ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, we would like to express our gratitude

towards the authorities of University of Sultan Zainal Abidin

(UniSZA) for providing the facilities for us to carry on this

research such as the library, archive and internet connection.

It helps us to complete this task easier with all the

facilities provided inside the campus, so we do not have to

get off the campus to do this research.

Besides that, we would really like to thank our beloved

lecturer of the Sociolinguistics course, Madam Hajjah Akmah

binti Yusof for her willingness to give us lessons and

guidance throughout the process of making this academic paper.

She always teaches and guides us to come up with the best

solution for this task that was assigned for us. We are really

honoured to be trusted to complete this assignment, but

without her help it is almost impossible for us to succeed in

doing this academic research.

We would also like to express our gratitude towards our

family that always try hard to help by accommodating our needs

financially and also give us moral supports with no doubt. Not

to be forgotten for their willingness to be a part of this

research. And we would like to thank everyone involved

directly or non-directly in this assignment, especially our

respondents that were willing to give their co-operation, time

and attention in order to accomplish our mission in

identifying their patterns of texting.

1

Last but not least, we really hope that the research

conducted by our group could be useful for the society. We

highly wish that this academic writing could be a reference

for the next generations in carrying out their own researches

and at the same time try to find solutions regarding language

problems. We also hope that the findings of this research

could be beneficial for everyone in an effort to preserve our

language that we are really proud of. Thank you.

Dina Mardhiana binti Nasaruddin

Abramy (037474)

Mufidah Amalina binti Akashah (037163)

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Language is often associated with the system of writing, no

doubt in that. A language will give influence on how people

write or convey their message. And we can also say that the

way people write actually pictures their language. Writing is

also a type of communication. So, by observing people’s style

of writing, we could know a little bit about their use of

language.

In conjunction with the world globalisation and advance

in technology nowadays, most of people regardless of age,

gender and regions are exposed to the usage of cell phones.

Though the technology of cell phones is improved, developed

and advanced from time to time, people are never getting out

of the use of texts or written messages as a way of

communicating with others. No matter how delicate their cell

phones are, or what brand of cell phones they are using,

people still need to use this kind of message to interact with

other people in different places. And this system of texting

remains the same till now and then.

With today’s increasing creation of media to socialise

such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and so on, texting are

seen as becoming more and more important in the trends of

everyday life. It is interesting to see the actual patterns of

people’s style of texting in identifying their preference of

code choice or linguistic repertoire at the same time.

Believing in this matter, we come up with the idea of

doing a research on people’s pattern of texting for this

Sociolinguistics Language Project. Regarding the research, we

will try to investigate the differences in the patterns of

texting between people of different ages (youngsters and

elderly), gender (male and female), and regions or ethnicity.

2.0 PURPOSES OF STUDY

The aim of conducting this research is mainly to identify

the patterns of texting of people regardless of their age,

gender, regions and social background and how all of these

aspects give influence in their linguistic repertoire,

especially in texting. By knowing their patterns of texting,

we could differentiate the use of language in their everyday

life. This includes their preference of usage of language,

whether they use more of standard forms or more of their own

regional dialects.

Regarding the difference in age, we would like to

investigate about the patterns of texting between different

generations, mainly the youngsters and the elderly. At the

same time this study enables us to identify their use of

language in everyday life.

Next, we would like to identify the differences in the

code choice of male and female. Here we want to see the

preferences of each gender towards different forms, whether

they prefer to use more standard forms or more vernacular

forms. We would also see the respondents’ opinions on which

aspects do they think texts of different gender differ.

Besides that, we are going to study about the style of

texting between people of different social background. Based

on their education and occupation, we could see how linguistic

forms affect their system of writing. During this study, we

would be able to identify their language preference according

to their needs in society.

3.0 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Instruments

To complete the task given, we carried out the study

using variety of ways such as surveys, observation, internet

research and library research. Based on these methods of

collecting data, we tried to tabulate our findings in various

means.

To get a precise feedback from people, we conducted a

survey to identify their code choice of texting. We

constructed questionnaires and distribute them to random

people. We also publish the questionnaires in the internet and

spread the link of the questionnaires to lots of people. The

feedback was quite satisfying as we got a total of 128

respondents consisted of people from different age, gender and

social background.

Through our own observation in experiencing the use of

texting in our daily life, we could see the patterns of

people’s linguistic choice via the texts received from others.

Though we could not identify the difference in age and social

background as most of the people we texted with are mainly of

the same age and social background as ourselves except for our

family members, we could distinguish between the patterns of

texting in different gender.

To gain more additional information regarding this study,

we continue our research via the internet to see whether our

results of findings are tally with the former findings by

other researchers or sociolinguists. When we made sure that

our findings are corresponded with the previous studies, only

then we could plot our data in terms of tables, graphs and

charts.

Besides that, we also did library research to support our

findings by referring to sociolinguistics related books that

are available there. Through these books, we could get clearer

explanations for the results of our findings. This way, we

would gain a better understanding of the reasons behind the

data constructed.

3.2 Selection of Respondents

For this research, we gain most of our information

through the survey questionnaires that are distributed wide,

mainly via the internet. We generated the questionnaires using

Google forms, and spread the link of that survey through other

social media such as Facebook and WhatsApp. This way is easier

for us and the respondents as they would just have to take few

minutes to answer the questionnaires, and their feedbacks are

sent straight to us. We could also save our time and energy to

the maximum because less effort is needed. Once the link

becomes viral, we could get feedbacks from people from all

over the world and not only inside the country.

Basically, our respondents consist of random people. But

we could classify them according to their demographic

information; namely age, gender and social background because

all of the details are compulsory to be filled in the

questionnaires. This way, we could identify their preference

of language choice in texting and even their opinions of

others’ patterns of texting based on their own experience.

Over all, we get a total number of 128 respondents from

different age, gender and social backgrounds. Out of 128

respondents, 73.4% or 94 of them are female while another

26.6% or 34 of them are male. 106 of them are aged between 15

to 34 years old while the rest 22 respondents are aged between

35 to 64 years old. About 90 of them are students, and the

rest are working in different professions such as teachers,

lecturers, officers, doctors and engineers. Few of them are

not working such as housewives and retirees.

Based on the data gained from their demographic

information, we could see a clear division between age, gender

and social backgrounds. This way, it is easier for us to

determine their patterns and preferences of linguistic choice

in texting based on the divisions made, and at the same time

identify the differences in their style of texting between one

group and another.

3.3 Procedures

Before the data collection is started, we asked for the

opinions and suggestions from our lecturer regarding the

survey questionnaires. We would like to know whether our

questionnaires are valid and suitable for our research or not,

and whether there is anything that we should add or omit from

that questionnaires. After receiving approval towards the

survey questionnaires, only then we conduct the process of

collecting data. We use lots of internet assistance as we

spread the survey questionnaires via the internet and social

media so that we could get more number of respondents. We also

do some more research using the internet to gain additional

information that is needed to complete the assignment. Next,

we also went to the library to look for related books that

could be useful for our research, mainly on sociolinguistics.

While the process of collecting data was in its progress, we

started the writing of this academic paper a little at a time.

3.4 Data Analysis

Since we did not divide the demographic backgrounds

earlier in the questionnaires, we need to sort the findings

and decode the information manually to be used for data

analysis. The recorded data is collected and then keyed in

Microsoft Excel software. The information gained is

transferred in the form of bar graph and pie chart so that the

differences could be seen clearly and the results could be

understood easily.

4.0 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

27%

73%

Male

Female

Figure 4.1.1 Gender of respondents

15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-640

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Figure 4.1.2 Age range of respondents

During conducting this research, we got a total number of

128 people participated in this study. 94 of them are females

and the rest 34 are males. On the other hand, Figure 4.1.2

shows age range of people involved in our survey. The ages of

the respondents vary right across the age range from 15-19 age

range to 60-64 age range. The largest response we got, with a

total of 85 respondents out of 128 were from people of 20 to

24 years old while people age 50 to 59 gave the lowest

response in participating in our survey.

The difference in this could probably be explained by the

fact that we put our survey on the net instead of manually

distributing it to target respondents. People from this age

range are the most frequent internet users so it may be easier

for them to have access to the questionnaires.

We are lacking in respondents from the older age group,

people from 50 to 64 years age range. Their lack of ICT

literacy or not having access to the internet may have been

the cause for the lack of response from them.

Very unimportant3%

Somewhat unimportant2%

Neither important nor unimportant

23%

Somewhat important44%

Very important

28%

Figure 4.1.3 The importance of texting

Never1%

Rarely3%

Sometimes21%

Often47%

Always29%

Figure 4.1.4 How often do you text in a day?

The above figure shows what people think of the

importance of texting in their daily life. 90 of the

participants, representing 72% of the sample agreed that

texting is indeed important while very few think that texting

is very or somewhat unimportant for them.

On the other hand, Figure 4.1.4 shows their frequency of

texting in a day. 59 (47%) and 36 (28%) respondents consider

themselves as frequent texters by voting on often and always

respectively. Among these 95 respondents, 65 are students and

another 30 are professionals who are doctors, teachers,

lecturers, engineers and managers.

These varieties of answers may relate to their social

background. Among 90 respondents who think that texting is

important, 78 of them are students, followed by 13 from the

professional group such as doctors and teachers. Among these

78 students, 59 of them are still in their teenage years where

texting plays a vital part in their social life in which

texting dominates their general communication choices.

Living in this fast-paced world, technology is indeed an

important thing in the daily life of the professionals. No

matter who you are working with, messaging has become

commonplace as a quick way to communicate to ensure a speedy

response. Since texting has become one of the vital means of

communication, their language preference and the code choice

in texting are indeed influenced by the group of people they

interact with the most.

Based on the age patterns seen in the frequent use of

texting, people who are more likely to use texts as their

medium of communication are people that are having most

contacts with their surroundings, such as students that need

to interact mainly with their lecturers and friends whether

for educational purposes or socializing. While doctors are

more likely to have to communicate to their supervisor and

patients, and teachers to their superiors, colleagues and

students.

24 of those frequent texters are male and the other 71

are female. Females are seen to be doing most of the texting

and surprisingly, according to a research by the Pew Research

Center's Internet & American Life Project, female use cell

phones more than male and it is common for them to text their

friends multiple times a day just to say hello. Besides,

females are often associated with using texting as their main

channel of communication instead of a face-to-face

conversation.

90%

10%

Yes

No

Figure 4.1.5 Do you think men and women text differently?

01020304050607080

Column2

Figure 4.1.6 In what terms do you think they differ?

Figure 4.1.5 and figure 4.1.6 represent what people think

of men and women styles of texting and in what way do they

differ from each other.

90% of the respondents agree that men and women do differ

from each other while texting. Men’s texts tend to be short,

straightforward and concise while women’s are long, emotional

and you might have to read between the lines in order to get

the message that is trying to be conveyed.

The most significant aspect that could distinguish their

styles of texting is words simplification. Out of 128, 86

respondents believe that word simplification is the first

thing they could notice in order to recognize gender of the

texter. There are 43 people who chose vocabulary as the most

significant thing that could differentiate men and women while

they are texting. Grammar and pronunciation are voted by 21

people respectively as factors that could distinguish men and

women in texting. 15 people disagree with none of them and

listed the usage of emoticon, swear words and excessive

punctuation as the aspects where men and women differ in

texting.

97%

3%

Yes

No

Figure 4.1.7 Do you think people from different states includetheir slangs in texting?

Based on the above figure, 124 out of 128 respondents

agree that people from different states do include their

slangs in texting. Only 4 respondents think that people just

use standard form in texting, regardless of where they came

from.

Their choice may be based on their personal experience

where they could not understand what people from different

states are trying to convey in their texts. Even based on our

own experiences, people tend to include their slangs in

texting especially when they text to groups of people from the

same region as them. The purpose of this action could be seen

as likely to signal their ethnicity or where they came from,

and to signal the memberships or solidarity between people of

the same states. For example, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu,

Negeri Sembilan, Sabah and Sarawak people are more likely to

include their regional dialects in their texts with their

acquaintances from the same state than other states in

Malaysia.

65%

35%

Yes

No

Figure 4.1.8 If you don’t know who you are texting with, canyou guess their age based on their pattern of texting?

89%

11%

Yes

No

Figure 4.1.9 Are there words that are just used by olderpeople and some words that are just used by younger people?

Figure 4.1.8 shows people response on whether they could

guess the age of people whom they are texting with based on

their texting pattern. 83 people think that they can guess the

age of people whom they are texting with by observing solely

on their pattern of texting while 45 people finds it

impossible to guess the age of the texter if they have no

other clues except for their style of texting.

Based on the Figure 4.19, 118 people do think that there

are words that are just used by older people and some words

that are just used by younger people while 10 respondents do

not think so.

People of different age communicate differently as they

grew up with different genres of technologies so it might be

easier to guess how old the people you are texting with, or at

least which generations they are from. According to a research

conducted by Balakrishnan and Yeow (2009), it can be noted

that the younger the subject, the higher the frequency of

using abbreviations and slangs in texting while older

generations tend to pay more attention to capitalization,

spacing and punctuations than teenagers.

5.0 CONCLUSION

Based on the data collected and the results gained during

this survey, we could see a clear distinction on people’s code

choice and patterns of texting. This includes people from

different range of age, gender, social background and regional

dialects.

We could see that females are more likely to make use of

texts as their way of communications in everyday life rather

than males. But it is also influenced by their range of age,

as such people which use texts more frequently are of the

teens and early middle aged. This could be understood as they

are the ones who have the most social contacts with their

surroundings no matter for what purpose whether for works

affairs or socialising. So it is clearly shown here that all

of these aspects give influence in people’s use of texts in

their daily routines.

Most of people agreed that men and women differ in

certain aspects in texting, and of course we could understand

that as in fact, men and women do differ in their language use

and preference of linguistic forms. Respondents also agree

that the patterns of texting in people of different ages are

quite distinctive. There are certain words that are used by

certain generations only and this could be used to signal how

old they are. Lastly, almost all of the respondents have the

same opinions that people do include their own regional

dialects in their texts extensively and it serves the function

as social marker in a multi-ethnics community.

Based on the results of this research, we could conclude

that age, gender, social background and regional differences

do play the influencing roles in people’s code choice. All of

these aspects are inter-related to each other in determining

one’s preference of linguistic forms.

6.0 RECOMMENDATION

The following recommendations are offered as possible ways to improve this study.

1. Given the uneven widespread of technology among different

age groups, a series of longitudinal studies would be

best to document trends of texting among users of

different generations so that the accuracy of their

pattern of texting would be relatively current and less

exposed to personal bias.

2. Research related to other demographic background should

provide a means of revising how one’s social background

affect their language preference which would be a value

to redefining the focus of this study.

3. Online survey may not yet be a pervasive enough medium to

effectively use for contacting respondents, for its

inability to reach challenging populations such as people

from the older age group and people who reside in remote

areas. For further research, it is recommended that this

method be used alongside other methods to achieve error-

free result.

7.0 ATTACHMENT

QUESTIONNAIRES (Please tick your answers)

Gender : Male__ Female__

Age : ____________________

Occupation : ____________________

1) How important do you think texting is in your daily life?Please rate from 1=very not important to 5=highly important1__ 2__ 3__ 4__ 5__

2) How frequent do you text in a day?Please rate from 1=very seldom to 5=very frequent1__ 2__ 3__ 4__ 5__

3) Do you think men and women text differently?Yes__ No__

4) In what terms do you think they differ?Vocabulary ____Grammar ____Words simplification ____*Pronunciation ____Others (please state) _____________________

5) Do you think people from different states include their slangs in texting?Yes__ No__

6) If you don’t know who you are texting with, can you guesstheir age based on their pattern of texting?Yes__ No__

7) Are there words that are just used by older people and some words that are just used by younger people?Yes__ No__

8) Please write how you would type this sentence when you are texting with others.‘You want to ask your friend to accompany you to a wedding ceremony’_____________________________________________________________________

8.0 REFERENCES

1) Alberti, J. (2009). Text messaging: Reading and writing about

popular culture (1st ed.). Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin

Harcourt Pub.

2) Barasa S. & Mous M. (2010). The oral and written

interface in Sms: technologically mediated communication

In Kenya. Retrieved April 13, 2015 from

http://lotos.library.uu.nl/publish/articles/000313/bookpa

rt.pdf.

3) Segerstad, Y.H. (2005). Language use in Swedish mobile

text messaging. In Rich Ling and Per E. Pedersen (Eds.),

Mobile Communications: Re-negotiation of the social sphere, (p 313 –

334). London: Springer Science & Business Media.

4) Smith, Aaron. (2011). Americans and text messaging. Pew

Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved April 1, 2015

from

http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Cell-Phone-Texting-

2011/Summary-of-Findings.aspx.

5) Thurlow, C. (2003). Generation Txt? The sociolinguistics

of young people’s text messaging. Retrieved April 1, 2015

from

http://extra.shu.ac.uk/daol/articles/v1/n1/a3/thurlow2002

003-02.htm