobile phone users selected randomly regardless of age, race and social status. The
questionnaire consists of four (4) parts which are background information, SMS
activities, SMS abbreviation and whether the users agree or disagree that the language

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practice in SMS such as shortening word abbreviation and other practices lead to
language deterioration. It focused mainly on the tendency of the users to shorten up
words, abbreviate words or chunk words in our national language Bahasa Melayu, our
second language English, our respective mother tongue and other languages, how
common some of the SMS abbreviations are practiced, as well as whether the users agree
or disagree that shortening words in SMS will cause deterioration in one’s language or
languages. (Refer actual Survey Questionnaire form in Appendix A)

RESULTS OF SURVEY
Table 1 presents the summary of the feedback from respondents regarding their frequency
in using SMS as a communication tool as well as the pattern of SMS language they use to
communicate with others. The study found that 100% of the respondents (50
respondents) use SMS as their daily communication tools besides making phone calls.
The results show that 83% of the respondents shorten up the words, abbreviate the words
or chunk the words in their SMSes meanwhile only 17% of the respondents use proper
language when texting. The data compiled shows that 44% of the respondents shorten up
Bahasa Melayu language words in their SMSes while 20% of the respondents use proper
Bahasa Melayu language. 36% of the respondents do not use Bahasa Melayu language
when texting. In terms of shortening the mother tongue languages, the results indicate
only 38% of the respondents practice this when texting, 20% use proper mother tongue
language while 42% of the respondents do not use their mother tongue languages when
texting. For English language, 79% of the respondents shorten up English words while
21% use proper English words when texting. More than half (64%) of the respondents
use other languages in their SMSes, with other Chinese dialects (Mandarin (55%),
Cantonese (14%), Hokkein (11%)), Tamil (12%) and Japanese (8%) apart from their
mother tongue being most frequently used.

Additionally, the result shows that 68% of the SMS users are likely to mix up more than
one language in their SMSes and almost half (49%) of these users utilize English
language to do so. According to the findings of the survey, 58% of the respondents
believe that SMS will help them to revive their mother tongue even though some of the

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mother tongue languages are not available in their natural characters in their mobile
phone. These users will use Roman alphabets to reflect the words spoken in their mother
tongue languages.
Table 1: Feedback from Respondents for SMS Activities (In % Percentage)
Question / Answer Yes No Not Applicable
1. Do you have a mobile phone (mobile phone)? 100 - -
2. Do you SMS? 100 - -
3. When you used SMS, did you shorten up the words, 83 17 -
abbreviate the words or chunk the words?
4. Did you shorten up Bahasa Melayu words in your 44 20 36
SMS?
5. Did you shorten up Mother tongue words in SMS? 38 20 42
6. Did you shorten up English words in SMS? 79 21 -
7. Did you SMS in other language(s)? 64 36 -
8. If Yes, name the language (s)............................
Mandarin Tamil Japanese Hokkien Cantonese
55 12 8 11 14
9. Did you mix up more than one language in your 68 32 -
SMS?
If Yes, name the language(s).................................
Bahasa Melayu English Mandarin Tamil Others
23 49 21 3 4
10. Will SMS help to revive your mother tongue 58 42 -
language?

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Chart 1: Feedback from Respondents on Whether Shortening Up Words Via SMS

Will Cause Language Deterioration

According to the findings shown in the above Chart 1, we found that 74% of the
respondents agree that shortening up words in SMSes will corrupt or deteriorate our
written language. From the data collection, most of the respondents say that in order to
save time and due to characters constraint in text messaging, they will usually use
abbreviation or shorten up words. Therefore, the words used in SMS are usually
misspelled and can cause confusion and misunderstanding if the receiver of the text does
not understand certain SMS language words used. This is in sync with the opinion of
Bodomo (2009) who stated that new communication technologies do not only generate
new forms and uses of language, but also new forms of literacy which are associated with
the introduction and uses of new technologies. This holds true for SMS communication.
This type of language has been alleged to not obey or follow standard English grammar;
furthermore, the words used in the writing system can not be found in standard
dictionaries. There are no standard rules for writing SMS languages. To overcome text
length limitations of text-messaging, users have developed their own form of shorthand,
code or jargon.

However, such practice raises concerns with many educators including former teacher
and now author Jacquie Ream, who feels that this type of communication is destroying

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the way our kids read, think, and write (Shaughnessy, 2008). It can lead to misconception
of language or word usage especially for those who are illiterate. She contended that it is
too easy, too simple, and this type of communication using acronyms and shorthand does
not require critical thinking skills or analysis. According to Ream, text messaging is
destroying the written word, and she believes students today need to do more writing, not
in the form of instant messages, but well thought out essays.

In addition to that, once we already familiar to the usage of abbreviations in SMS, it will
cultivate into a bad habit which will be difficult to break. Most users do not notice that
they are applying the same abbreviations into their formal writing. According to
O’Connor (2005) reported that the more students use tools like text messaging the less
they are able to separate formal and informal English. In other observations on student
writing, Friess (2003), noted that although students seemed to communicate scholarly
thoughts, they did not seem to know it’s “y-o-u,” not “u.”

CONCLUSION
This study challenged the assumption that SMS language will deteriorate the written
language due to usage of abbreviations, spoken-like spelling, less attention to punctuation
and capitalization, as well as syntactical and lexical reductions in order to conform to the
conditions of electric communication to reduce space, time and effort.

Although SMS is a very useful communicating tool, we should bear in mind the
implications of these common practices in SMS languages. Similar to any other forms of
communication, brevity, clarity, and attention to tone and manner should be equally
emphasized in electronic communication. Omitting thanks, greetings, punctuation,
capitalization and grammar might not be always a good practice. Although the language
change due to the advancements in electronic communication technology is inevitable,
the negative impact on the written language has to do with the technology users not the
technology itself. As the saying goes, “Old habits die hard”.

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This is more worrisome when we are faced with such language problems in a
multilingual society like Malaysia. Lately, there have been concerns highlighted
regarding the deteriorating level of Bahasa Melayu language and English language
among the younger generation. With the increasing popularity of SMS language, this will
further cause deterioration in the written languages. Users have to form a mind-set to
differentiate the different communication modes of SMS and written language, and not
integrate SMS language into their written language. With the latest forms of social-
networking communications like Facebook or Twitter and perhaps more to come in the
near future, we should embrace these technology advancements as communication tools,
but at the same time strengthen our language proficiency by reading grammatically-
correct reading materials to further enhance our writing skills.

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APPENDIX A
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

SMS PRACTICES IN MALAYSIA

A. BACKGOUND INFORMATION
Instruction: Circle one only
1. Age: a. 15-20 b. 21-25 c. 26-30 d. 31-35 e. 36-40 f. more
than 40 years old. (Circle one)
2. Ethnic:………………………………… Your mother tongue:………………………….
3. Gender: Male Female (Circle one)
4. Status: a. Studying b. Working c. Both d. Not Applicable
(Circle one)

B. SMS ACTIVITIES
Instruction: We highly appreciate it if you could provide us some feedback on this quick
survey. Please respond to the following statements by circling the appropriate option in
the box. Do not write your name. Thank you for your cooperation.
1. Do you have a mobile phone (mobile phone)? Yes No Not Applicable
2. Do you SMS? Yes No Not Applicable
3. When you used SMS, did you shorten up the words, Yes No Not Applicable
abbreviate the words or chunk the words?
4. Did you shorten up Bahasa Melayu words in your SMS? Yes No Not Applicable
5. Did you shorten up Mother tongue words in SMS? Yes No Not Applicable
6. Did you shorten up English words in SMS? Yes No Not Applicable
7. Did you SMS in other language(s)? Yes No Not Applicable
8. If Yes, name the language (s)............................
9. Did you mix up more than one language in your SMS? Yes No Not Applicable
a. If Yes, name the language(s).................................
10. Will SMS help to revive your mother tongue language? Yes No Not Applicable

C. SMS ABBREVIATIONS
Instruction: How would you shorten up the following words in
SMS? Or How would you SMS the following expressions?
Expressions Mother tongue Bahasa English

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How are you?

Good morning
I will call you
Breakfast
I love you
Do you want to come with me?
He had an accident last night.

D. Agree or Disagree:
Instruction: Circle one only.
Do you think shortening up words in SMS will corrupt your language? Yes or No.
Optional for respondents to answer.
Why did you say YES? In what way SMS corrupt the language?
Why did you say NO?
Please provide answers in point forms. Use the back of the page to write your responses

REFERENCES

[1] Adams, J., Baker, K., Daufin, E.K., Ellington, C., Emanuel, R., Fitts, E., Himsel, J.,
Holladay, L. & Okeowo D. (2008). How college students spend their time
communicating. International Journal of Listening, 22(1), 13-28.
[2] Bodomo, A.B. (2009). Computer-mediated communication for linguistics and literacy:
Technology and natural language education. Hershey, PA, USA: IGI Global.

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[3] Communication. (n.d.). Retrieved 2010-06-13, from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication
[4] David, C., (2008-07-05). "2b or not 2b?". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2010-06-05.
[5] Friess, S. (2003-03-31). Yo, can u plz help me write English? USA Today. Retrieved
2010-06-04.
[6] Grinter, R.E. and M.A. Eldrige. (2001). Y do tngrs luv 2 txt msg? In Proceedings of the
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Bonn, Germany. W. Prinz, M.Jarke, Y. Rogers, K. Schmidt and V. Wulf (eds), 219-238.
[7] Hagan, I. & Rice, R. (2007). Proceedings from ISA 07: Conference Papers: --
International Communication Association. Social connectivity, multitasking, and social
control: U.S. and Norwegian college students use of internet and mobile phones.
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[9] ----- (2008). Hand Phone Users Survey. Malaysian Communication and Multimedia
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[10] Humphrys, J., (2007-09-24). "I h8 txt msgs: How texting is wrecking our
language". Associated Newspapers. Retrieved 2010-06-05.
[11] Lee, K.C. & Perry, S.D. (2007). Mobile phone text messaging overuse among
developing World university students. Communicatio: South African Journal for
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[12] Nysveen, H., Pedersen, P., Thorbjornsen, H. and Berthon, P., 2005. “Mobilizing the
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Journal of Service Research, Vol 7 No 3, pp. 257-276.
[13] O'Connor, A. (2005). Instant messaging: friend or foe of student writing. Retrieved
2010-06-06, from
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[14] Petrillo, M. (2008). Students who are good at texting are better spellers. Retrieved
2010-06-04 from http://temple-news.com/2008/10/06/students-who-aregood- at-
texting-are-better-spellers/
[15] Plester, B., Wood, C., & Joshi, P. (2009). Exploring the relationship between children’s
knowledge of text message abbreviations and school literacy outcomes. British Journal
of Developmental Psychology, 27(1), 145-161.
[16] Svendsen, G.B and Johnsen J.A.K. 2006. “Use of SMS in office environment”,

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Proceedings of 39th annual Hawaii International Conference on System Science ; 4-7

January 2006, Kauai, Hawaii, USA
[17] Thurlow, Crispin. 2005. "Generation Txt? The Sociolinguistics of Young People's Text
Messaging." Discourse Analysis Online Journal. Retrieved 2010-06-06
http://extra.shu.ac.uk/daol/articles/v1/n1/a3/thurlow2002003-paper.html.
[18] Shaughnessy, M. (2008). An interview with Jacquie Ream: what's happening with
writing? Retrieved 2010-06-04, from
http://ednews.org/articles/25371/1/An-Interview-with-Jacquie-Ream-What039s-
Happening-with-Writing/Page1.html
[19] Wolsey, T. D. (2007). An interview with Tom Welch. The California Reader, 41(1), 53-
62.

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