Technology, Language, and Writing (Essay Sample)

Name: Instructor: Course title: Date: Technology, Language, and Writing In the 21st century, literacy skills enable learners to exploit information appliances, new simulation tools and social networks. Literacy skills facilitate information exchange among communities and also the ability to move across distinct social networks and media platforms. The nature of literacy learning and literacy has been redefined. Due to the invention of new technologies, literacy and literacy practices have also changed at a faster phase. The nature of the student, the function of the teacher and the way of learning have been transformed. This paper critically assesses the impact of cell phone on language or literacy practices. The use of the mobile phone has been a daily activity among people in every part of the world. Cell phones have come with an efficient and cheap medium of text messaging which is popular among young adults, teens and recently, children. A 2009 pew internet survey estimated that 70% of American adolescence possessed a cell phone and half of these sent text messages n a daily basis. Compared to those of 2009, the current number is higher. Text-message is paralleled with a popular text message style referred to as testese. Teachers, parents and even public commentators worry about the possible negative effects that result from this non-standard form of spelling. This is because it is believed to affect traditional literacy skills. Use of cell phone technology has impacted literacy in that the non-standard style of texting reduces the cost and time of messaging by shortening English words. For example, letter homophones such see is abbreviated as c. Phonological contractions such as text are abbreviated as text while number homophones such as today is abbreviated as 2day. A study conducted on 10 to 12year-old Australian children in regard to text-messaging practice and their connection to traditional spelling aptitude showed that there is a positive relationship between literacy skills and texting (Bushnell, Kemp & Martin, 38). Firstly, texting is another way of increasing exposure to the written word. This is a positive indicator of reading success. Through use textese, children are able to play around with words and this increase their engagement with traditional reading and spelling. Since textisms are based on phonology, children are made aware of letter-sound correspondence rules that are crucial for traditional reading and spelling proficiency (Bushnell, Kemp & Martin, 39). Part from the positive relationship that texting has on the traditional literacy ability, teachers and parents have blamed cell phone texting for two negativities; it is believed that phone texting leads to language corruption and spelling degradation in respecting to youth writing. Textisms have crept into the formal school register language. In a recent research, it was found out that 64% of teens in the United States admitted that some form of phone texting had crept and affected their academic writing (Porath, 88). Besides, many teachers in today's classrooms complain that due to phone texting, learners are not able to use the appropriate language in different learning contexts. Particularly, texting affects academic essay writing. Students' informal textisms appear in their formal essays. When writing compositions and academic essays, though students know the right spelling for a particular word, they end up writing the wrong word due to text addition. They end up shortening English words without their knowledge and, therefore, academic degradation is experienced. For example, instead of learners writing ‘I will go to school tomorrow,' they end up writing ‘I'll go 2 skul 2morro' (Porath, 92). This leads to poor performance. In other words, use of cell phone technology is a progressive abuse of formally written English. It has affected punctuation, savaged formal sentences and raped traditional vocabulary. Use of cell phones has enabled adults to learn how to read and write. Simple cell phones serve as an educational tool for adults to practice writing, reading and math skills. This is through communication with friends, family among others. Since text messages (SMS) is cheaper compared to voice communication, texting brings benefits among illiterate populations as they offer a financial incentive to read and learn text messages. Besides, the positivism connected with learning to use SMS may include gains in both numeracy and literacy. Moreover, literacy skills and technology are complementary. Having a cell phone increases the private gains to literacy by making it probable to communicate through text (Baggott, 9). The complementary between technology and literacy is heterogeneous. Therefore, the value of text communication differs based on people's endowments. Those with greater complementarily, texting comes with greater learning benefits. Mobile phones are a cost effective tool of promoting literacy and numeracy among adults. Short message service has been brought about by mobile phones. SMS is a popular means of communication through a cell phone. In the United Kingdom, almost all teenagers are conversant with SMS. Texting has, therefore, led to a supposed fall of literacy standards. Texting has been brought about by cell phone technology limitation where text users are only limited to 160 characters. As a result, users end up shortening their terms in order to occupy the space and characters provided. Together with a small keypad and a repetitive pressing buttons, the cell phone encourages users to shorten each word or use symbols. For example, CUL8R is used instead of see you later. Single consonants also replace double ones, for example, HPY are used instead of happy (Baggott, 12). This proves that the use of SMS has endangered literacy skills and has led to the ‘falling standards of literacy.' Mobile phones provide an alternative for L2 learning. Use of real resources such as cell phones for learning and teaching in the classroom can make education more relevant and meaningful to our students. Proposers of the use of mobile technology as an alternative learning method believe that mobile phones and mobile phone learning help students to improve their literacy and numeracy ability as well as recognizing their existing literacy and language capabilities (Aziz, Shamim, Aziz and Avais, 12888). Mobile phones encourage both collaborative and independent learning experiences. Learners are also able to identify their areas of weaknesses and, therefore, request for support and assistance. Most importantly, the use of mobile phones helps in removing the formality from the learning experience and engages reluctant students. Learners are usually more focused for a long period of learning. Eventually, the use of mobile phones raises students' self-confidence and self-esteem. One of the major objectives of a second language teacher is to enhance and inculcate the language proficiency of students. Many language researchers state that the language proficiency constitutes of the ability to speak, listen, write and read with comprehension, observing syntactic, semantic and grammatical...