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Abbreviation, emoticons, code-mixing, newly created words in
short message service usage increasing tremendously. Some
people are worried this will corrupt our language (bahasa
melayu). This phenomena caused by-product limitation
(multiple letter assigned to a dozen of mobile phone) and due to
the pressure of reducing communicaton latency. Some
references from aforesaid research was took to collect related
data. An SMS guideline in form of pamphlet pub- lished by
Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka to reflect with this matter. The
pamphlet listed more than 200 words of SMS language because
too much concern regarding usage of uncontrolled SMS
language. Since too little information about SMS can corrupt
cellular phone user languages, and simple survey questionnaire
were distributed to chosen group of volunteers. Then finding
from survey been concluded as a final result.
The language is achieving new colours and tones in the world in
which we live. Technology has become the buzzword in
communication circles. The requirements in language versatility,
which are universally understood, are overcome by the new
short message service (SMS) language that is emerging rapidly.
The cellphones that are conveniently used for social
communication and in business transactions are invaluably
helpful but can equally be extremely detrimental to the learning
and development process of learners of other languages
especially foreign language learning. The short message service
(SMS) language that is used by cellphone users and the
advertising industry has also been discovered to be abundantly
used by the learners in their written work. This discovery has
prompted one to investigate the impact of this prevalent use, for
it is believed that the SMS language is influencing the language
proficiency of learners in a negative way.
The purpose of this paper is to explicate how the SMS language
affects the language proficiency of learners, and the role
dictionaries can play in the improvement of learners’ language
proficiency.
CONTENTS
TOPIC PAGE NO
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I
PREFACE II
CONTENTS III
1. Introduction: 1
2. Methodology : 3
3. SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE (SMS): 4
4. Related Research: 8
5. LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: 11
6. Indicators of Language Proficiency: 13
How the SMS Language affects Language 14
8. THE SMS DICTIONARIES: 15
9. Finding : 16
10. Comments: 17
11. Conclusion: 17
12. References: 18
1. Introduction:
‘oxox’ officially not accepted as one word. However ‘oxox’ 6acceptable
abbreviation used in Short Messaging Service (SMS) by cellular phone
user. Using ‘oxox’ in SMS will translated as ‘hugs and kisses’ Text
Messaging (2010). The abbreviation, newly created words, code-
switching, code-mixing and emoticons phenomenon in SMS has been
increasing tremendously. Some people are worried this phenomenon will
corrupting our national language (Bahasa Melayu). According to article
from Wikipedia SMS (2010), SMS is the text communication service
component of mobile communication systems, using standardized
communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text
messages between mobile phone devices. In general, SMS are
understood as short text and read on mobile phone screen Ainin
Sulaiman & Ali Hussein Saleh Zolait (2010). The character are limited
to 160 and later became the eventual size for regular SMS, Finn Trosby
(2004). The SMS had been developed in the United Kingdom in late
1980. After well developed, first SMS successfully sent from Neil
Papworth of Sema Group (now Airwide Solutions) using a personal
computer to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone using an Orbitel 901 handset.
The text of the message was “Happy Christmas” SMS (2010). In this
paper, I present an review of SMS impact to our Bahasa Melayu. I
believe SMS should benefit mobile phone user which were rather than
corrupting the language. Based on aforesaid research, the study did not
able to correlate whether SMS language had affected language skill of
SMS user. The research entitled An Exploratory Investigation into The
Relationship Between Text Messaging and Spelling were made
specifically to determine whether SMS has affected the student
language. An survey questionnaire distributed to collect required data.
The collection of data then sorted out to be used in conclusion.
The SMS has been found to be of detrimental effect on the language
proficiency of learners. Learners use it as if it is an officially accepted
and standard language. They mix it with the standard language they
learn at school, especially the English language and consequently
commit numerous errors ranging from incorrect spelling to
ungrammatical sentence constructions. The aim of this paper is firstly, to
show how the SMS influences the learners’ English language
proficiency. Secondly, to highlight the challenge the SMS language is
posing to both educators in their
IADIS International Conference Mobile Learning 2005 endeavour to
help learners master the English language, and the lexicographers, of the
need to develop an SMS dictionary. Evidence of the influence of the
SMS language on learners’ language proficiency especially in English is
realised in the learners’ official written work such as tests, assignments
and reports. The use of this SMS language affects the learners’
performance since it does not observe grammatical and syntactic rules of
a standard English language. It is neither an official nor a standard
language.
An example from a test script of a tertiary learner registered for a
module in Communication reads:
SMS dictionary
Likewise, the frequently used SMS word “LUV” for “Love” which
appears many times on the television screens especially during “phone-
in” and “send your SMS” programmes confuses learners to the extent
that they may believe that both spellings are correct. This kind of
language therefore hampers learners’ language proficiency, in particular,
grammatical and spelling skills especially in English. For example, the
following quotation was recorded from the programme ‘PLAY TV’ on
SABC3 on Monday, 12 July 2003, at 15:30, in which viewers were
asked to phone-in or SMS a greetings message for a prize. The SMS
messages appeared on TV as supplementary information. The message
read:
“we luv u 2”
The learners love watching the TV. They take the language used in the
media as acceptable, official and standard especially that this language is
being watched and used nationally, and in some cases internationally.
Besides appearing on our national television screens, the SMS language
is also used abundantly on cards and artifacts that are used as
memorabilia for the celebration of popular days marking social events
such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Valentine’s Day. One such
message reads:
I LOVE MY MOM.
The word ‘love’ is replaced with a symbol of a red heart.
The SMS language has an influence even on the academics in the sense
that they also use it when they write official documents such as circulars
and memoranda. They regard it as easy and convenient to use as it saves
time, space and it is less expensive to implement. The sad part of this
practice is that learners read those circulars and believe that the language
used is acceptable because it is also used by the educators. An example
of such circulars from one tertiary institution reads:
To: All lecturers
From: HOD-Information Technology
Date: 02 April 2011
REMINDER
SPEECH AND POSTER ELIMINATIONS
WHEN? 04 April 2011
TIME? 9:15-11:00
WHERE? LF119
C U THERE!
__________________
Soumen Paul (HOD)
Educators should lead by example. How would an educator convince a
learner that it is wrong to write c u there in a formal school context when
such language is used by the head of a department of Information
Technology who is supposed to be the expert in the field?
4. Related Research:
Few research about the effect of SMS language to mobile phone user
language available. However only few research which truly related for
this review were available. Some words from Bahasa Melayu classic
also gave for reference. Then explanation of the SMS impact will be
followed by distributed questionnaires to randomly chosen people. All
this will be concluded and to be explain the rationale behind the SMS
impact.
An research article from Donita Massengill Shaw, Carolyn Carlson &
Mickey Waxman (2007) looked over eighty-six students. Over 90% of
group students within 18-19 years old involved. Those involved had
been informed about the research objective and voluntarily to participate
it. Data been collected in two format which need students to complete
questionnaire and standardized spelling test which contained 77 words.
Through the research, they made an correlation from participants
frequencies wrote text messages, the length of time been spent and
students self-perception of their spelling ability. The data been collected
and the conclusion been made. They agreed which no significant
relationship between text messages and students language skill were
found from their research. Based on the book titled Sejarah Bahasa
Melayu by Abdul Rashid Melebek and Amat Juhari Moain (2006) listed
few words in Bahasa Melayu classic which used affix and phoneme. The
example phoneme like ‘w’ have similar phoneme ‘b’ in Bahasa Melayu
modern. This can be seen from the following words:
wulan = bulan
mamawa = membawa
sariwu = seribu
wanyaknya = banyaknya
marwuat = berbuat
wanua = benua
While phoneme ‘m’ in Bahasa Melayu classic have similarity with ‘ng’
in Bahasa Melayu modern. The example words as followed:
yam = yang
datam = datang
The prefix ‘man’ in Bahasa Melayu classic have similarity with ‘men’ in
Bahasa Melayu modern. This can be proven like:
mangalap = mengelap
mamawa = membawa
The above explanation has shown the development Bahasa Melayu. The
changes made to be adapted as and accepted to standardize national
languages. As changes made to fit new situations, it then accepted and
completely has no language corrupting issue been heard. That adaptation
sharing similar process with SMS language. The existence of SMS
abbreviations, substituted word, emoticons are part of form free
expression, Philippines Declares War On Trendy Cyber Slang (2010). It
should accepted and supposed to adapted as part of well developed era.
Based on the article Text Messaging (2010), quoted “ Because typing
text into a telephone keypad was cumbersome and the number of
characters in a text message was limited, a form of shorthand evolved,
especially among young people. ” This article should then be understood
why such shorten text, abbreviation, emoticons, code-switching and
code-mixing exist. The article also listed some text messaging acronyms
and for English languages which used in SMS activity.
Typing ‘LOL’ take less than three second but ‘Laughed Out Loud’
surely accomplished above that. Why waste time to type word with full
letter when shorten up word deliver same meaning? More words should
fit enough to send long text message. I believe typing a single correct
letter should take three or more taps due to multiple letter assigned to
each number button on keypad. This painstaking task accomplished with
one or two finger of cellular phone user. Rather than send cumbersome
of full letter text messages, abbreviated words, emoticons should
simplified the SMS typing task. The abbreviated words phenomenon are
should be best to SMS function rather than identified as corrupting
languages. Due to uncontrolled usage of SMS languages, Dewan Bahasa
dan Pustaka (DBP) has conducted an seminar entitled ‘Seminar
Penyelidikan: Perkembangan dan Pengaruh SMS Terhadap Bahasa
Melayu’ which were held on 19th April 2005. DBP been suggested to
publish an usage guideline to standardize the SMS languages in Bahasa
Melayu. An pamphlet had published from DBP to reflect with SMS
languages usage especially when involved with official matter. “Risalah
ini diharapkan dapat dijadikan panduan dalam penulisan SMS yang
standard terutamanya untuk SMS yang digunakan dalam situasi atau
urusan rasmi (seperti untuk menyampaikan maklumat rasmi kepada
pihak tertentu, baik kerajaan mahupun swasta).”1 The pamphlet which
entitled ‘Panduan Singkatan Khidmat Pesanan Ringkas (SMS) Bahasa
Melayu’ (2008) had divide SMS to three main group which were
‘singkatan nama khas’, ‘singkatan umum’ and ‘singkatan kata serapan’.
‘Singkatan nama khas’ then divided to six styles of writing method.
While ‘singkatan umum’ which had eleven ways of writing method.
‘Singkatan kata serapan’ are absorbed words from Arab languages. It’s
had two types of abbreviations. Based on the published pamphlet,
symbol also can be used for SMS writing. It listed seventeen symbol for
the SMS purpose. Whereas emoticon also been applied in SMS. The
applications for showing whining face or the feeling of SMS sender.
Semantics aspect also noted like homograph, synonym and certain
symbol with more than one meaning.
5. LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY:
1. Reading – the ability to comprehend and interpret text at the age and
grade-appropriate level.
3. Writing – the ability to produce written text with content and format
fulfilling classroom assignments at the age and grade-appropriate level.
In all the above examples, the learners have failed to determine the
context, which is the school, that the SMS language cannot be used in a
formal context as if it was a standard language. Another problem arising
from the use of the SMS language is that learners do not only mix words
and numbers like writing 2 instead of two but they also learn wrong
spelling of words. For them shud, difficult, finaly and u are correct since
they see and read these words everyday on their cellphones, television,
billboards, books, newspapers and circulars from their teachers.
There are no SMS dictionaries yet, except for the glossary provided by
some cellphone service providers such as Vodacom. A challenge for
both educators and lexicographers is that SMS language is here to stay
and we should deal with it. The question is HOW? Is it necessary to
introduce SMS dictionaries and make them available to educators to
help evaluate the learners’ competency in that language? Or should the
educators use the available glossaries from Vodacom as authorities for
language learning like any other dictionaries? A challenge to
lexicographers is whether or not they should begin to record the SMS
language in a form of dictionary. We should be mindful of the fact that
one of the major tasks of lexicographers is to record language as it is
used in everyday life.
9. Finding :
From the table above, result for section B of questionnaires were
presented by chart. This was to simplified the viewing method of
research finding result. Based on Figure 4, X axis are using F1, F2, F3
until F10 which represent question number 1, number 2, number 3 until
number 10 respectively.
10. Comments:
11. Conclusion:
This paper has highlighted the impact of SMS language on the language
proficiency of learners. The SMS language does not conform to
grammatical or syntactic rules of the English language, nor does it
conform to spelling rules. It has been indicated that the English language
proficiency of the learners is negatively affected by learners’ exposure to
the SMS language both through the print and the electronic media.
Lexicographers record language as it is frequently used by the people
and store it in the form of a corpus, and thereafter record it in
dictionaries. This new paradigm is seen as a breakthrough in meta-
lexicography from the traditional approach of describing what should be
recorded in a dictionary. If lexicographers were to advance this position,
they should be thinking of how the SMS language can interface with the
spoken language since it is frequently used by the public in their daily
conversations.
Finally a challenge to lexicographers is whether they should begin to
record this SMS language as it forms part of our daily language use and
include it in their dictionaries or they should simply ignore it as an
unofficial lingo. For educators, should they accept the SMS language as
one of the languages that one can communicate with or should it be
discouraged at all costs?
The result from research survey conducted to gather required data.
Twenty eight from thirty of respondents did not agree regarding
shortening up words in SMS will corrupt their languages. From this, I
believe SMS not corrupting our language since abbreviation, acronym
and emoticons were intended for SMS activities only. This phenomenon
expected to had steady increase as time goes by, pressure on reducing
communication latency, multiple letter assigned to dozen button on
mobile phone keypad and other reason. Although there was no
significant relationship which can be used to relate, more study should
be made with more appropriate approach method. The crucial need to
proper method which degree of certainty, possibility or probability will
gave trusted results.
12. References:
Abdul Rashid Melebek & Amat Juhari Moain. (2006). Sejarah Bahasa
Melayu. Kuala Lumpur:
Utusan Publication & Distributor Sdn Bhd.
Ainin Sulaiman & Ali Hussein Saleh Zolait. (2010). International
Journal of Technology
Diffusion. Adoption of Short Messaging Service (SMS) in Malaysia.
1(1), 41-51.
Donita Massengill Shaw, Carolyn Carlson & Mickey Waxman. (2007).
New England Reading
Association Journal. An Exploratory Investigation into The Relationship
Between Text
Messaging and Spelling, 43(1), 57. In ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
(OUM Digital
Collection).
Finn Trosby. (2004). Telektronikk. SMS, the strange duckling of GSM,
3. [Online]. Available:
http://www.telenor.com/en/innovation/research/publications/telektronikk
/volume/3-
2004.jsp. [2010, June 17].
Malaysia. Bahagian Penyelidikan Bahasa. Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka.
(2008). Panduan
Singkatan Khidmat Pesanan Ringkas (SMS) Bahasa Melayu. Kuala
Lumpur: Dewan
Bahasa Dan Pustaka.
Malaysia. Suruhanjaya Komunikasi dan Multimedia Malaysia. (2008).
Hand Phone Users
Survey 2008. Selangor: Malaysian Communications and Multimedia
Commission.
Philippines Declares War On Trendy Cyber Slang. (2010, June19/20).
Jakarta Globe.
SMS. (2010). [Online]. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS.
[2010, June 10].