Task 2: Text messaging is very popular among mobile phone owners, to the point that books have been published on how to write in text speak

(BTW, hope u no wat I mean by txt spk). One concern is that children may use this form of communication so much that it will hinder their ability to learn correct written English. One concerned researcher conducted an experiment in which one group of children was encouraged to send text messages on their mobile phones over a six-month period. A second group was forbidden from sending text messages for the same period. To ensure that kids in this latter group didn’t use their phones, this group was given armbands that administered painful shocks in the presence of microwaves (like those emitted from phones). There were 50 different participants: 25 were encouraged to send text messages, and 25 were forbidden. The outcome was a score on a grammatical test (as a percentage) that was measured both before and after the experiment. The first independent variable was, therefore, text message use (text messagers versus controls) and the second independent variable was the time at which grammatical ability was assessed (before or after the experiment). The data are in the file TextMessages.dat.