EFFECTS OF TEXT MESSAGING ON THE ACADEMIC WRITING OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS OF A GHANAIAN COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of text messaging on the academic writing of first-year pre-service teachers of Offinso College of Education. Empirical studies on the use of text messages in specific cultures were reviewed in order to demonstrate how the present study is both similar to and different from previous research. Descriptive survey research design was employed by the researchers to conduct this study. The student population for the study was 350. Quota sampling and simple random sampling techniques aided the researchers to select 50 pre-service teachers for the study. The instruments used were questionnaires, interviews and essay-type tests. The study revealed that the vocabulary items students used in their SMS texting contained numbers, reduction, clipping and shortening, and that the use of these vocabulary items had a negative effect because these items found their way into the academic writing of students. The researchers recommend that college tutors should sensitize the pre-service teachers on the need to avoid SMS language in their academic writings to help them overcome the menace. To curtail everything, they should text using Standard English to avoid being addicted to texting language.  Article visualizations

The impact of texting language on Nigerian students: A case study of final year linguistics students

© 2020, Department of General Linguistics, Stellenbosch University. All rights reserved. This article reports on research which examined whether the use of mobile phone text messaging is responsible for the reported presence of abbreviations in students’ written work at the University of Benin. I argue that the frequent use of short messaging service (SMS) abbreviations may not be attributed only to the reported increase in the use of abbreviations in the written work of students. Other factors, such as the purpose of the writing and the students’ state of mind, might also be determinants of whether students use abbreviations or not. The research was based on the analysis of a questionnaire distributed to final-year linguistics students of the University of Benin in 2015, during their regular classes at the main campus of the University of Benin. In total, 62 final-year students from the Department of Linguistics and African Studies at the University of Benin participated in the in-class survey. The professor of the students obtained ethical clearance and provided 72 notebooks, 126 written assignments and 85 examination scripts of the same students to the researcher for analysis and validation of their responses to the questionnaire. The analysis indicated that SMS abbreviations were carried over into students’ written classwork. However, one cannot categorically state that SMSs are the reason why students use abbreviations in their written work as widely reported because the evidence from this study does not support such a claim

Literacy development: evidence review

Literacy includes the word-level skills of word reading and spelling and the text-level skills of reading comprehension and writing composition. These skills are involved in virtually all everyday activities. As a result, poor literacy impacts on every aspect of life. Word reading, spelling, reading comprehension, and writing composition are supported by similar language and cognitive skills as well as affective and environment factors. Learning to be literate builds upon existing knowledge of the language from speech. Becoming literate then enables children to learn more about language. However, literacy is unlikely to be achieved without explicit and prolonged instruction. This review provides an evidence base for decision-making during literacy education. We identify key skills that must be in place to enable children to reach their optimum potential and highlight where weakness can suggest a need for extra support. We begin by discussing models of literacy development as these models provide a framework within which to present the evidence base for the rest of the review. We then consider the underlying skills in greater depth, beginning first with the proximal factors that underpin word-level and text-level reading and writing. Then we consider distal child-based and wider environmental factors that indirectly impact on literacy development

The Barfie handbook of pedagogical and scientific approaches to children's books and intercultural education

BARFIE (Books and Reading for Intercultural Education) is a European thematic network in intercultural education aimed at teachers, librarians, parents, children and school authorities that uses books and other media for children aged 6 to 16. BARFIE was developed in 2002, 2003 and 2004 with funding from the European Union as a Comenius network, involving at its core 14 European countries, with its teaching institutions, schools, libraries, and school authorities, while reaching out to involve schoolchildren, teachers, researchers, publishers and the public in general not only in those countries but all over Europe. BARFIE has developed a collection and catalogue of books for children and young people on intercultural education, which can be consulted at www.barfie.net and in book form. In the collection there are around 10 books from each of 14 European states that are members or partners of the BARFIE network. The books were carefully selected by experts on children’s books and young adult books, librarians, teachers and educators with the aim of developing ideas and concepts for teaching multiculturality, being European, fighting xenophobia and racism, integrating difference and celebrating similarities. Simultaneously, BARFIE developed an online catalogue of projects on intercultural education and children’s fiction, which pools together resources of European projects developed under the European Union framework, such as The Reader’s Corner. European Style Fairy Tales, at www.autopen.com/euro.fairy.shtml; Children’s Polar Library, at www.barnenspolarbibliotek.com/; Communicating tradition and culture across the internet: Traditional Tales at www.eurotales.eril.net; Europe of Tales, at www.europeoftales.net; Netlibris, at www.netlibris.net; and The European Picture Book Collection, at www.ncrcl.ac.uk/epbc/ . BARFIE further developed pedagogical materials to be used in connection with the books in the collection in the form of seminars for teachers on: Global Citizenship; Getting to Know Central European Countries through Their Books; the European Picture Book Collection; Netlibris International; or Art Basics for Children; A Handful of Stories. In order to reach schoolchildren and teachers BARFIE developed teaching packages at European and local levels on: Learning English as a Foreign Language through BARFIE books; Introducing Portuguese and the Portuguese Culture through BARFIE Books; the BARFIE Picture Book Collection, as well as introductory sessions on particular books of the collection for school use. Finally, BARFIE brought together teachers, librarians, and researchers on its three seminars: the first took place in Vienna and was hosted by the Austrian Ministry of Education and the Kinderliteraturhaus in Vienna; the second venue was Bratislava and the BARFIE seminar joined efforts with the Biennial of Illustration in Children’s Literature and IBBY in Slovakia; the third seminar was held in Warsaw and was sponsored by the IBBY section of Poland and the Polish National Library and the Austrian Kinderliteraturhaus. This collection of articles tells you more about BARFIE, its efforts, aims and achievements. It describes work done under BARFIE inspiration and the enthusiasm of teachers who were keen to take the BARFIE books into their schools and thus broaden national curricula into European spaces of communication, exchange and intercultural learning. It offers you pedagogical materials to work from, ideas to take back into libraries and schools, as well as resources to integrate with your teaching and living. The collection of articles also presents scientific and pedagogical frameworks to think about children’s books, reading and interactive learning in contemporary Europe. In the three sections of the collection – Using the Resources of the BARFIE Network (section 1), From Books into Other Media: Reading, Using & Performing, (Section 2), and Children’s Books and Children’s Literature – Research and Position Papers (section 3) there is material for you to use in the classroom, in the library or at home, as well as material to reflect on and to improve your professional practice. This collection does not, however, describe all BARFIE activities. You can find more about these on the BARFIE webpage, at www.barfie.net, through the BARFIE newsletters, as well as through the contact persons in each European country that are on the partner section of the BARFIE webpage. Feel free to use the BARFIE resources and to join our network!Este documento foi elaborado no ãmbito do programa Comenius 3 Network (Comenius contract 90769-CP-1-2001-1-AT-COMENIUS-C3

Changing Subjects, Changing Pedagogies : Diversities in School and Education

Teos on julkaistu painettuna ja verkkojulkaisuna

Of the new dominant: a preliminary exploration of the dominance of ‘IT literacy’ in organizational processes

This paper takes a preliminary look at an emerging dominant literacy, IT literacy, and its potential impact on some members of the communities within which it is becoming dominant. Drawing on the perception of literacy as social practice, the paper locates organisational processes within institutions as belonging to a specific social practice and explores the pattern of dominance of IT literacy that is beginning to emerge within this practice. From analysis of interview and survey data, the study conducted a preliminary exploration of the views of staff within one organisation on the impact of this new dominant literacy. Some of the emergent views elicit the notions of exclusion, inadequacies, and imposition. I draw on this study in this talk to challenge us to think about how we respond to this imminent situation