Abstract

Over the last few years, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been revolutionizing how we write. The new “digital natives” are constantly making use of ICT. WhatsApp is the most popular app among teenagers for informal interaction and contexts where abbreviations, sound omissions, and emoticons, among others, are widely used. This new situation has allowed publishing houses to incorporate units into their textbooks directed at explaining digital communication to their students. This study intends to establish some general guidelines for the design of the tools that allow for efficient analysis of how writing and interpreting WhatsApp messages are being taught at present in ESO Spanish language and Literature textbooks with an outline of how they should be taught in line with the Royal Academy of Spanish Language’s (RAE) recent publication, “Style Guidelines for the Spanish Language of Style.” The aim is to ascertain whether secondary school students are taught according to the norms or the contrary.