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Many tweens take shortcuts or use so-called techspeak when sending text messages. “They may use a homophone, such as gr8 for great, or an initial, like, LOL for laugh out loud,” Northwestern researcher Drew Cingel explained in a statement. Other shortcuts include dropping non-essential letters, such as changing the word “would” to “wud.”

To study the effect of these habits, Cingel gave a group of middle school students in central Pennsylvania a grammar assessment test. The students were then given a survey that asked them to detail how many texts they send and receive, their opinions on the importance of texting and the number of shortcuts in their last three sent and received text messages.

The results of the survey and the test, which were reported in the journal New Media & Society, showed a link between poor grammar scores and frequent texting. What’s more, both sending and receiving techspeak-riddled texts seemed to affect how poorly the students performed on the test. This suggests tweens might not be initiating all of their bad language habits, but might also be influenced by the grammatically incorrect messages sent by their friends and family.

there are strong reactions from the public, media, and language experts that the use of textisms can transfer to formal writing in the form of deterioration of spelling and misuse of language.

  According to the study, the students’ use of text speak was determined using five different measures, which included: Use of textisms in formal versus informal communications Text speak proficiency: Translating Standard English to text Text speak familiarity: Translating text speak to Standard English (SE) Literacy processing speed: Speed of translation to and from SE Spelling errors: Translating target textisms to SE The students were also administered a standardized literacy, which was determined using two different measures: Reading: Woodcock Johnson III Achievement test, letter-word identification and reading fluency subtests. Spelling: Woodcock Johnson III, spelling subtest

Although there is no evidence that the use of such acronyms and abbreviations in professions and career fields have caused a deterioration of the English language, yet some have argued that the use of textese and textisms may result in diminishing an individual’s use of the English language.

"I work at the school's writing center and I would suspect that some of the mistakes I see in writing assignments are text related," Cleveland said.

"Cursive writing is always going to be a needed skill," he said. "The argument by those who've done away with it say it's an art form, not needed in everyday life. I would dispute that because there are jobs such as (postal carriers) whereby people have got to be able to read cursive."

Jennifer Scott, a 10th-grade Lauderdale County home-schooled student, said she texts constantly. She also has plenty of school writing assignments. She admits she gets lazy from time to time and allows text talk to enter her school writing. "I might use the number 2 instead of spelling out "to", or for the word "into" I might write n2," she said. "But I don't use slang terms like LOL or BTW (by the way). My mom would definitely not appreciate that."

Spell-check: Through our research we discovered that many students rely too heavily on spellcheck to correct their spelling, and as a result, have poor spelling skills.  In the following video, a high school girl describes her spelling problems from dependency on spellcheck.  It also addressed the problems that arise from text speak.

Other negative effects of technology on learning: -Technology makes it easier to cheat and plagarize -Decrease in critical thinking -Decrease in analysis skills -Decrease in imagination -Don’t process as much during class, easily distracted

Sources: Are Digital Media Changing Language? http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Are_Digital_Media_Changing_Language¢.aspx Is Technology Producing a Decline in Critical Thinking and Analysis? http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128092341.htm Today Show clip: