GR8 spellrs r gud at cmmunictng via txt mssgng, says exprt

Melbourne, Dec 3 : Individuals who are proficient in reading and writing have good communication skills, as far as text messaging is concerned, says an Australian psychologist.

The report, which has been presented at the Australian Research Council Research Network in Human Communication Science conference in Sydney, overturns the commonly held view that texting is spoiling our spelling, according to researcher Dr Nenagh Kemp.

To reach the conclusion, Kemp, a psychology lecturer at the University of Tasmania, asked 55 undergraduates to read and write text messages using normal English and abbreviated text language, which she branded "textisms".

From the analysis, the boffin found that while it was faster to write the messages using textisms, because the user did not have to make as many key strokes, recipients took twice as long to read the abbreviated message compared with the text message that was written in proper English.

She says the message, which spanned two mobile phone screens, took 260 seconds to write in normal English, but only 220 seconds in textisms.

The participants took 14 seconds to read the normal English message, but 27 seconds to comprehend the textism message, and in many cases made mistakes, reports ABC Online.

"Commonly the participants said, 'I don't do it [the abbreviation] that way'," Kemp says.

The researcher also found those with the best awareness of grammar and spelling are better at working out what abbreviations might mean.

ANI