Abstract

Using a very popular maxim ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’, this paper set out to discuss how the skill of writing as one of the four communication skills, has been ‘hijacked’ by the world of GSM. While acknowledging the phenomenal developmental strides of our world in technological advancement, the paper posits that language teachers should not just watch their language teaching efforts in the classrooms come to naught by learners sacrificing grammaticality on the altar of technology. A wide range of linguistic infelicities with regards to written communication was identified from text messages and classified into errors of omission, acronyms, abbreviations, ‘figurisation’ and ‘letterisation’ of words, among others. The paper concluded that a deliberate militant stance which refuses to ‘join them’ be taken in order to rescue classroom language learners from the negative influence of GSM text messaging which is contributing to the nose-diving of the language competence of students. The paper recommends that composition writing in acceptable grammar should be given emphasis right from the primary level of education to the tertiary.

Key Words: GSM, Text-messaging, Language Skills, Literacy

^JCMRJournal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 6, No. 1, April 2014, 99 – 108 

©Delmas Communications Ltd.

About the authors

*Dr. Jeno-Mary Enighe, Ph. D. is with the Faculty of Education, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria.

**Deborah Nkechi Ella is with the Department of English, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria.

Full Article

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