Task 2: Text messaging and Twitter encourage communication using abbreviated forms of words

(if u no wat I mean). A researcher wanted to see the effect this had on children’s understanding of grammar. One group of 25 children was encouraged to send text messages on their mobile phones over a six-month period. A second group of 25 was forbidden from sending text messages for the same period (to ensure adherence, this group were given armbands that administered painful shocks in the presence of a phone signal). The outcome was a score on a grammatical test (as a percentage)

that was measured both before and after the experiment. The data are in the file TextMessages.sav.

Does using text messages affect grammar?