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especially among the students. This might be something to be worried of due to the
numerous violations in grammar and vocabulary which will eventually influence
students academic writing. As the medium for people to reach out has evolved, so
does the language used. In the context of language, globalization takes place in
terms of the evolution of an abbreviated, short forms of English language used in
chat groups, social sites for instance b4 for before and RUOK for are you
okay?. Besides that, the length of sentence becomes shorter and there are certain
types of structures that are intentionally avoided such as relative clauses within
Internet communication. The term globalization in this parameter of language
refers to a derived or sophisticated communication. This evolution of language has
occurred ever since social media sites existed. This is proven by a research
conducted by (Wu, Li and Ben-Canaan, 2006) that cited Frouklin et.al, 2004 stated
that there are two main approaches in language, which are the prescriptive and
descriptive. A prescriptive approach prefers standard written language version and
ignores the realities of everyday usage of language. For example, from a
prescriptive point of view, it is wrong to start a sentence with the word and.
However, from a descriptive outlook, it does not condemn usage that does not
utilize standard linguistic rules and incline towards its practicality. Therefore,
starting a sentence with the word and is not wrong. Keynote speaker Mark
Warschauer delivered an online keynote address live from the United States,
entitled Teaching for Global Literacy in the 48th Annual Japanese Association of
College English Teachers (JACET) Convention that was held in Sapporo, Japan.
He suggested that the computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools such as
blogs and wikis promote global literacy as these are valuable devices of networkbased language teaching. However, Facebook was not mentioned despite being one
of the leading social networking spaces. When addressed by one of the fellow
audiences regarding the utilization of Facebook in language learning, he reasoned
that Facebook is more inclined for the purpose of social networking than a learning
environment for English (Kabilan, Ahmad, Abidin, 2010). The prevalence of social
media such as Facebook, Twitter, 9gag and Tumblr are common that the potential
of language deterioration can be casually observed on a regular basis. Evidently,
the main objective of this study is to create awareness since people from the
education field seem to be very optimistic towards social media which could
consequently increases the tendency to overlook the implications it has on
students language, particularly semantics (grammar) and syntax (vocabulary).
Henceforth, the hypothesis of this research is do social media sites like 9gag and
Tumblr deteriorate language acquisition, specifically grammar and vocabulary.
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its faster, its become the norm, and people want to represent their own
dialects due to their character limit for Twitter hence they prefer to use shorter
words. Eisensteins findings show that Twitters character limit is not necessary the
dominant factor causing word shortenings. Furthermore other contributing factors
of the users preferences towards short-written, fast, convenient text are based on
pragmatic and practicality reasons. Emoticons are often due to its practicality of
displaying and putting an expressive element into writing language to emphasize
the constructed sentence since it is shortly written. Besides that, they prefer to use
emoticons as it prevents confrontational interpretation of message. Moreover,
phrasal abbreviations like LOL, IKR, LMAO are widely used. Another form of
unconventional language is expressive lengthening such as gooood and
coooolll to indicate ones feeling and emotion. According to the American
Association Educator Blog, its article entitled Grammar in the Age of Social
Media predicted that the proper English grammar will eventually become obsolete
with the spread of tweets, Facebook status, emoticons (Alix, 2012). The instant and
high speed computer mediated communication is easily carried over to classroom
academic writing and deteriorates writing ability. Students have a tendency to spell
out words correctly and adding extra letters when writing.
Research Questions
1. What are the students perceptions towards social media to their language
acquisition?
2. What are the common language violations displayed by social media such
as memes from 9gag and Tumble, Facebook and Twitter status?
3. Since students use all these social medias often, how does this reflect their
language in terms of their grammar and vocabulary?
SEMANTIC
Vocabulary
LANGUAGE
ATTRITION
SYNTAX
Grammar
Literature Review
The study constructed started from an observation by Jacob Eisenstein (2003)
that signified an increase in the usage of bad English on social medias and internet
memes. According to Eisenstein, a bad language is "text that defies our
expectations about vocabulary, spelling, and syntax". The phenomenon itself is
undeniably true. In a research conducted by Sali A. Tagliamonte and Derek Denis,
the word abbreviation 'lol' was used 4,506 times in a series of instant messaging
session by 72 teenagers whose origins are from North America during the
observation period by Tagliamonte & Denis in 2008 and another research in the
United Kingdom by Dutton et al. in 2005. They found that a third of internet users
search for internet memes every day. These results however are only for native
speakers of English but English as a Second Language (ESL) speakers are no
exception to this phenomenon coined by Amanda O'Connor (2005) as The
Bastardization of Language. ESL speakers, much like the native speakers
communicate to each other on social medias and they are more prone to making
linguistic errors after the exposure to broken English on the web. This literature
review considers these variables as a base of our research:
1. How does the perception of social networks affect the second language
attrition?
2. How is the syntax usage of an ESL speaker affected by the bad English
exposed on social medias and internet memes?
3. How is the vocabulary of an ESL speaker affected after the exposure of bad
English?
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How does the perception of social networks affect the second language
attrition?
Millions of young users around the globe are on social media sites this moment,
let it be 9GAG, Facebook or Twitter and a majority of them do not speak English
as their First Language. Social medias are often perceived by many as a positive
environment to learn English because of the dominance of English and it is viewed
by Godwin-Jones (2008) as a tool "that enhance communication and human
interaction can potentially be harnessed for language learning". Au contraire to
what many experts think of the social medias, many schools decide to ban the
usage of these sites in the classroom (Ito, Baumer, & Bittanti, 2009) making it
difficult to assess whether social medias can give positive or negative results to
ESL speakers. June Ahn (2011) believes that students could view academics from
different angles through social medias and teachers should encourage this use into
their classrooms because the answer to the question whether social medias give
positive or negative results to ESL speakers in uncertain.
How is the syntax usage of an ESL speaker affected by the bad English
exposed on social media and internet memes?
According to Thanawan Suthiwartnarueput & Punchalee Wasanasomsithi
(2012) "it is believed that sufficient knowledge of English grammar not only helps
students write paragraphs in standard English but also reduce the use of
vernacular or non-standard English". ESL speakers who fall within lowintermediate range will likely get more affected by the English received through
social medias & internet memes caused by the lack of grammatical knowledge to
differentiate which sentence is grammatically correct or wrong. Christine Rosen
(2012) thinks that users on social medias tend to discourage the use of English that
expresses too much emotions and true feelings. Users are more concerned with the
appearance of their sentence than the detail and accuracy of writing skills. This will
cause a problem where ESL students could not distinguish the tone of language as
well as the application of correct grammar expected from them in writing academic
papers and the one used on social medias. Paula Larocque (2011) reflects on words
that are overused and misused from her Facebook friends. She discussed that social
media is negatively effecting grammar skills in the classroom. Her observation
includes the lack of vocabulary and improper words usage on Facebook which may
have confused students on their usage of these words in the classroom. From this,
the pedagogical standpoint can be seen for ESL speakers on how the misuse of
grammar on social media website can affect the learners. Learning a new language
is not an easy task and more problems can arise if they are being exposed to errors
but are not aware of the misuse. In addition, most school systems ban the use of
social medias in the classroom, teachers cannot evaluate the errors and to ESL
speakers, they are on their own.
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from the list of answers given. This is a multiple choice question. There are 5
questions in this sub-section. The last sub section in Section B which is Section B
iii) is a test on reading comprehension. A paragraph was given and the students
were required to answer four questions based on the passage. This is also a
multiple choice question. The questions are taken from University of Wisconsins
Center for Placement Testing. This English Placement Test was used in this article,
Journal of College Reading and Learning published in 1991 by Thomas
A.Upton.
Section C The questions in this section employed the 4-point Likert scale
with 1 being 'Strongly Agree' and 4 being Strongly Disagree' where the students
are required to indicate their perceptions towards social media
Section D consists of 20 questions. Sub section Di) contains 10 memes and
students were required to correct any grammatical errors if there are any. As for
Dii), it has 10 random Facebook/ Twitter updates. The persons identity and
pictures were kept anonymous. Students were instructed to correct any vocabulary
mistakes to test their knowledge on vocabulary.
Results
The students are categorized according to their proficiency in English based on
their scores of the English Placement Test; Low, Intermediate and Advance. The
marks are broken down into these ranges:
Category
Low
Intermediate
Advance
Mark
0-39
40-59
60-100
Student
8
16
7
There are 31 students who participated in this study. 8 students were in the low
category, 16 of them under the intermediate and 7 students in the advance
category.
Diagram1- The average scores for both test on grammar and vocabulary according
to their level of proficiency
Table1 - The average scores for both test on grammar and vocabulary according to
their level of proficiency
English Proficiency Level
Average Score for
Average Score for
Grammar (%)
Vocabulary (%)
Low (n=8)
72.5
57.5
Intermediate (n=16)
72.81
50.0
Advance (n=7)
72.86
70.7
Diagram2 -The standard deviation for both grammar and vocabulary test according
to their level of proficiency
10
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Table 2 - The standard deviation for both grammar and vocabulary test
according to their level of proficiency
English Proficiency Level
Standard Deviation of
Standard Deviation of
Scores for Grammar
Scores for Vocabulary
LOW
12.82
17.11
INTERMEDIATE
13.41
23.31
ADVANCED
18.68
16.69
Table 3 - Students general perception towards social media (SM) and language
learning for the advance group
Students general perception towards
social media (SM) and language
learning
Strongly
Disagree
%
Disagree
%
Agree
%
Strongly
Agree
%
0
0
18.75
0
0
0
68.75
81.25
62.50
31.25
18.75
18.75
37.5
62.50
0
18.25
0
0
18.75
0
0
62.50
0
50.00
31.25
31.25
81.25
0
81.25
31.25
31.25
50.0
18.75
18.25
18.75
18.75
18.75
18.75
Table 4 - The students perception of social media (SM) and its influence towards
grammar and vocabulary for the advance group
Students perception of social media
Strongly Disagree Agree Strongly
(SM) and its influence towards
Disagree
%
%
Agree
grammar and vocabulary
%
%
Feels grammar improved by using
SM
Thinks one is able to use different
Checks word definition often when
Learns more new words by reading
Able to use language expressions
More creative in expressing ideas via
SM
Checks sentences before posting
50.00
33.50
16.50
16.50
0
16.50
0
0
0
16.50
16.50
16.50
16.50
67.00
67.00
50.00
50.00
50.00
33.00
16.50
17.00
33.50
33.50
16.50
33.50
50.00
16.50
16.50
16.50
0
0
0
50.00
50.00
67.00
33.50
33.50
16.50
Table 5 - Students general perception towards social media and language learning
in percentage for intermediate level students
Students general perception towards Strongly Disagree Agree Strongly
social media (SM) and language
Disagree
%
%
Agree
learning
%
%
Enjoy spending time on SM
SM has potential as a useful medium
Feel more confidentcommunicating
Like communicating in SM in
English
Communicating via SM builds up
Not worry of others opinion when
Thinks SM promotes collaborative
SM increases my interest in learning
SM encourages me to participate
Thinks SM increases my motivation
0
6.25
0
0
0
6.25
31.25
43.75
68.75
75.00
56.25
50.00
31.25
12.5
12.5
6.25
0
25.00
0
0
0
6.25
18.75
56.25
12.50
37.50
31.25
37.50
68.75
18.75
68.75
56.25
62.5
56.25
12.5
0
18.75
6.25
6.25
0
Table 6 - Students general perception of social media and its influence towards
grammar and vocabulary for intermediate level students
Students perception of social media
Strongly Disagree Agree Strongly
(SM) and its influence towards
Disagree
%
%
Agree
grammar and vocabulary
%
%
Feels grammar improved by using
SM
Thinks one is able to use different
Checks word definition often when
Learns more new words by reading
Able to use language expressions
More creative in expressing ideas via
SM
Checks sentences before posting
Feels sensitive towards
Thinks of different ways to post
Feels SM helps in writing
constructively
31.25
62.50
6.250
0
0
0
0
0
12.50
25.00
31.25
25.00
31.25
75.00
68.75
62.50
62.50
56.25
12.50
6.25
6.25
12.50
12.50
0
0
6.25
0
18.75
31.25
31.25
37.5
62.50
37.50
50.00
50.00
18.75
31.25
12.50
12.50
11
12
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Table 7 - Students general perception towards social media and language learning
for low level students
Students general perception towards
social media (SM) and language
learning
Strongly
Disagree
%
Disagree
%
Agree
%
Strongly
Agree
%
0
0
25.00
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
37.50
0
25.00
12.50
25.00
50.00
62.50
50.00
50.00
87.50
25.00
50.00
12.50
75.00
50.00
37.50
25.00
50.00
50.00
12.5
12.50
50.00
62.50
12.50
25.00
12.50
12.50
0
Table 8 - Students perception of social media and its influence towards grammar
and vocabulary for low level students
Students perception of social
Strongly Disagree
Agree
Strongly
media (SM) and its influence
Disagree
%
%
Agree
towards grammar and vocabulary
%
%
Feels grammar improved by using
SM
Thinks one is able to use different
Checks word definition often when
Learns more new words by reading
Able to use language expressions...
More creative in expressing ideas
via SM
Checks sentences before posting
Feels sensitive towards
Thinks of different ways to post
Feels SM helps in writing
constructively
50.00
50.00
0
25.00
0
0
0
0
37.50
0
25.00
12.50
87.50
25.00
50.00
12.5
75.00
12.50
12.50
50.00
62.5
12.50
0
0
0
0
25.00
50.00
37.5
62.50
50.00
37.50
500
7.50
25.00
12.50
12.50
0
13
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translates to their grasp in linguistic theory. On the other hand, those from the
lower proficiency level do not have a strong foundation in the English Language
but are able to exhibit higher levels of grammatical sensitivity. They were able to
correct the errors in the memes and social media updates. This shows that they are
able to implement the rules of basic grammar in practical events. Despite their
ability to be aware towards errors in theoretical linguistics, their poor demand in
the language is reflected as they are able to only identify errors on a superficial
level, in this context, through memes and social media updates which is not
sufficient at an academic level. The experiment proves to be inconclusive as there
was no real proof stating that the level of knowledge in theoretical linguistics has
deteriorated due to memes and social media sites.
Based on the results, students from all levels of proficiency showed a small
difference in their average grammar, with only 0.05%, which is the largest
difference. But the average scores for vocabulary are large with 13.2% as the
smallest difference and 20.7 % as the largest. It shows that averages scores of
grammar are not able to reflect students proficiency level, but vocabulary average
scores are able to reflect that (students proficiency level), despite the fact that
students from the low proficiency level scored higher with a 7.5% higher in their
vocabulary scores. The test as a whole, both the English Placement Test and the
grammar and vocabulary test (post test) demands students with good reading skills.
It is undeniable that in any higher learning context, reading is perceived as the
most essential academic skill for university students (Noor, 2006). In the English
Placement Test, reading skill is highly required in order to score well. This
explains why vocabulary is able to mirror students proficiency level. Reading is a
needed skill and is necessary in order to comprehend a text. It is documented that
L2 reading and vocabulary share a reciprocal relationship, (Puloado, 2009; Sthr,
2008). As stated by Jahangard, 2010, empirical studies on the relationship between
vocabulary size and L2 reading comprehension have constantly produced a strong
correlation between the two ranging from 0.50 to 0.85. Other than that, vocabulary
acquisition can be enhanced by extensive reading (Pigada & Schmitt, 2006).
It is reasonable to think that students from the low level obtained a lower
average score for vocabulary. Unlike grammar, vocabulary is a tricky aspect in
linguistic learning. Grammar is the basis of how words are constructed to become a
sentence. However, if students are lacking in their knowledge of vocabulary or
lexical development, they will have a deficit amount of selected words to construct
a sentence. It is like knowing the rule but not knowing how to implement it due to
the lack of knowledge. According to Heverly, 2011, there were traditional
assumptions held by teachers that students must learn and gave a large vocabulary
as a prerequisite before venturing into literature or any language learning because
reading constitutes of big words. The knowledge of vocabulary is not something
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them in writing constructively. There are many possibilities extracted based on the
respondents feedback. It shows either social media does not provide the required
features to enhance language acquisition, or the students are not taking the
initiative of the availability of features to improve their language attrition. If a
student with a commendable prior knowledge of grammar, therefore they are able
to utilize the features social media has to offer which will reinforce their grammar
skills, and making them able to detect linguistic errors. However, if a person has a
poor existing demand in linguistics scheme, then there is a possibility that social
media can deteriorate their attrition in language in addition with the prevalence of
linguistic errors displayed such as the usage of there, their, has, have and more.
There is a positive correlation coefficient that students existing knowledge in
language differs in how they are affected by the language of violations displayed
on social media according to the test on language; correlation coefficient between
proficiency level and grammar scores = 0.96 and correlation between proficiency
level and vocabulary scores = 0.54 . However, it is unsure if there is a direct
causation that social media specifically grammatically incorrect memes and
updates could deteriorate language acquisition because their results in the
vocabulary test clearly is reflected by their level of proficiency, which is their
existing knowledge in language. We concluded that social media does deteriorate
language acquisition for those with low proficiency level in English but not for
those with a high proficiency level. Finally, social media specifically linguistically
incorrect memes and updates from Facebook and Twitter deteriorate language
acquisition. Henceforth, the hypothesis was accepted.
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