Texting is closer to speech than the written word

Texting is closer to speech than the written word
Dr Caroline Tagg, an academic who is the first ever to gain a PHD in text messages discovered that people text in the same way as if they were talking, using unnecessary words such as 'oh', 'erm' and often use grammatical abbreviations like 'dunno'.
Contrary to the belief that text messaging is destroying the art of communication, she claims it is actually enhancing language skills.” Text messaging is far closer to speech than formal writing, “she said.” It is in a way a new form of communication between the two.”
Dr Tagg spent three-and-a-half years researching the subject of SMS text messaging and the language used in them at Birmingham University. She read 11,000 text messages, containing 190,000 words, sent by 235 people, aged between 18 and 65. Dr Tagg analysed spelling, grammar and abbreviations used in social and business texts. The average text contains 17.5 words, she said.
The study showed that the ability to abbreviate and change the way words were written shows a deep understanding of the fundamentals of speech, spelling and grammar, she claimed. And she also discovered from her 80,000 word thesis that abbreviations were much less common than popularly thought.” You have to know how language works to know whether people will understand what you are texting," she said. "For example removing the vowels from a word often allows its meaning to remain intact but take away any of the consonants and it makes no sense."
From her research she believes that texts are much more about maintaining and building relationships rather than passing on facts. They tend to include a lot of information which is irrelevant but entertaining.
"There is a panic about the effect of text messaging and people are genuinely worried about it but I don't think they should be.” People use playful manipulation and metaphors. It is a playful language. Not only are they quite creative, it is also quite expressive.

Question 1 Indicate whether these sentences are true or false. Justify your answers with evidence from the text:
a) We are accurate and precise when we send messages.
b) People show they can handle language easily when they text..
c) Our belief that people use a lot of abbreviations when they text is correct
d) We mainly use messages to pass on pertinent information.

Question 2 Answer these questions in your own words:
a) How did she carry out her research?
b) Why does Dr Tagg believe that we shouldn’t worry about language?

Question 3 Find a word or phrase in the text that means the same as:
a) Obtain par.1
b) improve par. 2
c) Profound par. 4

Question 4 Rewrite the following sentences without changing the meaning
a) "There is a panic about the effect of text messaging and people are genuinely worried about it but I don't think they should be”, she said.
She said that.......................................................
b) People believe that text messaging is destroying the art of communication.
Text messaging..........................................................................
c) She claimed that the way words were written showed a deep understanding of the fundamentals of speech, spelling and grammar.
She said “The way people ………………………………………………………

Question 5 Write a short essay (120-150 words) on the following topic:
Could you live without a mobile phone?

Self-Access Group. CEP Santander