The Idea of an Essay, Volume 4

126 The Idea of an Essay: Volume 4 a desired tone or emotion. The child may choose to use emoticons to show how the writers face would look, or stretch out vowels to mimic how someone might express sarcasm. Because textese has no real restrictions or rules, some textisms may have never been encountered before. Consequently, the child must creatively figure out a way to manipulate letters and words to express emotion to, but without confusing, the reader. This process requires creative stimulation of brain which could easily carry over to literacy, problem-solving, and other creative aspects of life. Some may argue that because of all the short-hand textese that is used in instant messaging, children are inclined to use textese in school and daily communication. To address these concerns, D. Wray conducted a study in which he received 27 volunteer teachers to participate in a questionnaire. D. Wray is a Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, and has published over 50 books pertaining to different aspects of literacy in his/her ten years of teaching (Green, 2014). Out of the teachers presented in Wray’s study, the majority of these teachers claimed that they, personally, did not see a negative effect on their students’ literacy from texting. One teacher said, “…even as children they are aware that text abbreviated language isn’t the way to write in their school work. I haven’t ever seen it come up in their literacy.” (Wray, 2015, p. 275) The first-hand experiences of these teachers, combined with the many more positively linked studies referenced by L. Verheijen, indicate that although there seems to be a logical train of thought for both opposing viewpoints, there is a lack of statistical evidence for texting being negatively linked to children’s literacy. Since children are likely to develop better creativity and problem- solving from the use of textese, would adults have similar results? By the time someone is 18 years or older, their literacy skill is already well established. Because of this, texting will not have the same effect on them as someone younger whose literacy skill may not be as established. Grace, Kemp, Martin, and Parrila noted that “… our [their] results suggest that rather than textism use endangering literacy scores, textism use relies on a range of literacy skills that colour the relationship between textism use and literacy, just as early literacy experiences are related to current literacy skill,” (Grace et al., 2014, p. 869). In adults, literacy level is actually reflected through the use of textisms, and not affected by them. It is a direct reflection of many different literacy-influencing factors