IN-PERSON Prague Research & Teaching Conference

Abstract

In recent decades, the influence of texting on writing development has been at the forefront of writing research (e.g., Grace et al., 2015), particularly the use of textism in formal writing. Today’s students are able to discern when and in what context to use informal texting language. (Jones et al., 2008). Also, there may be a direct relationship between texting and writing, as specifically there is evidence of benefits of texting for written grammar (van Dijk et al., 2016). Texting has also been found to facilitate EFL writing, communication with native English speakers, while offering a chance for them to learn about different cultures (e.g., Ankkara et al., 2020). In the proposed presentation, we will present our mixed method study, where we conduct a survey of students to assess their texting tendencies in relation to their writing performance. Questions will gauge their texting frequency and attitudes. The survey results along with academic writing assessment will be statistically analyzed for correlation between texting frequency and writing performance. We then analyze the impact of their texting performance on their formal writing production, coding semi-structured interviews and writing samples from a subgroup to detect the influence of textism upon formal written communication.
Keywords: Texting, EFL Writing, Textism, Writing Performance, Mixed Methods