Texting Styles of EFL / ESL Teachers in Saudi Universities: Cultural Perspectives

Texting is the process of sending and receiving written messages using a mobile phone. It is a stunning phenomenon and marks a new era of electronic language. It has highly abbreviated and alpha-numerical styles that represent a continuous evolution of a unique language. Texting is becoming very popular across the globe but the findings of the present research show that it is still in embryonic stage in KSA, because Saudi EFL/ESL teachers feel unease to text and exhibit more readiness to speak. Three major surveys were conducted at Saudi universities to ascertain frequency of texting. The research findings of these surveys explored the overwhelming and favorable response of the participants towards texting. Almost all the participants agreed that texting is cost-effective and manifests dynamic sociocultural and linguistic identities. In addition, they endorsed that SMS dictionary should be written to avoid idiosyncrasies and to standardize the style of texting. It was also explored that cultural and religious inclusion in texting was predominant when Saudi EFL /ESL teachers wrote text messages. The text messages they sent to their friends and relatives also reflected codemixing, which was a beautiful blend of English, and Arabic language discourses and hence echoed distinctive socio-cultural and religious features.


Introduction
Texting represents a telegraphic or an alpha-numeric language such as '2day or b4' and hence has a unique style.It is also similar to pictographic and a logographic systems in a sense that they all need readers' ability to decode the meaning.When the texer texts, he uses the language sparingly just to put the message across.According to Wikipedia, The concept of texting was first given by Friedhelm Hillebr and later Neil Papworth.He was a 22-year-old engineer for Sema Group in the UK.It was for the first time on 3 rd December 1992, Neil Papworth sent the text message "Merry Christmas" via the Vodafone network.'Radiolinja' became the first network to offer commercial person-to-person SMS text messaging service in 1994.According to Crystal (2001), 'the Short Message Service (SMS) was developed within the mobile phone industry in the early 1990's but it did not become popular until about 1998'.Within the time span of ten to twenty years texting has become very popular across the world.In English speaking countries text messaging is extensively used by the masses and it is used as a fun game or entertainment by school children.It was easy and natural for both children and adults of English speaking countries to text in English but it always remained paranoia for non-native users of English, because they were possessed by absolute concept of syntactical accuracy.According to Wikipedia, in countries such as Finland, Sweden and Norway, over 85% of the population uses SMS.The European average is about 80%, and North America had 60% active users of SMS by end of 2008.The reason why texting has become very popular across the globe is that it is shortened, cost effective and consumes less time and space.
Mobile technology, within a span of 10 years, from 2003-2013, has moved from a privileged elites to the masses in Saudi Arabia.Text messaging is becoming the need of the hour owing to the growing popularity of SMART phones in Saudi Arabia.Saudi business communities, Saudi British or Saudi American banks, international Saudi and non-Saudi schools, Saudi colleges and universities send text messages in bulk either to advertise or to convey the most urgent messages to their customers.However, Saudis in general prefer voice call to text messaging, because they do not feel comfortable while texting in English.The surveys and interviews conducted in the present study reveal that when the highly educated Saudis text in English, the language they use manifests absolute precision, socio-cultural and religious identities.In addition, their text messages sometimes characterize English-Arabic code -mixing which is called Arabizi or Arabish .
It is really interesting to note that quite a few educated Saudis use Arabizi when they text in Arabic which represents interesting blend of Arabic and English.This "language" was originally popular with those in the Middle East who graduated from overseas universities.English-Arabic code switching and writing Arabic in English so called Arabizi or Arabish are becoming popular among educated Saudis.For example, Some Saudis were found texting 8alb instead of Qalb.The word Qalb is Arabic which means heart in English.In 8alb, 8 is used for the alphabet letter qaff in Arabic which is equivalent to Q in English.Arabizi is a new trend which looks elegant and modern but according to some Arabic professors it is spoiling the Arabic language and has an adverse effect on its understanding.
Code -mixing is used in text messages as a potent communicative strategy to obliterate language barriers and consolidate cultural, linguistics and religious identities.When Saudis text in English, they give prominence to their cultural mores, traditional and religious values.Code switching in text message as used by Arabs may be considered unstructured and convoluted across the globe yet well received by the same speech community.In addition, inclusion of Arabic lexicons, registers and religious supplication in Saudi text messages is at the forefront of their communication which reflects a unique poignant style.
The Muslims of other countries working in the kingdom were also found adhered to Saudi cultural and linguistic heritage in their text messages.They also incorporated Arabic word/phrases such as 'Alhamdulillah' and Insha Allah" whenever they text.

Literature Review
Text messaging is becoming an inevitable means of communication around the world.It has gripped the imagination of the whole world in a very short time span.No doubt, views of linguists about texting are at loggerhead but its growing popularity can't be ignored.It will be worthwhile to discuss both negative and positive opinions of linguists on texting.
John Sutherland (2002), found the language of texting 'thin and unimaginative masking dyslexia, poor spelling and mental laziness'.He concludes by saying that texting is 'penmanship for illiterates'.It is 'bleak, bald, sad shorthand'.The neuroscientist, Baroness Greenfield, (2009) once said 'Texting 'could increase attention deficit disorders'.John Humphrys (2008) vehemently criticized texting.According to him texting is wrecking the English language.He argued that texters are "vandals who are doing to our language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbors 800 years ago.They are destroying it: pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences; raping our vocabulary.And they must be stopped."As a new variety of language, texting has been condemned as "textese", "slanguage", a "digital virus".Some other linguists are also against texting.They thought that the use of abbreviations in text messages, word shortenings and acronyms in addition to other violations of grammar rules, might affect Standard English and will cause communication barriers among English speaking countries in the future.For example O'Connor (2005) vehemently criticized texting and considered it as "bastardization" that is the use of bad grammar, poor punctuation and improper abbreviations'.Ping, A. C. and et al (2011) were of the same opinion.They conducted a study to analyze the semantic and syntactic aspects of SMS.Their findings suggested that the degree of the ignorant use of SMS language in writing among university students might reach an unacceptable state if not observed.Njemanze (2012) also concluded in his survey that SMS style would generate greater linguistic confusion if it is not controlled.
On the contrary, other linguists strongly supported texting and its importance in the modern technological era.For example, Crispin Thurlow (2005) found texting 'communicatively adept' having 'linguistic creativity' and a 'robust sense of play'.Silver, N. ( 2006) outrightly said 'Texting has generated one of the most idiosyncratic varieties in the history of language so called Textspeak'.According to BBC news (2008) the great linguist Professor David Crystal strongly favored texting and argued that such condensed messages enhance and enrich language skills.Crystal outrightly said "The panic about texting and its effects on language is totally misplaced,it adds a new dimension, enriches language and gives you a new option".He rejected claims that texting by mobile phone is bad for language and literacy skills.John McWhorter (2013) introduced a more positive view of the language-changing phenomenon: According to him, Texting is actually a "linguistic miracle happening right under our noses."According to Baker (2002) texting has its own 'language, its own etiquette and its own humor.In other words, Baker insinuates the socio-cultural aspects of texting.
According to Daily Mail Reporter (2011), 'Children who are fluent at text messaging have better literacy skills than youngsters who do not use mobile phones'.The famous psychologist, Clare Wood (2011) who led the study at Coventry University, said 'the use of abbreviations, commonly used in text messaging, helped in the development of children's reading and writing skills'.Crystal (2001) again pointed out that texting has led to more creativity in the English language, giving people opportunities to create their own slang, emoticons, abbreviations, acronyms, etc. Texting is a very quick and efficient way of sharing information from person to person'.Russel (2012) also supported texting by saying that SMS like slang language has its own language that has no effect on Standard English.Linguist John McWhorter (2013) said 'there's much more to texting-linguistically, culturally-than it seems, and it's all good news'.Haashem and Azizinezhad (2012), explored that short message (SMS) could help EFL/ESL students in learning English vocabulary.Their findings illustrated that SMS-based vocabulary learning could increase EFL/ESL language learners" flexibility and might be highly motivating for them.Al-Qmoul (2011) investigated the effect of using English Short Message Service (SMS) on the development of the first year students' spoken and written communicative skills in Tafila Technical University.He explored that the students who practiced English SMS in their day-to-day communication improved greatly both oral and written skills.Dansieh (2011) in his article examined the possible effects of SMS on students' writing skills, and students' and teachers' attitudes towards this phenomenon.Jacob ( 2011), in his survey concluded that SMS style of writing improved students' note-taking competence as well as comprehension.Based on his findings, recommendations were made to use SMS style of writing for note-taking.Teachers were also advised to make deliberate and conscious efforts to encourage their students to write notes during lectures.
Code-switching frequently occurred even in the previous researches.(Castells et al., 2006;Sue, 2003) observed that in certain situations, English is used alternatively with other languages known as "code-switching".Myers-Scotton (1993) and Grosjean (1982) defined code-switching as "the alternate use of two or more languages in the same utterance or conversation".

Research Hypothesis
The research hypotheses formulated about the current research are as follows: 1) Texting's grammatically analyzable.
2) Texting is cost-effective & appropriate for mobile screen.
3) Language of texting serves as a dynamic social, cultural and linguistic identity.4) Punctuation, grammar and capitalization are largely ignored in texting.5) Dictionary for SMS should be written to make SMS standardized.6) Native speakers of English text multi times more than any other nationalities.

Methods
Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect the data.Quantitative approach was applied to elicit the opinions of Saudi ESL/ EFL teachers in fairly large numbers on different aspects of texting.The aim of this approach was to explore hard facts and to get reliable statistical results.Respondents were asked set questions to tick from predefined selections such as Agree, Disagree and I can't say.Researches conducted in different countries have also been analyzed and cited in literature review section.It will be worthwhile to mention that the responses of educated people towards SMS and the kinds of the language used in SMS may vary from country to country.In order to ascertain this phenomenon three surveys were conducted at Saudi universities.The sample composed of one thousand male teachers of English ranging in age from 30 to 50 years.They were from different nationalities, mostly from Saudi Arabia.It is also interesting to note that in most of the Saudi universities English is taught as a foreign language and used as a medium of instruction in higher studies.

Data Collection Methods
There is no doubt that questionnaires are one of the most important tools for data collection in educational research because they are useful to establish opinions (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007).However, according to number of research studies, self-reporting questionnaires are not totally reliable and usually depict an incomplete picture of the situation (Davidman, 1981).Similarly, Pintrich and Schunk (2002, p. 11) also recognized the value of qualitative research 'for raising new questions and new slants on old questions'.For these reasons, individual interviews were conducted in the present study to gain in-depth understanding about numerous aspects of texting.Hence in this study the questionnaire was designed to elicit data on various aspects of texting including frequency of texting among different nationalities living in Saudi Arabia.The interviews were conducted so as to get some valid reasons for why native speakers believe in frequent texting and other nationalities in less frequent texting.So, questionnaires, in-depth interviews and discussion were conducted to produce more logical led findings.

Data Analysis
Data analysis was carried out both quantitatively and qualitatively.Figures and tables were used to validate exact statistical findings.Percentages were utilized to show the participants' overwhelming response on various aspects of texting and how frequently they send text messages.Before moving on any further, it is worth mentioning that "code-mixing" is a common phenomenon in Saudi text messages.Five thousand text messages sent by different nationalities were collected and analyzed.It was found that code mixing and the inclusion of cultural and religious milieus play a pivotal role in Saudi text messages.
The first survey was aimed to ascertain the responses of multinational faculties towards different aspects of SMS.Five questions on different aspects of texting were prepared.The faculty members were asked to check agree disagrees and I can't say, on those five questions pertinent to different aspects of texting.These five questions were designed to elicit the responses of participants about different aspects of texting and frequency of texting among different nationalities such as British, Americans, Canadians, Australians, Asians, Arabs, and Africans who have been teaching over ten years in different Saudi universities.The sample of Questionnaires related to texting is given below: Sample 1. Different aspects of texting

Questionnaires
Agree Disagree I can't say 1.
Is texting cost-effective & appropriate for mobile screen?3.
Does the language of texting serve as a dynamic social, cultural and linguistic identity?4.
Are Punctuation, grammar and capitalization largely ignored in texting? 5.
Should the dictionary for SMS be written to make SMS standardized?
The second survey was contrastive in nature.This survey was conducted on native speakers, Arabs, Asians and Africans.The aim of this survey was to explore which of these nationalities did texting maximum numbers of times in a week or in a month.The third survey was conducted to collect the text messages used by the faculty members of different nationalities.Numerous messages were collected from each faculty member.A total of five thousand messages were collected from the participants.In order to maintain anonymity, all names and any other information that may identify the participants' identity were removed.For various cultural reasons, more than three hundred messages were eliminated from the corpus.The structure and discourses of these text messages were analyzed.The faculty members were in their forties and fifties.They were from different nationalities such as England, America, Canada, Africa, Asia, but majority of them were Arabs.

Result and Discussion
Table 1 explored the impressions of the faculty members of Saudi universities about different aspects of texting.The multinational faculty members of Saudi universities manifested an overwhelming response towards different questionnaires pertinent to texting.For all of them, texting was an exciting experience.Texting was found an important means of communication.It was also found that texting was more popular among native speakers.Texting served their purpose a great deal because text messages cost less than the voice call.It is also worthwhile to mention that almost all the participants agreed that texting incorporates socio-cultural values because language is the evolution of socio-cultural milieu.Language and culture both are intertwined and hence inseparable.In response to the first question in table.1, a very strong agreement was received.8o % of the multinational participants such as native speakers, Asians, Arabs, Asians and Africans agreed that texting is grammatically analyzable.Only 5% participants gave no comments and 15% participants disagreed.Majority of them strongly supported the idea.At the time of interview and discussion, the participants opined that any type of language that is available in written form is analyzable within linguistic parameters.The corpus of linguistics is inclusive and its fast expanding parameters are capable of giving its deep insight and in-depth analysis of any available data.In response to the second question, almost all the participants agreed that texting is cost effective and well suited to the limitation of mobile screen.They said texting costs less and conveys the message precisely and effectively.Native speakers of English living in Saudi Arabia expressed their support by saying 'text messages successfully convey the message what exactly they intend to convey and the recipients of the text message find no problems in decoding the message through the contextual background.Therefore, texting is a boon for them and absolutely befitting to the limited size of mobile screen.
In response to the third question, 90% participants agreed that the language of texting serves as dynamic social, cultural and linguistic identities.They opined that language carries with it not only the linguistics inputs but it also possesses socio-cultural, linguistics and religious reflections.Consciously or unconsciously, text messages reveal religious and cultural components.More so, in Saudi Arabia where religion plays an important role, Saudis speak and write with religious supplication.They frequently use supplications and Islamic greetings in their text messages a great deal.
In response to the fourth question, 80% participants agreed that punctuation; grammar and capitalization are largely ignored in texting.This is accepted globally.Majority of them strongly supported this idea and argued that the text messages are well received even without punctuation and grammatical inputs.The recipients of the text messages easily decipher the meaning of the messages even if these messages lack grammatical propriety.In response to the fifth question, 70% participants agreed that dictionaries for SMS should be written to make texting standardized.The overwhelming majority of the respondents welcomed the idea of writing dictionaries for SMS.They argued that to write SMS dictionary will be a novel contribution to Applied Linguistics and make the language of the text messages more standardized.
Language is a dynamic phenomenon, it keeps on expanding, more so English which is enjoying global importance.English is fast expanding and living language and growing perpetually with innumerable attributes and unique features, which have fascinated linguists across the globe for critical thinking and critical analysis.
The linguists will open new frontiers of stylistic features of English by writing a SMS dictionary.A SMS dictionary will be a great help for those who frequently send text messages.This will give a standard format about what to abbreviate and what not to abbreviate.With help of SMS dictionary, the texters will be able to make their texting internationally acceptable.It is expected that the texters will overcome their idiosyncrasies and will make texting more consistent.
Table 2 is based on contrastive analysis.In this survey the statistical frequency of texting that the native speakers of English, Arabs, Asians and Africans did, has been thoroughly analyzed.Texting was found very popular among native speakers of English.Native speakers of English found texting cost effective and an important tool to put the message across.They found it easier to type the abbreviated message on hand-held keyboard.They preferred text messages to voice call because they found it less expensive.The frequency and exact figure of texting was analyzed along with the participants' arguments to text or not to text.In these messages three words such as Thanks (thanx), Will as ('ll) and tonight as (2nite) have been shortened.These shortened forms could easily be understood globally.
It is very interesting to mention that in formal text messages, abbreviation or alpha numeric expressions are avoided in Saudi Arabia.For example, "Dear customer your shipment #4589122856 is on delivery with our Aramex courier Mob#966593094031 may call to confirm your address / availability for delivery today".This formal message shows no abbreviation, no alphanumeric expression.Full grammatical sentences have been used in this official message to avoid any confusion.Two words could have been abbreviated in this message, such as your (yr) and today (2day)., but it didn't happen.Another example, "Dear parents, Your ward is absent in the school today".In this message again abbreviation has been avoided.Two words such as "your and today"could have been abbreviated as (yr)and (2day).Another official message reflects the same finding."Dear parent, Classes of all blocks will remain suspended today due to bad weather".In this message again all the grammatical components are maintained.Abbreviations have been avoided.The word "today" could have been abbreviated as "2day".In nutshell, it could be argued that in formal text messages the Saudi texters tried to avoid abbreviation in official messages.They don't want any ambiguity to emerge in their official text messages due to inaccuracy of grammar or presence of excessive abbreviation, because in official messages they want to make everything absolutely clear.On the contrary, in informal messages, abbreviation was a very common phenomenon among all nationalities, because the comprehension of informal text messages lies between the texters and the textees.Hence, the textees easily decode the message what is encoded by the texers in context.

Conclusions
Texting is not a new phenomenon if it is considered just as a substitute for precision.Most précised and abbreviated messages such as code language or telegraphic language have been practiced since time immemorial.Texting in modern era has become mobile mediated language.In addition, it represents diverse socio-cultural identities.The emergence of texting as a novel variety might not be discarded, as English has always been hospitable to the influx of linguistic variation and linguistic repertoire.Texting is being practiced and accepted worldwide and considered as an expansion of English.Sometimes people may consider texting quickest means of communication and far more powerful than other media.All the surveys conducted in this study validate the fact that texting is becoming a thrilling experience for the people.The overwhelming response of the participants in the first survey confirmed that they considered texting as a linguistically analyzable entity.This is really true because texting isn't a deviation from the grammatical rules but rather an evolution of a dynamic and a living variety.The use of abbreviation, absence of punctuation, auxiliaries and determiners in texting do not obstruct the communication at all.The analysis of the surveys has proven the hypothesis that the native speakers of English did texting multi times more than any other nationalities and texting served as a dynamic social, cultural and linguistic identities.In a nutshell, it could be deduced that the language of SMS is vibrant and the texter feels exuberant to break free from the obsession of fossilized grammar.Hence, texting leads to the creation of a language, which is encoded well by the texter and decoded well by the textee.In fact, this is the essence of all communications on earth.
The present study has certain limitations with regard to the statistical surveys.The surveys of this study were conducted only on male EFL / ESL teachers of Saudi universities.There is a need to conduct such surveys on female EFL / ESL teachers of Saudi universities.This may lead to some more profound results, which may be useful for researchers to rethink and draw a more logical conclusion about texting.

Table 1 .
Different aspects of texting

Table 2 .
Contrastive analysis of texting

Table 2
explored that native speakers did texting multi times more than any other nationalities.The data revealed that in the first week native speakers of English living in KSA sent 60% text messages, Arabs only 10%, Asians 16% and Africans sent 14% text messages.In the second week, native speakers sent 70% text messages, Arabs 8%, Asians 12 % and Africans 10% only.In the third week native speakers sent 65% text messages, Arabs 10%, Asians 15% and Africans also sent only 10% text messages.In the fourth week, native speakers sent 70% text messages, Arabs only 5%, Asians 10% and Africans sent only 15% text messages.Looking at the overall result of the survey it could be concluded that native speakers did texting frequently and multit-imes more than any other nationality.The table confirmed that native speakers sent approximately 70% text messages to their home countries; whereas other nationalities could not exceed more than 15% text messages.During discussion and interviews, the participants of different nationalities came up with very exciting arguments about frequency of texting.One of the native speakers opined 'I

convey what I intend to convey to my relatives through text messages
'. Another native speaker said, 'When I

call my relatives, our conversation gets prolonged which is unaffordable and time consuming, so I prefer texting to voice call'.
Therefore, texting is very common among the native speakers of English living in Saudi Arabia.The arguments of Arabs for not texting frequently are unique in nature.Most of the Arabs preferred voice call to text messages.One of the Saudis said 'writing text messages is painful for me'.Another said 'I feel emotional satisfaction through voice call because I can hear his or her voice'.Another comment of a Saudi professor 'I feel more comfortable with voice call than texting, texting requires patience and dialing number requires just a fraction of second'.One more comment of a Saudi professor is very interesting, he said while he was pursuing his higher studies in USA he always preferred voice call, because

it narrowed the distance and I felt that the recipient was in front me. So I used to feel emotionally satisfied'.
Another Saudi said 'Texting is

very boring for me; because it is bereft of emotional attachment'.
Asians' arguments about texting were found different.One Asian said '

texting isn't well received in my country', another said' he doesn't text because his parents back home aren't so well versed in English'. An African said 'voice call gives immediate response but text messages suspend our inquisitiveness'.
These are different arguments of different nationalities for texting or not texting.They are really worth noticing.Third survey was conducted to collect text messages from different nationalities working at Saudi universities.Text messages sent by Saudi employees to their friends manifested dynamic religious, linguistic and socio-cultural identities.Whenever Saudis sent text messages, they incorporated religious supplication.It is exciting to discuss numerous examples of such kinds."AAhow r u?This is really a beautiful example of religious and cultural identity.'AA' signifies Islamic greeting 'Assalamo Alaikum' which in Arabic means peace be upon you.The response was 'Alhamdulil Allah I'm fine'.It refers to Islamic supplication and code-mixing.'AlHamdulillah means 'All praise be to Allah.It manifests religious identity and Saudis' adherence to their religion.Saudis frequently used supplications in their day-to day communication.Another text messages received in response to work which was done very well.'Excellentjob, Jazakum Allah Khairan.The sentence 'Jazakum Allah Khairan' means 'May Allah give you good reward'.Another example which was frequently found in Saudis' text messages was "Shukran for yr help".The word 'Shukran' refers to the inclusion of code-mixing.All these Arabic words frequently occurred in their text messages.This shows their religious identity and their willingness to use Arabizi and code-mixing.Code mixing is very common among Arabs in oral communication.Arabs don't use code -mixing in writing in general but they do use in text messages quite often.Arabic is used for more formulaic phrases such as greeting and supplication.A unique feature of texting that emerged after the thorough analysis of text messages was that abbreviations used in text messages were contextual.When a texter sends any message with abbreviation, he knows well that the textee can understand it easily.For example this text message "

Salam, We've b/b training 2day as we'd b4". Here b/b training isn
't or it can never be a universally accepted abbreviation.By b/b training, the texter refers to Blackboard training which was scheduled to be held on certain date and time.The recipient of the message easily understood through the context.The alpha-numeric expression such as 'b4' and '2day' were frequently used and hence very common not only among native speakers but also among non-native speakers of English.We can't call it ungrammatical because syntactical components are well maintained.Another example 'Meeting

for e-learning tmrw from 9-10:30 at KFMRC 2flr rm2" was
sent by a professor of Linguistics at KAU.He meant to say 'Meeting for e-learning will be held tomorrow from 9-10:30 a.m. at King Fahad Medical Research Center 2 nd Floor, room 2. The words 'tmrw, 2flr, rm2' can be easily decoded across the world but the abbreviated form "KFMRC" is a contextual abbreviation.It has no ambiguity for the textee, hence easily understood by him through the context.All these examples illustrate fact that texting could be well understood through the context, and both texters and textees understand the context.So it is easier for the recipient of the text messages to decipher the abbreviation.It is also worth mentioning that telegraphic or alpha-numeric styles are very common in informal texting but in formal or official text messages they are avoided to greater extent to obliterate any ambiguity.

"Dear -------. I just called you several times to say thank u for ur work and to inform u how I can pay u certain amount "Shukran Jazilan".
This is an informal message.Only two words such as "ur, and u" have been abbreviated.These abbreviations are very common and frequently used across the world.It shows that the sender of the message is qualified and well aware of SMS language.So texting in a sense reflects texter's competence in the language."

A A, how are you? Long time no see or hear, Ya Akhi, can you give me the Arabic name of ur shool pls
"?.In this message 'Asslamo Alaiku' is abbreviated as' AA' which refers to Islamic greeting.The Arabic words 'Ya Akhi'

reflects religious identity. The words "no see or hear", though
deviation from standard grammatical structure, yet it reflects the invention of a new syntactical composition without losing the meaning."

AA, Can I C u next wk instead? Busy 2day in shaa Allah".
The unabbreviated sentence of this message is 'Assalamo Alaikum

, Can I see you next week instead? I'm busy today, Insha Allah
( if God wills) .Another example is the best example of texting.Easy grasp of this message is nowhere lost even though many words in this message have been abbreviated."

eid is wonderful day. 2 pray/ 2lave/ 2 care/ 2 smile// 2 celebrate/ 2visit/ and 2 thank Allah 4 everything/ eid Mubarak. For u and for family.
This text message gives a glimpse of texter's religion, his culture and tradition.One can easily peep through the texter's mind.It was sent on the occasion of Eid which is a Muslim festival and 'Mubarak' is an Arabic word which means congratulation.80%words are abbreviated but they are well understood.One more example of informal texting: "Thanx for producing a strong abstract.It'll be translated 2nite" This message was sent by a Saudi professor of Linguistics.