Can Emojis and Stickers Substitute for Words? Their Relationship to Students’ Writing Proficiency

This study examines the relationship between students' use of stickers and emojis in digital communication and their academic writing abilities, with a focus on age and gender. Not much is known in spite of stickers and emoticons being frequently used in online discourses on how they spill over to professional writing. The method used in the study is quantitative descriptive-correlational and comprised 69 randomly chosen students in the West Visayas State University-Himamaylan City Campus. Participants completed a writing task that was rated with the use of an analytical rubric, as well as answering a validated questionnaire about stickers and emojis they use. According to the received results, students of different ages and genders also use stickers and emojis widely to express emotions, make messages easier and maintain a light tone. The majority of the pupils, irrespective of age and gender, had excellent academic writing skills. It is interesting to mention that youngsters who identify themselves as gender fluid excelled in tests of writing abilities. ANOVA test, however, showed no apparent differences in gender and age on the stickers and emojis used. In addition, no correlation was found between writing ability and the use of both stickers and emojis, as seen by Pearson's correlation. The results indicate that the frequent use of digital resources does not impact students' academic writing. The study, however, does demonstrate the importance of teaching children how to switch from informal to formal usage of language. The study, however, does demonstrate the importance of teaching children how to switch from informal to formal language usage. This study contributes to the growing area of research on language development and digital communication while giving educators a roadmap for creating a balanced approach to literacy in the digital world.