The Advent of Texting in Students’ Language: a Curse or Bless on Academic Writing Case of English Language

Abstract

The present research work is to investigate the possible effects that texting has on University English major students. This work aims to shed light on the potential effects of texting informal style on academic writing that is seen as a strict formal production. Also, it examines whether students’ deficiencies in English writing is due to textese register or their misuse of it. In this respect, both qualitative and quantitative approaches were utilized to optimize the success of our research by involving both students and teachers. A questionnaire was distributed to eighty students of English from Ibn Khaldoun University, and a face-to-face interview was designed for five teachers of English from the same University. The research findings indicate that texting has a negative effect on the way how students write academic essays, projects, and writings in general. Findings also indicate that students’ use of this trendy innovated language help them enriching their vocabulary background and make them practise English more frequently.