Is txtng rlly bd 4 yr spllng?

Is texting really bad for your spelling? Probably not, according to the preliminary results of a study Dr. Karin Bartoscuk and I conducted recently.
Any teacher can tell you that students have problems with spelling. And today's students text all the time-- is there a connection?Chinese students text even more than students in the US. Phone calls are much more expensive than texts over here.

To determine if texting does affect English spelling, Karin and I
compared students who habitually text with a group of community members from my church who mostly do not. Both groups were given a questionnaire about their texting practices and a 30 item spelling test consisting of words anyone with a high school education is presumed to know.

The very preliminary results: most people got 17 out of 30 items
right. There was no difference between texters and non-texters,
between men and women, between old people and young people.



Some thoughts:
1. English spelling is difficult. Even native speakers have trouble with it.
2. People probably don't have trouble spelling because they confuse the conventions of ordinary
spelling with the forms used in texting. English spelling is tricky for everyone.

These results are preliminary. Karin is visiting family in Germany
this summer, and I'm here in China. We'll do more with the data when
we get back.

Likely some of you who are reading took part in the study. Our
sincerest thanks, and we'll keep you posted.