Introduction While researching a final M.A. Thesis in Education entitled "Mob-Ed" focusing on the possibilities of teaching language learning curriculum content via mobile phone technology I was fortunate enough to make contact with and establish a relationship with RedOxygen. It was RedOxygen's SMS delivery system and the easy usage and familiarity of its features emerged within Microsoft Outlook and Express e-mailing tools which intrigued me immediately. I had been researching and studying about actual experimental projects occurring within European educational settings which made fairly good usage of mobile phones for delivering educational content and activities to learners already possessing the information communication technology skills from informal usage. My research focused mainly on analysing computer assisted language learning and recent shifts in trends which have lead educators to move towards incorporating wireless communication technology and networks with the present PC technology and Internet services. Via complex infrastructures including the combination of e-mail tools, WAP designed pages and Online virtual class settings and environments just to name a few aspects of the general platforms education institutions were re-shaping their present systems so that content and personal contact could be made between teachers and peers, and within the student body itself for the purpose of receiving test scores, interactive content or for communication tasks with regard to language learning. I knew that these methods of education based upon the research findings that these avenues and media were going to be intricate aspects of how future students were going to learn, and how future teachers would be expected to compliment their curriculum options, teaching methods and strategies but the question I was raising was how far in the future? My Initial Findings and a Look Towards RedOxygen Generally the infrastructures and designs for delivery and retrieval seemed to be costly and more than what your average language / literature / I.T. teacher, (which I am), presently has access to or knows how to use. Often the experiments and projects that I analyzed where this mobile language learning was being tested were funded by large corporations which supplied the expensive technology and devices needed on a large scale. But what is available for usage for your average teacher and your average school technology budget? RedOxygen provides a reliable user friendly, cost efficient system that can easily be installed and used by a teacher as an extension and a complementary media to get curriculum content, interactive communication assignments, mini-lessons, or important other important information to his or her progressively mobile student population from a stationary PC e-mail tool. Thus to segue my experiment details using RedOxygen technology I would like to emphasize SMS roles in education sectors as of late so an understanding of its usage can be supported with positive evidence. Firstly and probably most interestingly I would like to refer to an experiment that claims to be the first educational usage of SMS tried out in a high school setting in Briton where an education department from the Knowsley community delivered a "soap opera" with a plotline which encouraged students to revise prior to exams. Next a look towards some government usage which targets students with similar messages about staying in school and study habits. Finally some reports about the legitimacy of the usage of SMS language as it has been recognized by educators as an authentic variation of the language and how there is a need for education of these new forms. Research Findings About Text Messaging Useage in Education Generally when a teenager's mobile beeps signaling that they have received a text message they pay attention to it and read it right away. They respond to the incoming message as it has been directed to them for planning social events or getting information about changes in plans or family related information. Often the incoming messages from peers are for the purpose to gossip about peers or to share a joke or a funny story. Whatever the reason be text messages are being used to communicate and receive information and to respond to information within their daily lives. It was reported in the Ananova news release that Damian Allen in the position of social development officer within the Knowesley county educational department developed with the help of play write Chris Thorpe a "soap opera" style 60 text message plot which was delivered to students over nine weeks. He wanted to exploit the fact that almost all of the students owned mobile phones for educational purposes and deliver a story about a love triangle in which the student who has agreed to participate becomes the fourth member and confidant so to speak to the other invented characters within the story. Over the nine weeks a simple plot developed and dropped hints about starting to revise early before the exams and encouraged students to visit a web site that is related to the project that contains information about study hints and the like including profiles about the characters in the "soap opera" a draw which surely attracted the students to the page. In the end the students who participated improved test scores 6 times the national rate (Ananova 2001a),(2001b). Improved test scores are results educators like to hear about. Similarly as reported in an Ananova release a report about designed text messages put together by the government sponsored Learning and Skills Council in Central London were delivered to 45,000 students between 15 and 18 who gave advanced permission and information to be targeted and contacted. Generally the messages within the messages were containing words of encouragement to stay in school and pursue higher education. Based on research the government and the marketing teams involved all agreed that text messages were the perfect way to inform a core student audience (Ananova 2001c). Breaking Down the Text Language As usage of SMS grew and grew beyond the billion mark in various locations within Europe and the abbreviated language became wide spread and well known to a Gen-text youth culture as well as with young professionals. Comments about it's origins were made a while back in David Crystal's somewhat ground breaking "Language and the Internet" release which analyzed the evolution in the usage of language via e-mailing tools and within chat room facilities. Some however might say that it is not all that revolutionary since its forms mirrored to closely the way in which stenographers wrote in the days prior to computer technology. It was within these realms in years past and presently that this form of short hand was being used to communicate rapidly and to write short messages quickly. Of course as SMS technology was born within mobile phones and their networks this abbreviated form of alternative language was the way to communicate since the text space is limited and it is the fastest way to get a message written and send. How then can the language thus be analyzed to make sense of its usage? What follows is a brief analysis of the breakdown of its make up. The language generally can be viewed making use of these dominant characteristics; acronyms, usage of initials for words, rebus making use of symbols and numbers, and suppression of vowels. Firstly, acronyms as used in typed text language a symbolic reading must occur as each letter represents a word in what is most often a phrase or term, BTW = by the way, CID = consider it done and so forth. For an understanding of intialism the initials of original words must be pronounced separately as in e-mail = electronic mail. Crystal (2001) defines a "rebus" as something in which "the sound value of the letter or number acts as a symbol for a word". Thus R = are, U = you, Y = why and B4 = before to mention a few. An interesting point to make here is that the numbers 2, 4, and 8 have homophones which represent full words such as 2 for to and too, and 4 meaning for, or 8 for ate or portions of words such as gr8 meaning great. Lastly the suppression of vowels which helps to further abbreviate the word as well as the usage of capitals to express the value of the vowel sound can be noticed aspects of this species of language, thx = thanks, msg = message, and thN = then. These are just some of the ways language is being affected and the ways that text users are shaping their messages to fit fast for authentic usage. Text messages being sent within both the business sector and for educational purposes its authenticity is hard to challenge. The aforementioned case studies in the education sector act as support not to mention the governments usage to reach a student audience. The magic of the cultural movement as stated by Gabrielle Mander, who compiled the text messaging dictionary WAN2TALK? at the Cheltenham Literature Festival is that the language was invented by young people who were clever enough to liberate from restrictions of languages so that they may albeit by force be clear and precise. She stresses these technical aspects with the playful aspects of the writing style are exactly what is found in positive creative writing (Ananova 2001d). The style and usage seems to show a certain level of understanding of the traditional language or spelling since generally any bending or breaking of the rules tends to prove this. I am not about to open up a huge debate about the pros or cons about this new use of the English language but instead I would rather just display the fact that it is a very widely used form of communication here within the English speaking countries within Europe and above all matches the daily needs of the young professionals and a student culture whom are the most skilled proliferate users and main players within these cultures. Which leads me to my experiment teaching the language to speakers of English as a second language. The Case Study Design and Results The choice to design a language curriculum for Spanish students whom already are proficient in standard uses of English based on these evolutionary changes is precisely because I believe that it is a legitimate extension of the written form of the language that could help second language speakers communicate more proficiently, naturally, and authentically in English via the medium in focus that being the mobile phone or other electronic mediums. I will also reiterate that the overall purposes for the experiment was not to prove or persuade an audience to agree that the content of the curriculum is legitimate or not but rather to prove that language acquisition can occur through the delivery and interaction with a language curriculum via mobile phones. I realize I could have avoided any questioning of this issue if I would have designed a curriculum focusing on various English idioms for example rather than "text language" but was hoping to design a curriculum which would better reflect the authentic language of the medium itself. With this said I will explain the basic format for the experiment and analyze the specific categories in which the features of the language were presented in the curriculum reflecting educationalist's analysis as mentioned above. To briefly summarize and comment on the case study I would like to firstly mention that to begin it was necessary to simply download the software and install it in both my Microsoft Outlook programme and profile in my PC at school and in my Microsoft Outlook Express programme on my home laptop. The beauty of the software and services is that it becomes part of the Microsoft e-mailing options that mostly everyone is already familiar with. For many teachers I can see this as a positive feature since the platform allows SMS messages to be delivered the same as e-mails, choosing contacts, or contact groups and writing the 160 character message. Receiving the messages back as e-mails also allows for the easy management of replies and threads. Next it was necessary to construct an interesting curriculum so that tasks were as much as possible based on the CALL theories in which I studied at the University of Toronto and so that the content was authentic. While researching I was hoping to discover a standard selection of these variations of English words and phrases that was representative of and a reflection of common everyday usage not necessarily in chat facilities or in e-mails alone but more specifically via mobile phones as text language. I was fortunate to find an article promoting the release of a pocket SMS dictionary by a mobile phone company formally named "Genie" which eventually became a child company of a larger mobile phone provider named 02. I was delighted to learn that the dictionary was comprised by experts who gathered information from essentially the streets, bars, and club scenes in England where a specific youth, professional, and modern culture were helping to create and define an authentic wide spread SMS language (Connected Telegraph, 2000). The very language my students might need to recognize if ever to pursue carriers in business in the U.K. for instance where sending SMS messages has become an integral part of day to day work related activities as highlighted above. In a related note 02 has also published another pocket guide to text messages specifically for mothers whom were having difficulty understanding their children's messages about where they were and at what time they would be home. O2 contributed to the release of this pocket dictionary entitle "Teach UR Mum 2 TXT", in order to promote children's safety for the Milly's Fund organization unfortunately stimulated by an abducted child case. Of course the youth know or are in the know about the abbreviated language but when their parents receive the messages they are unable to decode them with ease. With the dictionary in hand parents were able to refer to the basic vocabulary and phrases. This is yet another way mobile phone or specifically text messaging can be validated since it does provide a quick option to let parents or friends know where you are and where you are going at what time on which bus or in which taxi for instance. This last point helps to exemplify the wide spread serious usage of this language as a legitimate modern way of communication by a progressively mobile youth culture as fact. Not wanting to get over complicated since the case study was really aimed at displaying the possibility to acquire second language knowledge and skills which lead to independent usage I kept the experiment side of the project as simple as possible. I gave 14 seventeen year old, (grade 12), Spanish students with a high level of traditional English since they have been attending a bilingual American School since kindergarten and one Spanish adult, (Spanish language teacher), who is a self taught English Language user a pre-test made up from the authentic content with such phrases and terms that belonged to the categories stated above, acronyms, suppression of vowels, rebus with use of numbers, and uses of initials for word representation. Pretest Please write the standardized English SMS translation for the following English words or phrases. Do not attempt to guess at the translations just write the ones that you recognize and leave the ones that you do not recognize as blank. 1. So what do you think? 2. Why? 3. Please call me 4. Want to? 5. By the way? 6. As far as I know? 7. Tonight 8. Are 9. Oh I see 10. Tomorrow 11. Doing 12. No problem 13. When 14. Them 15. Before 16. You 17. Forget 18. That 19. Could 20. Wouldn't 21. Doesn't 22. Need 23. Waiting 24. Later 25. Date 26. Forgive 27. Then Test scores were expected since using English text messaging language is an activity the participants said they do not do generally nor communicate via chat rooms facilities with native English speakers in abbreviate forms. The average score was 7.3 out of 27 a 27.3% average. The plan for the content delivery for the RedOxygen case study was designed for a fifteen day experiment where every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, three new phrases or vocabulary forms would be delivered and defined. On each of these days the students were expected to respond to the lesson by writing back to me one original sentence using the abbreviated forms correctly proving an understanding for their meaning. Some examples from my RedOxygen report look like this; Week 1: Lesson C: uses of 2 7. 2nite = tonight 8. Wan2 = want to? 9. 2moro = tomorrow Week 3: Lesson K: Rebus symbols 19. th@ = that 20. c%d = could / c%dNt = coultn't 21. w%d = would / w%dNt = wouldn't On Thursday a quiz was delivered which asked students to define 9 forms either introduced on the first three days of that week or a combination from all previously studied forms meaning that the week three quiz contained forms from weeks one and two. A sample from the RedOxygen study looks like this; Lesson N: Quiz for week 3 Doesn't Need Want to So what do you think? Tomorrow Waiting Could Later Forget Friday was the day in which I sent an authentic message and expected a reply so that a weekend conversation thread could begin so I could see the participant's usage in an authentic way. In my statement to stimulate a conversation many various forms were used from previous lessons in the different weeks meaning in the message delivered in week three I used forms from all three weeks. A prompt for the weekend conversation looks like this; whN is our d8? Duz it matter if I am l8? R U getting tickets cuz I c%ldNt? Is th@ a problem? I was fortunate to have also being researching for a University of Toronto project simultaneously so that I could apply what I was learning about proven CALL theories stated above to the RedOxygen study. Thus with the lesson's designs I was attempting to provide authentic input, which allowed time for comprehension, and expected original output to name a few features of proven CALL practices. I enjoyed the ease of delivering the content and managing the content and seeing the participants usage of the language progressively get more complex as they produced basic replies and original statements in the first week since their knowledge of the abbreviated forms was limited to hardy statements including a variety of the forms from the previous day's and week's lessons. Some students made statements after the experiment was over that it was fun and challenging to see how many forms that they could include in one response and still have it make sense. An example using various abbreviations from all weeks looked like this; Afaik we will meet 2moro nite if there is np. Don't worry if u r l8, I will be w8n for u. I really don't know what I'm going to wear yet, I will see about it l8r. See u 2moro. Finally a post test was given that included all forms and phrases from the pre-test above but in a different order of course, to be measured up against the pre-test scores and the results proved positive with the groups average going up to 23.6 out of 27 a 87.4% average and a 60.1% increase. Conclusion The overall ease of managing and assessing the replies was comforting for a teacher working a busy daily schedule as the responses were saved in a folder in both my Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail tools and retrieved from both work and home. RedOxygen provides this option for language teachers and respectively all language teachers to compliment their existing curriculum with a media that allows for heighten levels of communication for authentic purposes such as delivering content, quizzes, quiz tips or reminders to various students. It should also be mentioned that in general administrators at schools should look into this option for communicating with peers, and parents in a cost effective manner. Since the RedOxygen software can simply be installed into Microsoft e-mailing tools it is beneficial for a school to make full use of the familiarity that secretaries, administrators, and teachers already have acquired through daily usage with the technology. I have plans myself personally to use RedOxygen in a variety of other education related purposes such as sending review content and tips for internal exams as well as for standardized university entrance exams set each spring here in Spain in which my students are writing. A teachers with a curriculum which allows for students to do quick reviewing tasks daily with regard to language development or any other subject area where a quick activity or challenge can be delivered an accomplished such as a math problem or physics review task could make good use of RedOxygen's services. Resources Ananova. (2001a). Grades rise after text message teaching tip plan. Retrieved July 17, 2003 from http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_381440.html Ananova. (2001b). SMS soap opera helps students with exam stress. Retrieved July 17, 2003 from http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_270933.html Ananova. (2001c). Government to use text messages to reach young. Retrieved July 17, 2003 from http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_358700.html Ananova. (2001d). Text messaging 'boosts creativity'. Retrieved July 17, 2003 from http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_428305.html Connected Telegraph. (2000). Mobile users who speak a different language. Retrieved August 8, 2003 from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml Crystal, David. (2001). Language and the Internet. United Kingdom: Cambridge
Back
