A Study of Teenagers’ Usage and Attitudes toward Text-Speak Language: Using High School Students in Kinmen County as an Example.

• Main Authors: Chun-Kuei HSU, 許峻魁
• Other Authors: Hsu-Chung Chu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/79943207853561391878

碩士 === 玄奘大學 === 資訊傳播研究所 === 98 === The prosperity of Internet has rapidly changed people’s communication patterns, and keeping in touch with others through MSN or Yahoo Instant Messenger has become a norm. Unlike talking face-to-face or over the phones, Internet language, or the so- called “text-speak” language, which combines texts; symbols, and pictures, has been developed for the purpose of quick conversation. Despite the fact that mass media and scholars have been criticizing the text-speak language for possibly causing cognitive difficulty, teenagers still adopt this language style in their daily communication. Derived from the viewpoint of Internet users, this study examines the motivation and attitude of adolescents on using text-speak language. The study also looks at the relations between personal traits and viewpoints on text-speak languages, and the relations between teenage users’ motivations and dependence of text-speak language usages. This study conducts a self-reported questionnaire survey on a purposive sample in one senior high school, and one senior vocational school in Kinmen County. The study obtained 486 valid responses. The survey results are analyzed with descriptive frequency analyses, Pearson’s Correlations, and a content analysis. The findings indicate that teenagers usually hold a positive attitude toward the uses of text-speak languages, mainly due to the colloquial and free characteristics of the languages. The adolescent users of text-speak languages tend to demonstrate traits of extraversion and openness. As for the motivations of using the languages, convenience and vividness are the two major reasons. However, the study also finds that even though teenagers’ attitude toward the languages tends to be positive, they do not rely on the languages as a main communicate tool. This study attempts to provide not only a further understanding of teenagers’ usage of text-speak languages, but also a new perspective to educators of linguistics, or the building of adolescents’ new social network through Internet.