New Delhi, July 27: Gr8, Be4, and wud might help save time, but techspeak words tend to spread like contagion and appear to hurt grammar skills of adolescents, a new study has suggested.

Researchers in the US have found that shortened and mutated versions of English language words used in text messages sent through cellphones are associated with poor grammar skills in adolescents.

Their findings add evidence for concerns among parents and teachers that texting with adaptations of words, coined for convenience and speed, might influence skills in grammar or language use.

“We see a clear quantitative effect — the more you use word adaptations, the worse is the grammar,” said S. Shyam Sundar, an India-born communications researcher and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University. Sundar and his co-worker Drew Cingel have published their findings in the journal New Media & Society .

The researchers analysed the texting practices among a group of school children between the ages of 10 years and 14 years and assessed their grammar skills through a language test.

They observed a significant negative association between the total volume of text messages and grammar assessment scores — the greater the number of messages sent or received, the poorer the score.

“What’s fascinating is that word adaptations show a contagion effect,” Sundar told The Telegraph in a telephone interview from South Korea, where he holds a visiting faculty position at Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul.

The study found that if an adolescent receives word adaptations, he or she is more likely to send word adaptations. “Even more fascinating — such texting behaviour appears to alter their fundamental sense of correct grammar. The errors in grammar occur during offline use of language, nor merely in the messages sent as text,” Sundar said.

Word adaptations include homophones, or omissions of non-essential letters to quickly compose text messages. Gr8 (great), Be4 (before), LOL (laugh-out-loud), and wud (would) are common homophones.

The researchers assessed the children’s grammar through questions such as: There (is, are) two ways to make enemies; One of the men forgot to bring (his, their) tools; The pictures in this magazine (shows, show) the rugged beauty of the West, among others, asking students to pick the correct answer. They were also asked to pick correct and incorrect sentences.

Sundar, whose research is aimed at understanding the psychological effects of communication technologies, cautioned that the association observed does not establish a cause-effect relationship.

“We cannot say yet whether adolescents who text more have poor grammar skills or those who have poor grammar skills text more. There might also be a common factor that influences both,” he said.

It was Cingel, the first author of the paper, who began to investigate the effect of texting on grammar skills after he received text messages from two nieces. “(The text messages) were incomprehensible,” Cingel said in a press release issued by Penn State University. “I had to call them and ask them — what are you trying to tell me?”

Sundar, who studied mechanical engineering in Bangalore before turning to communications and psychology in US universities, said the age group they studied represents a critical period for language acquisition.

“If indeed texting is affecting grammar skills at this age, it does not portend well for their future grammar skills,” Sundar said. “Even if the code-switching between their textspeak and grammar test may get better over time because of maturity and consciousness, they need to have good grammar ability to begin with.”