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    A STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF MOBILE PHONE AND SHORT

    MESSAGING SERVICES (SMS) ON LANGUAGE CORRUPTION IN

    MALAYSIA: A CASE STUDY IN KOTA KINABALU, SABAH

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    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    1.0Introduction...................................................................................................... 1

    1.1Problem Statement........................................................................................1

    1.2Objective of this Study...................................................................................2

    1.3Research Methodology.................................................................................. 2

    2.0Literature Review..............................................................................................4

    2.1The Development of Mobile Communication in Malaysia...............................4

    2.2What are Short Messaging Services (SMS)?...................................................5

    2.3Use of SMS in Malaysia and Other Countries.................................................5

    3.0Findings of the Study........................................................................................9

    3.1Description of the Respondents.....................................................................9

    3.2SMS Activities of the Respondents...............................................................11

    3.3SMS Abbreviations by the Respondents......................................................12

    3.4Respondents Opinion Regarding SMS and its Corruption of the Language.13

    4.0Discussions ....................................................................................................15

    5.0Conclusion...................................................................................................... 16

    REFERENCES........................................................................................................17

    Appendix A Questionnaire.................................................................................19

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    1.0 Introduction

    1.1 Problem Statement

    Wei and Kolko (2005) stated that mobile phones are growing in popularity all

    around the world. They have become common tools and accessories in highly

    wired societies (Ito and Okabe, 2003; Ling, 2000; Oksman and Rautiainen,

    2003; and Rheingold, 2002). In developing countries such as Malaysia, mobile

    technology is becoming an important aspect of development as it allows the

    countries to leapfrog and take advantage of advances in information and

    communication technologies (ICT) without barriers (Jamieson, 2002).

    In Malaysia, majority of teenagers and adults carry at least one mobile

    phone. In fact, cell phones as they are also called; have become an integral

    part of the modern world, providing human connectivity in a way never

    thought possible before (Brown, Shipman and Vetter, 2007). A recent United

    Nations report (www.cellular-news.com/story/25833.php) estimated that there

    are a total of more than 2.68 billions of mobile phone subscribers in the world.

    There has been a major increase in the use of phone calls and short

    messages (SMS) as a form of communication among people. In Malaysia, 74

    per cent of mobile phone subscribers were reported to have sent at least a text

    message per day (Koay, Azilawati, Malini and Ng, 2004). It is also estimated

    that approximately eight hundred thousand Malaysian students are such users.

    A phenomenon that emerged in the recent decade due to the extensiveand intensive use of mobile phone and SMS is the abbreviation of words in

    SMS. It has resulted in some people being worried about the corruption of our

    national language (Bahasa Melayu) through abbreviation, newly created

    words, code-switching, code-mixing and emoticons or symbols in their SMS.

    Some however, argued that SMS has opened up new opportunities for our

    national language to survive and some mother tongue languages to be revived

    as they are able to romanize their languages in their SMS.

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    http://www.cellular-news.com/story/25833.phphttp://www.cellular-news.com/story/25833.php
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    1.2 Objective of this Study

    This assignment presents a literature review on the use of SMS in Malaysia as

    well as in foreign countries. These reviews are based on research articles

    downloaded from the Internet and presented in the next chapter. In addition, a

    small scale study using survey method with a pre-designed questionnaire by

    Supyan Hussein (2008) was conducted to gather respondents from adults and

    teenagers around Kota Kinabalu City area about their SMS practices.

    The main aim of this assignment is to provide literal and empirical

    evidences that use of SMS is corrupting our language in Malaysia. In my

    opinion, I strongly agree with the notion that SMS is corrupting our language.

    Thus, more specifically, the objectives of this study are presented as follows:

    1. To explain the use of SMS in Malaysia and other countries based on

    literature reviews; and

    2. To provide empirical evidences that use of SMS is corrupting our language

    by gathering perceptions of SMS practices among respondents in Kota

    Kinabalu City area

    1.3 Research Methodology

    This study uses literature review of research articles sourced from the Internet.

    In addition, a short survey using a pre-designed survey (Supyan Hussin, 2008)

    was used to gather empirical data to determine the detrimental impact of SMS

    messages to Malaysian language, especially Bahasa Malaysia. Factual

    information from literature reviews are presented in the following chapter

    while empirical data are presented in the ensuing chapters. Descriptive

    analysis to obtain frequency and percentage values of respondents responses

    is executed with the aid of Microsoft Excel. Results of the survey arepresented in table and graphical forms.

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    2.0 Literature Review

    2.1 The Development of Mobile Communication in Malaysia

    The mobile phone is seen as an increasingly important communication tool,

    which has become an integral part of the Malaysian society. Sheereen and

    Rozumah (2009) stated that Malaysians are increasingly using the mobile

    phone rather than the fixed lines to communicate with their friends, family,

    colleagues and business associates. Nowadays, mobile phones are equipped

    with various features that allow communication and entertainment such as the

    Short Message Service (SMS), MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3) player, games,

    internet and videos. These features have attracted people from all walks of life

    including the younger generations, and consequently resulted in an increase

    number of mobile phone users in Malaysia.

    The Handphone User Survey (2005) carried out by the Malaysian

    Communication and Multimedia Commission found that 13 per cent of people

    aged below 20 years old owned a mobile phone. Nearly 80 per cent of people

    living in Malaysia between the ages of 20 and 49 owned or used a mobile

    phone (Mohd Hairul, Hazrina and Nazean, 2008).

    In 2008, the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission

    carried out another study which found that Malaysia ranked second in ASEAN

    in terms of the number of mobile phone users, recording 26 thousand users

    during that year. The survey revealed that those within the range of 20 to 49

    years are the main users while those below 19 years old make up 20.9 per

    cent, signifying that young adults are prominent mobile phone users in

    Malaysia (Sheereen and Rozumah, 2009). Abdullah (2004) found in this study

    that youths claimed that owning a mobile phone is an essential part of their

    life. This is not surprising as the younger generations are regarded as digital

    natives (i.e. individuals born in the technological era) and are naturally

    attracted to any technological gadgets. According to Ito and Okabe (2004),

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    mobile phone is regarded not only as a tool for communication but also as a

    way to express themselves and to make them lookhip and cool(Ling, 2001).

    Contrary to the older generations, better known as digital immigrants (i.e.

    individuals born before the technological era), their use of mobile phones are

    mostly for social or business purposes (Bianchi and Phillips, 2005).

    2.2 What are Short Messaging Services (SMS)?

    Brown et al. (2007) defined Short Messaging Services (SMS) is the text

    communication service component of phone or mobile communication

    systems, using standardized communication protocols that allow the exchange

    of short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices. SMS was

    created during the late 1980s to work with a digital technology called Global

    System for Mobile Communication (GSM), which eventually become the

    basis for most modern cell phones.

    The term SMS is used as a synonym for all types of short text messaging

    as well as the user activity itself in many parts of the world. SMS is a method

    of communication that sends text between cell phones or from a personal

    computer or handheld to a cell phone. The short part in SMS refers to the

    maximum size of the text messages i.e. 160 characters (letters, numbers or

    symbols in the Latin alphabet) [How and Kan, 2005].

    2.3 Use of SMS in Malaysia and Other Countries

    Thurlow and Poff (2010) explained that text messaging refers to the brief

    typed messages sent by SMS of mobile or cell phones, personal digital

    assistants (PDA), smart phones or web browsers. They explained that texting

    has become popular with the rapid spread of mobile telephony in general.

    There have been extensive researchers conducted to address the role of texting

    as a social-communicative resource in peoples daily lives. For instance,

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    Tanakinjal et al. (2007) found that 32 percent of adult texters in Malaysia

    cannot use their mobile phones without texting. Among college students in

    Hong Kong, texting is a status symbol, with texters being predominantly male

    and having a high household income (Leung, 2007). In Japan, Ishii (2006)

    found that Japanese prefer texting to voice communication while Uy-Tioco

    (2007) found that Filipino mothers in the U.S. with children overseas use

    texting to maintain real-time relationships with their children. In another study

    by Lin and Tong (2007) in Taiwan, it was found that subtle gender relations

    are negotiated via texting.

    The impact of short messages in SMS on the language has been

    investigated in numerous studies all over the world. Thurlow and Poff (2010)

    explained that Swedish texters typically alter their spelling from the standard

    by spelling phonetically, splitting compounds, omitting vowels, using

    conventional and unconventional abbreviations, writing in either all caps or all

    lower case and exchanging longer words for shorter ones. Among German

    texters, reduction techniques are used while French texters use phonetic

    reductions, syllabograms or rebus writing (such as b4 with the English for

    before), and logograms which are symbols, acronyms, and unilateralabbreviations (Anis 2007). Among US texters, unambiguous abbreviations

    (e.g. I and R for you and are), vowel deletions and lexical shortenings

    (e.g. Sun for Sunday) are common (Ling and Baron 2007). Other than that,

    capitalization, punctuation and blank spaces are often omitted in Swedish text

    messages, so do apostrophes and sentence-final punctuation (Thurlow and

    Poff, 2010).

    Mohd Sahandri, Mohd Reza and Saifuddin Kumar (2009) explained that

    the evolution of an abbreviated language is due to the shortcoming and the

    technical restrictions of SMS as a means of communication. They further

    elaborated that the existence of a common background between close friends

    and family members serves as a reason for using syntactic and lexical short

    forms to save energy, space and time. In order to ensure comprehension, these

    texters have a special shared knowledge and according to Abdullah (1988),

    this points to the fact that the language of SMS that is associated with

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    acronyms and changes in spelling norms, depicts that it is an inherently

    informal communication system.

    Based on the study by Mohd Sahandri et al. (2009) among students of

    University Putra Malaysia, it was found that SMS users employed text devices

    such as single letters, digits, abbreviation and acronyms to replace words.

    Their study revealed the popular use of shortened words and word combined

    with numbers. Grammar, punctuation and capitalization were largely ignored.

    They noticed that the language of SMS messages was a combination of spoken

    and written communication a spoken mode in a written medium. Table 1

    below shows some of the text devices found in the analyzed SMS of the

    respondents in their study.

    Table 1: The main text devices found in the analyzed SMSs (N = 50)

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    (Source: Mohd Sahandri et al., 2009, p. 77)

    Their study challenged the assumption that language is deteriorating

    because of increased use in electronic communication. However, they noted

    that although there are linguistics and non-linguistic problems observed in the

    SMS messages, it also suggests that language used is adapted creatively to the

    particular needs of the electronic age. They argued that there is a number of

    linguistic features and strategies used by the e-mail and SMS writers such as

    abbreviations, spoken-like spelling, less attention to punctuation and

    capitalization, as well as syntactical and lexical reductions were well suited to

    the conditions of electric communication to reduce space, time and effort.

    Nevertheless, they agree that SMS messages tend to ignore the affective and

    aesthetic part of speech such as the omission of thanks, greetings, punctuation,

    capitalization and grammar which are not good.

    In another study by Kho (2004) on the impact of using net lingo (such as

    btw means by the way) in computer-mediated communication on off-line

    writing tasks among Cohort Two students of the Overseas Link B. Ed. TESL

    Programme. According to Johnston (2003), the usage of net lingo is corrupting

    the standards of English. Teh (2004) supported this notion by stating that some

    educators claimed that there has been a decrease in students performance in

    English language papers due to the prolonged use of net lingo. Kho (2004)

    justified this claim as the frequent exposure and use to net lingo could lead to

    habitual usage and that students may unconsciously use net lingo in their

    writing. Since use of mobile phones is common among students, there is a

    possibility that the conversational writing they use in computer-mediated

    communication which includes shorthand, non-conventional spellings and

    emoticons could unconsciously creep into their school work (Lee, 2003;

    Smith, 2004).

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    3.0 Findings of the Study

    3.1 Description of the Respondents

    The respondents background information was obtained from Section A of the

    questionnaire. Four demographic profiles were determined: age, ethnic group,

    gender and status.

    Figure 1: Breakdown of Respondents based on Age

    Figure 1 shows the breakdown of respondents based on age. A total of

    27 per cent of the respondents are between the age of 15 and 20 years; 30 per

    cent between the age of 26 and 30 years; 20 per cent between 31 and 35 years;

    13 per cent between 36 and 40 and 10 percent more than 40 years old.

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    Figure 2: Breakdown of Respondents based on Ethnic Group

    Figure 2 shows that the majority of the respondents came from the ethnic

    groups of Kadazan/Dusun, Malay, Rungus and Bajau. Remaining number of

    respondents are Chinese, Indian, Brunei and others.

    Figure 3: Breakdown of Respondents based on Gender

    Figure 3 above shows that 57 per cent of the respondents are female and43 per cent are males.

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    Figure 4: Breakdown of Respondents based on Status

    Based on status, majority of the respondents are working (13

    respondents) and 7 of them still studying while 9 respondents work and study.

    One respondent was unemployed.

    3.2 SMS Activities of the Respondents

    Table 2 below presents the respondents feedback on their SMS activities,

    based on the questions presented in Section B of the questionnaire.

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    Table 2: Respondents SMS Activities (N = 30)

    No StatementRespondents Feedback

    Yes No NA

    1 Do you have a mobile phone? 30

    (100.0%)

    0

    (0.0%)

    0

    (0.0%)

    2 Do you SMS? 30

    (100.0%)

    0

    (0.0%)

    0

    (0.0%)

    3 When you used SMS, did you

    shorten up the words, abbreviate the

    words or chunk the words?

    30

    (100.0%)

    0

    (0.0%)

    0

    (0.0%)

    4 Did you shorten up Bahasa Melayu

    words in your SMS?

    30

    (100.0%)

    0

    (0.0%)

    0

    (0.0%)

    5 Did you shorten up mother tonguewords in SMS?

    30(100.0%)

    0(0.0%)

    0(0.0%)

    6 Did you shorten up English words in

    SMS?

    30

    (100.0%)

    0

    (0.0%)

    0

    (0.0%)

    7 Did you mix up more than one

    language in your SMS?

    30

    (100.0%)

    0

    (0.0%)

    0

    (0.0%)

    8 Will SMS help to revive your mother

    tongue language?

    6

    (20.0%)

    24

    (80.0%

    0

    (0.0%)

    Table 2 above shows that all the respondents responded Yes to

    Statement 1 to 7. This indicates that respondents are regular user of mobile

    phones and SMS as well as practices sentence/word shortening, abbreviation,

    chunking and mixing different languages in their SMS messages. Only 20 per

    cent of the respondents agreed that SMS will help to revive their mother

    tongue whereas 80 per cent responded negatively.

    3.3 SMS Abbreviations by the Respondents

    Based on the respondents feedback about SMS abbreviations in Section C of

    the questionnaire, Table 3 presents a compilation of their feedbacks.

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    Table 3: Respondents SMS Abbreviations (N = 30)

    Expressions Bahasa Melayu English

    How are you? Apo kabo?

    Ap khab?

    Camana U skrg?

    HRU

    How U?

    OK U?

    Good morning SP

    Sel pgi

    Slmt pg

    GM

    Gud morn

    Gud mg

    I will call you Nanti I kol

    I kol krg

    Jap gi I kol

    A wil cal ya

    Cal ya sun

    Wil cal ya

    Breakfast SarapnMakn pgi

    Mkn pgi

    BrekfasB-fas

    BrekFs

    I love you Cyg u

    ICU

    Syg u

    Luv u

    ILU

    Do you want to come with

    me?

    Nak kut sa?

    U nak ikt sa?

    U nak ikt I?

    U wana come

    with me?

    U come wit me?

    Du wanna com

    wt me?

    He had an accident last night Dia eksiden smlmSmlm dia aksiden

    Aksiden dia smlm

    He aciden l/niteHe hd accidn las

    nite

    He xsiden las nite

    Table 3 recorded the respondents habit of SMS abbreviations in Bahasa

    Melayu and English. It shows the action of shortening words, using single

    letter to represent a word, spelling based on sound and code-mixing of English

    and Bahasa Malaysia.

    3.4 Respondents Opinion Regarding SMS and its Corruption of the

    Language

    From Section D of the questionnaire, the respondents were asked whether to

    agree or disagree that shortening up words in SMS will corrupt the language.

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    Findings indicate that all the respondents or 100 per cent of the respondents

    agreed to the statement. Some of the reasons for their answers are indicated in

    Table 4 below.

    Table 4: Reasons Supporting the Respondents Notion that Shortening

    up Words in SMS will Corrupt Language

    1. Shortening up words becomes a habit that can be transferred to academic

    or work assignments.

    2. Laziness to determine the right spelling of the word is aggravated.

    3. Mixing English and Bahasa Melayu spoil the language. Thus, texters are

    neither good in English or Bahasa Melayu.

    4. Shortening up words ignored the use of connecting words

    (conjunctions), which further decrease the texters grammar skills for

    both language

    5. There are jargons used in texting e.g. LOL, ciao, mo mantai that hasmeaning in the register group of mobile phone/SMS users but are

    meaningless in standard language. It might intentionally be used in

    writing or speaking in the school or work environment

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    4.0 Discussions

    Based on the findings of the small scale study among 30 respondents in KotaKinabalu city area, it can be concluded that majority or in this case, all the

    respondents agree that shortening up messages in SMS is corrupting the language.

    These findings are supported by numerous researches as presented in the second

    chapter of this report.

    The result of the study indicated that the practice of shortening up messages in

    SMS can become a habit among mobile phone users and this habit can be passed on to

    the academic or professional language uses. The findings imply that the impact of

    SMS on our language should be taken seriously. Since shortening messages in SMS

    and the use of SMS is a growing and unavoidable trend, users especially among

    teenagers and students should be made aware of this problem and that there should be

    some action to be taken to ensure prevention of this habit to flow to their practice in

    speaking and writing in a formal context. Language teachers should consider the need

    to bring this issue out in the open with their students so as to enhance learners

    awareness on the inappropriateness of using such language in the formal contexts. Ifthese actions are not taken, the governments effort to raise the standard of Bahasa

    Melayu and English as the primary languages in this country will fail.

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    5.0 Conclusion

    It is concluded that SMS poses detrimental effect on language for both English andBahasa Melayu (as well as other mother tongues). Although, skills in shortening up

    words in SMS messages are necessary especially in this era of borderless state of

    communication, globalization and the need for swift actions, the impact of SMS on

    our language cannot be denied.

    Although language creativity in SMS has enable SMS users to communicate

    effectively and efficiently with others who understand the same language level, it

    must be cautioned that lack of monitoring for such practices might result in failure to

    uphold the national language, Bahasa Melayu and the global lingua franca, English.

    Thus, mobile phone and SMS users should be made aware of this issue and as

    the practice of shortening up messages in various creative and innovative ways is

    developed, there should be measures to ensure that users are also adept and proficient

    in using the languages in formal contexts.

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    REFERENCES

    Anis, J. (2007). Neography: Unconventional Spelling in French SMS Text Messages. In

    Brenda, Danner and Susan C. Herring (eds), Ed. 87-115, New York: Oxford University

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    December

    How, Y. J. And Kan, M. Y. (2005). Optimizing Predictive Text Entry for Short Message

    Service on Mobile Phones, School of Computing, National University of Singapore

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    Everyday Life,Journal of Communication, 56(2): 346

    Ito, M. and Okabe, D. (2003). Mobile Phones, Japanese Youth, and the Re-Placement of

    Social Contact, in Front Stage - Back Stage: Mobile Communication and the

    Renegotiation of the Social Sphere, Grimstad, Norway, 2003. [Online]. Available:

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    Ito, M and Okabe D. (2004). Mobile Phones, Japanese Youth, and the Replacement of Social

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    speak. Sunday Herald. Retrieved from http://www.sundayherald.com/ print31826

    Koay, H. E., Azilawati, M., Malini, R., & Ng, W. M. (2004). Hand phone users survey

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    on Off-line Writing Tasks,Jurnal IPBA, Jilid 3, Bilangan 2

    Ling, R. (2001). Students girls and young adult men: Two sub-cultures of the mobile

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    Mohd Hairul Nizam, M. N., Hazrina, H. and Nazean, J. (2008). The Use of Mobile Phones by

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    Appendix A Questionnaire

    SMS PRACTICES IN MALAYSIA

    *(Instrument prepared by Supyan Hussin, 2008)

    A. BACKGOUND INFORMATION

    Instruction: Circle one only

    1. Age: a. 15-20b. 21-25 c. 26-30 d. 31-35 e. 36-40 f. more than

    40 years old. (Circle one)

    2. Ethnic: Your mother tongue:

    .3. Gender: Male Female (Circle one)

    4. Status: a. Studying b. Working c. Both d. Not Applicable (Circle

    one)

    B. SMS ACTIVITIES

    Instruction: We highly appreciate it if you could provide us some feedback on this quick

    survey. Please respond to the following statements by circling the appropriate option in the

    box. Do not write your name. Thank you for your cooperation.

    1. Do you have a mobile phone (mobile phone)? Yes No Not Applicable

    2. Do you SMS? Yes No Not Applicable

    3. When you used SMS, did you shorten up the words,

    abbreviate the words or chunk the words?

    Yes No Not Applicable

    4. Did you shorten up Bahasa Melayu words in your SMS? Yes No Not Applicable

    5. Did you shorten up Mother tongue words in SMS? Yes No Not Applicable

    6. Did you shorten up English words in SMS? Yes No Not Applicable7. Did you mix up more than one language in your SMS? Yes No Not Applicable

    8. Will SMS help to revive your mother tongue language? Yes No Not Applicable

    C. SMS ABBREVIATIONS

    Instruction: How would you shorten up the following words inSMS? Or How would you SMS the following expressions?

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    Expressions Bahasa English

    How are you?

    Good morning

    I will call you

    Breakfast

    I love youDo you want to come with me?

    He had an accident last night.

    D. Agree or Disagree:

    Instruction: Circle one only.

    Do you think shortening up words in SMS will corrupt your language? Yes or No.

    Optional for respondents to answer.

    Why did you say YES? In what way SMS corrupt the language?

    Why did you say NO?

    Please provide answers in point forms. Use the back of the page to write your responses

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