From LOL to LEARN: a longitudinal exploration of authentic textisms on student perceptions

Previous studies on textisms (e.g., acronyms, extra punctuation, emphatic capitalization, and emojis) in student–instructor communication have highlighted their potential positive impact on building classroom relationships. However, much of this research relies on cross-sectional, quasi-experimental designs with hypothetical instructors, overlooking the dynamics of authentic interactions. By employing a social information processing framework, this study explores instructors’ authentic textism use in the classroom and its impact on students’ impressions (i.e., credibility, liking, clarity, and immediacy). We adopted a longitudinal design, distributing an online survey three times during a semester. Current findings indicate that instructors rarely use textisms, with most students reporting minimal to no use of textisms at any point in the course. Of the textisms reported, only emphatic capitalization (i.e., CAPSLOCK for emphasis) affected impressions differently over time; specifically, emphatic capitalization at the start of the semester negatively impacted perceptions of competence, caring, and liking, but this effect weakened over time.