THE INFLUENCE OF CONTEMPORARY SLANG ON THE ACADEMIC WRITING PRACTICES OF GRADUATE-LEVEL ESL LEARNERS.

Abstract

This research aimed to determine the influence of contemporary slang on the academic writings of ESL learners at graduate level. Due to the rapid spread of internet speak, students’ formal writings are observed to have a lot of features of informal English. Students are particularly interested in having slang adopted into the formal papers and into the English language as a whole. Based on the principles of Prensky’s (2001) Digital Natives Theory, the study followed a quantitative design where closed-ended questionnaire was the instrument of data collection. The tool consisted of 15 items and the data was gathered from a sample 50 students of English Linguistics’ Department, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur. Data was collected under the supervision of researchers where they introduced the participants about the objectives of the study and ensured them confidentiality. Data was analysed statistically through SPSS software. Results of the study showed that slang language is becoming common among youth where they are prone to use them in their academic papers. Even if they do not use informal features of English language in formal write ups, they get confused and fail to differentiate between formal and informal English.