Emojis are not just for use in text messaging, they are now an essential tool in the classroom, a new study has shown.

According to the Times Educational Supplement (TES), a number of teachers are using the icons in subjects such as English and languages.

The idea behind using emojis is to get children to connect more with their education by using the tech language that they are using with friends on a daily basis.

One teacher said that emojis have helped her students engage with Shakespeare, using the emojis to summarize the stories.

Charlotte Hodgson said: “The emojis are not used by themselves - there is always some kind of verbal or written explanation that then allows you to check the pupils' literacy, writing skills or speech skills.

“The emojis just give them a starting point that they understand."

A foreign language teacher at a Stockton secondary school said that he takes out english words in text and replaces them with an emoji, so that they associate the French with an image rather than the English translation.

But is this just a lazy way of teaching? Are we so overwhelmed by children’s dependence of texting that we are stopping them learning properly?

A school in East London has responded saying that they haven’t the time to be wasting on trivia such as emojis.

Clare Sealy, Headteacher of St Matthias School said: "How will such learning help bridge the word gap? How can we help disadvantaged children gain the sorts of powerful knowledge that children in, say, the top public schools have?

“Not by devoting precious curriculum time to the detritus of youth sub-culture. That would be fiddling while Rome burns."

Let us know what you think about children being taught using emojis. Great idea or lazy teaching?