Self–regulation in writing is viewed as critically important in order to be a good writer. With the advent of cellular telephony, what passes as ‘good’ writing is being challenged with the introduction of the abbreviated form of SMS (Short Messaging Service) language. The purpose of this study was to determine the nature of the changes in SMS spelling and whether or not these changes affected the participants’ spelling age and their ability to write formally within the context of a formal SMS and the English language class. This study also aimed to determine whether a relationship exists between self–regulatory skills and writing in SMS. A sequential explanatory mixed–method research design was selected in order to address the research questions which had been posed. The study examined the nature of Short Messaging Service (SMS) language and the relationship between self–regulation and SMS, using a dominant quantitative survey design which was followed by a qualitative phase which explored and explained the phenomena which had been exposed in the quantitative phase of this study. The results of this study indicated that SMS language is an abbreviated form of digital writing, which is colloquial and informal in nature. SMS language is used in SMS text messages and within the forum of the chatroom MXit. The results also indicated that the participants in this study use the self–regulatory strategies of goal setting, strategic planning, self–recording, self–evaluation and self–reaction when writing SMS text messages that are more formal in nature. Furthermore, no evidence of SMS language could be found in an analysis of writing portfolios, indicating that SMS language does not affect the academic writing skills of the participants in this study. The main conclusion was that although this study was completed on a very small scale and that it would be inappropriate to generalise, the implementation of and research regarding the nature of SMS and self–regulation in SMS writing, require attention in order to ensure that the self–regulatory skills possessed by learners in our schools are used optimally in order to promote literacy and good writing practices. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Learning and Teaching))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Self–regulation in writing is viewed as critically important in order to be a good writer. With the advent of cellular telephony, what passes as ‘good’ writing is being challenged with the introduction of the abbreviated form of SMS (Short Messaging Service) language. The purpose of this study was to determine the nature of the changes in SMS spelling and whether or not these changes affected the participants’ spelling age and their ability to write formally within the context of a formal SMS and the English language class. This study also aimed to determine whether a relationship exists between self–regulatory skills and writing in SMS. A sequential explanatory mixed–method research design was selected in order to address the research questions which had been posed. The study examined the nature of Short Messaging Service (SMS) language and the relationship between self–regulation and SMS, using a dominant quantitative survey design which was followed by a qualitative phase which explored and explained the phenomena which had been exposed in the quantitative phase of this study. The results of this study indicated that SMS language is an abbreviated form of digital writing, which is colloquial and informal in nature. SMS language is used in SMS text messages and within the forum of the chatroom MXit. The results also indicated that the participants in this study use the self–regulatory strategies of goal setting, strategic planning, self–recording, self–evaluation and self–reaction when writing SMS text messages that are more formal in nature. Furthermore, no evidence of SMS language could be found in an analysis of writing portfolios, indicating that SMS language does not affect the academic writing skills of the participants in this study. The main conclusion was that although this study was completed on a very small scale and that it would be inappropriate to generalise, the implementation of and research regarding the nature of SMS and self–regulation in SMS writing, require attention in order to ensure that the self–regulatory skills possessed by learners in our schools are used optimally in order to promote literacy and good writing practices. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Learning and Teaching))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Thesis (MPhil (General Linguistics))--Stellenbosch University, 2009. / This study examined the impact of SMS speak on the written school work of English first language (L1) and English second language (L2) high school learners. The general aims of the study were to establish how widespread the use of SMS language is among high school learners, and to assess whether there is any evidence of the use of features of SMS speak in the English written work of these learners. Eighty-eight learners from an English-Afrikaans dual medium school in a middle class neighborhood in the Western Cape participated in this study. The participants included 43 grade 8s and 45 grade 11s, of which 51 were English L1 speakers and 37 English L2 speakers. The participants completed questionnaires from which the frequency and volume of their SMS use was determined, as well as the features of SMS speak they reportedly use while SMSing. In addition, samples of the learners’ English written work were examined for specific features of SMS speak. These features included (deliberate) spelling errors, lack of punctuation, over-punctuation, the omission of function words, the use of abbreviation or acronyms, and the use of emoticons and rebus writing. The results of this study indicate that high school learners are avid users of SMS and/or MXit. All participants reported using features of SMS speak in their SMSes, and many reported using SMS speak in their written school work. Despite this, the samples of written work did not contain a great number of incidences of SMS speak features. It seems that the general lack of SMS speak in the written work of these learners is a result of being able to assess when it is and is not appropriate to use a certain variety of language: These learners are proficient in SMS speak and use it when chatting to friends on MXit, but they can produce written work that adheres to the formally approved standards of written high school English. That said, a number of SMS speak features were indeed present in their formal written work, which indicates that SMS speak had some impact on the written work of these learners, which could in turn be attributed to the high frequency of their SMS usage. However, not all of the non-standard features of their written English could necessarily be attributed to the influence of SMS speak; specifically some of the spelling and punctuation errors could be unrelated to SMS speak, as they have been noted in the written English of high school learners from before the advent of cellphones. The learners in this study were from a school that has a strict language policy, one which does not tolerate the use of SMS speak in written work. Seven of the teachers completed a questionnaire compiled for all teachers at the school in question. Responses to this questionnaire, especially those of the language teachers, indicated that teachers either deduct marks for features of SMS speak in written language or refuse to mark written work that does not conform to the formally approved standards that the school has set in place. It is possible that the actions of the teachers and the language policy of the school play a significant role in the lack of SMS speak features in the written language use of the learners.

Cette thèse concerne l’analyse automatique des SMS et l'extraction des informations qui y sont contenues. Le point de départ de notre recherche est le constat que la plupart des messages courts, observés dans le corpus alpes4science, présentent des différences en comparaison avec le langage standard. Les différences sont mises en évidence, d’une part, par la morphologie particulière des mots et, d’autre part, par les règles de syntaxe et de grammaire qui ne sont pas respectées lorsque l’émetteur considère que cela ne nuit pas à l’intelligibilité du message. À cause des écarts par rapport à la langue standard, le traitement et l'analyse des messages bruités est toujours un défi pour les tâches du TAL. Par conséquent, réduire les écarts est un défi fondamental que nous surmontons en utilisant l’approche de la normalisation pour la conception d’outils en traitement automatique des SMS.Nous proposons un modèle de normalisation en deux étapes, fondé sur une approche symbolique et statistique. La première étape vise à produire une représentation intermédiaire du message SMS par l’application de grammaires locales, tandis que la deuxième utilise un système de traduction automatique à base de règles pour convertir la représentation intermédiaire vers une forme standard. Le résultat produit par ce modèle a été évalué, par la suite, pour la reconnaissance d'entités nommées au travers d'une série de tests appliqués à l'aide de trois autres systèmes. Les résultats obtenus ont montré que les performances de ces systèmes de reconnaissance d'entités nommées présentent des améliorations significatives lorsqu’ils sont appliqués sur les SMS automatiquement normalisés en comparaison avec le corpus brut et manuellement transcrit.Mots-clés : communication médiée par ordinateur, langage SMS, normalisation des SMS, extraction d’informations / This thesis focuses on SMS language and information extraction from the point of view of natural language processing. The starting point of our study is the observation of the differences that most short messages have, using the alpes4science corpora, in comparison with the standard language. The differences are highlighted by the particular morphology of words and by the syntactic and grammar rules that are not respected when the issuer considers that it would not impair the intelligibility of the message.Because of the deviations from the standard language, processing and analyzing noisy messages is still a challenge for any NLP task. Therefore, reducing the gaps is a fundamental step to overcome when designing approaches for automatic SMS processing.We propose a two-step normalization model based on a symbolic and statistical approach. The first step aims to produce an intermediate representation of the SMS by applying local grammars. The second step uses a rule-based machine translation system to convert the intermediate representation to a standard form. The obtained result from this model was evaluated, afterwards, for named entities recognition through a series of tests applied thanks to three other systems. The results have shown that these performances of named entity recognition systems are significantly improved when applied to automatically normalized SMS in comparison with raw and manually normalized corpora.Keywords: computer-mediated communication, SMS language, SMS normalization