Abstract

Social media networks such as Facebook (FB), WhatsApp and sms have made in-
roads into all spheres of human life bringing forth a revolution in mobile
communication networking and in sending short messages services (sms). Writing
on the social media networks requires creativity and skill. This is to maximize the
use of the text message page, reduce the cost of sending the message and also
belong by using ‘text-speak’ which is often associated with informal usage. The
worry is how this is affecting the usage of English language in its written form
among Nigerian students. This paper examined the prevalence of misspelt words,
use of slangs, abbreviations and looked at social media in relation to its impact
on students’ written English. The data consist mainly of 224 text speak samples
taken from Facebook, Instagram, sms and WhatsApp as well as expressions and
spellings taken from 40 secondary school students’ essay writing. These were
analysed using frequency counts and percentages. Finding indicated that social
media language is gradually and steadily encroaching students’ writing. Based
on this, the paper recommended among others that teachers, who have not been
doing so, should identify and correct students’ errors immediately. Students
should also be given drills in spelling, use of grammar and punctuation.

Keywords: Social Media, language, written English, ICT, sms

Social media is the fastest growing web application in the 21st century. This phenomenon is made
usable by means of the internet and the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as
well as the advent of smart phones. There are many social media platforms. Some readily
available ones in Nigeria include Facebook, Skype, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Tik-Tok,
Snapchat. Activities on social media are for socializing, getting and sharing information,
discussing assignments and projects, debates, chats, collaborating and networking. According
Freeman (2016), social media can be a useful tool for educational activities when approached in
the right way.

Similarly, Bright (2014) submits that social networks are resource centres for teaching of English
language. Akinjobi (2013) is also of the opinion that social network sites should be explored as
supplements to classroom activities while Yunus&Salehi (2012) opine that Facebook page
enables proficiency in students’ use of English.
In a related manner, Fatimayin (2015) asserts that social media can be used to accommodate both
the social and educational aspects. They can be tools for supporting teaching/learning on one
hand and a means of socializing on the other. She, however went on to state that social media has
both advantages and disadvantages. One of its disadvantages is its impact on the way secondary
students spell words and write. Secondly, is the negative influence on students’ time
management, study behavior and copying of wrong concepts. For Paul & Gelish, (2011) the use
of mobile phones for sending short messages and accessing social media may and may not result
in students’ lower academic performance.

However, from classroom observation, social media language is infiltrating students’ formal
writing exercises and impacting it negatively. This supports Selwyn’s (2009) assertion that
Facebook use must be seen as identity politics of being a student rather than enhancing students’
engagement with formal studies. During classroom interaction with students, one finds that most
of the students write using incorrect spelling, grammar and punctuation marks. Many use
abbreviations profusely, while others have formed the habit of using textspeak. This affects the
structure of sentences used as well as their spellings. This in turn does not argur well for
students’ vocabulary acquisition. Again, based on classroom observation of happenings in
Mopamuro Local Government Area of Kogi State, lack of teachers (qualified or not), coupled
with large student population sometimes, makes detailed checking of errors difficult. They only
gloss over students’ work or ask that fellow students do the marking. This may result in some
students being unaware of the difference between formal and informal writing. To compound the
problem, majority of the students struggle with grammar, concord, meaning and comprehension.

Similarly, a report by Will (2017) state that 73% of teachers in a survey conducted by YouGov
on behalf of Dictionary.com , think that social media and texting negatively affect their students’
grammar and spelling skills. The survey also found that students often struggle with grammar,
meaning and comprehension and that 75% of the teachers are bothered when students use
popular slang or “text speak” in their work while most teachers do not prioritise grammar and
spelling when grading students work. Textspeak provides an easy and cheap way of
communication among the youths (students), most of whom ordinarily must have had difficulties
with the not-so-uniform rules of the English language grammar and spelling (Egbe and Ekpe,
2007). A report published in 2010 by Clarion University shows that social media language is
mostly informal and allows non- standard orthography and grammatical errors. Furthermore,
Ofuokwu (2010) submit that scholars are expressing concern about how social media language is
affecting Nigerian students’ usage in formal contexts especially in written essays. Similarly,
Ekah (2007) states that the informal language of texting is slowly ‘but steadily encroaching on
formal texts’. (p.88). Egbe and Ekpe (2007) state that they noticed evidence of spellings
associated with text messages in secondary school students’ composition during the marking
sessions of the May/June and Nov/Dec examinations of the West African Examination
Council(WAEC)and the National Examination Council(NECO). They further outlined the
techniques employed in writing text messages and by extension, social media messages. These
include:

1. The use of pidgin forms: dem-them, una de-how are you?, waka-go.
2. Deletion of last letter: wl-will, stil-still, hav-have, lov-love.
3. Spelling in numerals: 2-to, 4-for, 4rm-from, 4get-forget, in2-into, gr8-great.
4. Single letter spelling: u-you,c-see, n-and ,b-be, r-are,d-the.
5. Consonant clusters: gdnt-goodnight, ppl-people, dt-that,bt-but, urs-yours.
6. Use of phonemic: evri-every, oda-other, tot-thought,tnx-thanks, sori-sorry, bin-been,
beta-better.. (Egbe&Ekpe, 2007:40-44)

Despite the general concern about social media language creeping into students’ academic
writing, it is not going away any time soon. That does not mean teachers should turn away from
correcting students and doing the needful.

Students and adults are frequently using the social media platforms. It is very popular among
students many of who subscribe to more than one of them. They also spend hours chatting,
blogging, posting information and connecting with friends and family. They are therefore
continually using social media language which may undermine their writing skills as a result of
daily exposure to informal new ways of writing and language usage which do not correspond to
acceptable standard writing techniques. Some features of social media language include constant
and consistent use of abbreviations, lack of grammatical rules and others. These easily slip in
when students write especially students who are average and below average. Students also stand
the risk of becoming lazy at writing as social media encourages abbreviation of word and
sentence. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of social media on secondary school
students’ written English. Specifically, the study sought to ascertain the effect of social media
language use on students’ writing and spelling. It is a fact that technology which has brought a
lot of innovations to all spheres of human lives including education. For example, there is the use
of computers in class rooms in place of chalkboards, the use of projectors in interactive
classrooms, online tutoring like the one made available in National Open University of
Nigeria(NOUN) and other distant learning programmes. In addition,a large number of students
use smart phones as complementary notebooks, get free online books and internet-based
learning.

Students and adults are frequently using the social media platforms to contact new friends,
interact with families and search for information. Social media provides a platform for students
to get needed pieces of information, share learning problems with friends on Skype, Facebook
and get solution to difficult assignment by sharing it with friends online, read e-books, surf for
information and connect with the world. These, however may undermine their writing skills as
students are daily exposed to informal new ways of writing and language usage which do not
correspond to acceptable standard writing techniques. Some features of social media language
include constant and consistent use of abbreviations, lack of grammatical rules and others. These
easily slip in when students write especially students who are average or below average. Students
also stand the risk of becoming lazy at writing as social media encourages abbreviation of word
and sentence.

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of social media on secondary school students’
written English. Specifically, the study intends to ascertain the effect of social media language
use on students’ writing and spelling.

1.2

ICT and Social Media Evolution

Social Media is the collection of online communication channels dedicated to community-based

input, interaction, content sharing and collaboration.ICT and social media are concepts that have
their existence depending on one another. While ICT is a process, social media is a channel
through which ICT is carried out and both work together to make sure information and
communication is effectively carried out.
The advent of ICTs has made impact on the quality and quantity of teaching, learning and
research in educational institutions. According to Ololube, Ubogu, Egbezor (2007), the
introduction of ICT usage, integration and diffusion has initiated a new age in education as an
unlimited system whose inculcation could help students in information gathering, organization
handling and access to communication in various forms. Finally, the evolution of ICT and social
media has undoubtedly affected teaching and learning in schools, influencing secondary school
students’ writing in the English language. It is however noteworthy that there are several social
media sites which had helped develop quality teaching at all levels of education around the
world. These include: FB, e-mails, Skype, and Edmodo, YouTube, TeacherTube, Academia.Edu,
LinkedIn.
1.3
Language Use on Social Media
The use of language on social media site is characterized by acronyms, emoticons, neologism,
and vocabulary alteration. Acronym, a feature of language use on social media is an abbreviation
formed from the initial letters of different worlds and pronounced as a whole sentence. Will
(2014) states that the use of acronyms (abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other
wordsare pronounced as a word) are now common place substitutes to whole sentence, e.g. lol
(Laugh out loud), gd 9t (Good night), and tgtf (thank God it’s Friday).
Language use on social media is a variety of English language that is absolutely different from
Standard English language of everyday use. While Standard English is subject to grammatical
rules and concord, language use on social media is not fashioned to abide by any grammatical
rules or concord. Instead, it is open to all as just any one can put up any word for use as far as he
or she makes meaning to his or her recipient. However language use on social media is posing a
lot of threat to Standard English language usage as students now take the writing of Standard
English with levity.
Writing in Schools
Writing is a medium of human communication that represents language and emotion through the
inscription or recording of signs and symbols. In most languages, writing is a complement to
speech or spoken language. Writing relies on many of the same structures as speech – these
include vocabulary, grammar and semantics, with the added dependency on a system of signs
and symbols usually in the form of alphabet (Fatimayin, 2015).
Going through some students writing, one finds that punctuation marks and use of capital letters
to begin names are non-existent. Voegtlin (2010) submits that her students ‘writing changed as
their social media use increased. She claims to have noticed the use of abbreviated text spelling
in her students’ writing. She asserts that her English language development students are more
likely to write phrases that they see in text messages, such as “smthng’ or ‘smbdy’ rather than
learn to spell the word correctly.
Effects of Social Media on Students’ Writing
With the introduction of social media onto the scene, its effect on students’ writing is
manifesting gradually. This is evident in the writing of many Nigerian students. The effect of
social media language is seen mostly in these areas:
i. Grammar and spelling errors: The most common error social media language brings
are grammar and spelling errors. Grammar and spelling are more important in school
but abbreviations, wrong spelling and omission of rules of grammar are acceptable on
social media. This brings conflicts to writing as students write inappropriate and
incorrect grammar and spellings in their writings at school.
ii. Using Text Language: Abbreviations that are common in social media are frowned
upon in formal writing. Students ought to spell words completely and not use ‘text
speak’ or ‘slang’. Students’ academic writing are now marked by social media
abbreviated words (text speak) and slangs.(www.poynter.org/news ).

Methodology

This article is based mainly on samples of social media language (text speak) collected daily
for 4 weeks on Facebook (88 selections), sms (86 selections) and WhatsApp (50 selections),
as well as expressions and spellings taken from 40 Senior Secondary School 1
(SSS1)students’ essay writing in 4 secondary schools in Mopamuro Local Government Area
of Kogi State. The schools are: ECWA Secondary School, Mopa, Baptist Secondary School
 Mopa, Amuro Community Secondary School, Amuro and Takete-Ide Secondary School,
Takete-Ide. 10 studdents were randomly selected per class per school and their essays (4 per
student, 1 in a week) were read over the period of 4 weeks to get the social media language
used.The first set of expressions and spellings are examples of social media language. The
second set is an example of expressions found in students’ writing. These form the data for
this study.

Data Analysis

This section presents the classification, analysis and features found in textspeak
and classification and analysis of features of errors found in students’ essays.
The frequency and percent distribution was also presented.

A. Ten expressions and spellings are presented below indicating social media
language
(textspeak), its features and source:

S/N Text Source freque Perce Meaning Features

Speak ncy ntage

1 Lol FB 38 17 Laughing out loud Abbreviation

2 Wl, giv Sms 34 15 Will, give Deletion of last letter

3 Ttyl Sms 12 5 Talk to you later Abbreviation

4 Gd 9t/ Sms 36 16 Good Night

 numerals

5 Bcnu FB 20 9 Be seeing you Single letter spelling

6 Llnp, FB 30 13 Long life and Single letter spelling

prosperity

7 Gr8 Whats 14 6 Great Spelling in numerals

App

8 Dia Sms 22 10 There, their, Pidgin forms

they’re

9 Tnx, Whats 8 4 Thanks Use of phonemic spelling

App

10 Urs, nd Whats 10 5 Yours, and Consonant clusters

App

Total 224 100

B Expressions from students’ writing:

S/N Expres students Frequen % Correct Features

sions who cy usage
used it
1 I saw pics. 1 1 2.5 I saw Dropped
They were thepictur article,
design years es. They wrong
back were tense
designed
years
back

2 a.Thnks 4 2 2 5 a.Thanks Wrong

been there for being tense,
there wrong
b.Tnx 4 evri 2 2 5 spelling/us
tin b.Thanks e of
for phonemic
everythin spelling
g

3 He tolerate n 1 1 2.5 He Wrong

understand tolerates person and
me when no and number
1do understa
nds me
when no
one does

4 a.Idea is nid. 1 a. Wrong

1 2.5 (My/His/ spelling
 b.I no him 3 Her/Thei
3 7.5 r) Idea is
needed

b.I know
him

5 My skul won 1 1 2.5 My Wrong

another school spelling,
troofy has won faulty
another sentence
trophy constructio
n

6 a. God we 4 4 10 a.God Wrong

guide you. will guide spelling
b. God we 5 5 12.5 you
bless u
b.God
will bless
you

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of social media on secondary school students’
written English. Specifically, the study intends to ascertain the effect of social media language
use on students’ writing and spelling.
1.2

ICT and Social Media Evolution

Social Media is the collection of online communication channels dedicated to community-based

input, interaction, content sharing and collaboration.ICT and social media are concepts that have
their existence depending on one another. While ICT is a process, social media is a channel
through which ICT is carried out and both work together to make sure information and
communication is effectively carried out.
The advent of ICTs has made impact on the quality and quantity of teaching, learning and
research in educational institutions. According to Ololube, Ubogu, Egbezor (2007), the
introduction of ICT usage, integration and diffusion has initiated a new age in education as an
unlimited system whose inculcation could help students in information gathering, organization
handling and access to communication in various forms. Finally, the evolution of ICT and social
media has undoubtedly affected teaching and learning in schools, influencing secondary school
students’ writing in the English language. It is however noteworthy that there are several social
media sites which had helped develop quality teaching at all levels of education around the
world. These include: FB, e-mails, Skype, and Edmodo, YouTube, TeacherTube, Academia.Edu,
LinkedIn.
1.3
Language Use on Social Media
The use of language on social media site is characterized by acronyms, emoticons, neologism,
and vocabulary alteration. Acronym, a feature of language use on social media is an abbreviation
formed from the initial letters of different worlds and pronounced as a whole sentence. Will
(2014) states that the use of acronyms (abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other
wordsare pronounced as a word) are now common place substitutes to whole sentence, e.g. lol
(Laugh out loud), gd 9t (Good night), and tgtf (thank God it’s Friday).
Language use on social media is a variety of English language that is absolutely different from
Standard English language of everyday use. While Standard English is subject to grammatical
rules and concord, language use on social media is not fashioned to abide by any grammatical
rules or concord. Instead, it is open to all as just any one can put up any word for use as far as he
or she makes meaning to his or her recipient. However language use on social media is posing a
lot of threat to Standard English language usage as students now take the writing of Standard
English with levity.
Writing in Schools
Writing is a medium of human communication that represents language and emotion through the
inscription or recording of signs and symbols. In most languages, writing is a complement to
speech or spoken language. Writing relies on many of the same structures as speech – these
include vocabulary, grammar and semantics, with the added dependency on a system of signs
and symbols usually in the form of alphabet (Fatimayin, 2015).
Going through some students writing, one finds that punctuation marks and use of capital letters
to begin names are non-existent. Voegtlin (2010) submits that her students ‘writing changed as
their social media use increased. She claims to have noticed the use of abbreviated text spelling
in her students’ writing. She asserts that her English language development students are more
likely to write phrases that they see in text messages, such as “smthng’ or ‘smbdy’ rather than
learn to spell the word correctly.
Effects of Social Media on Students’ Writing
With the introduction of social media onto the scene, its effect on students’ writing is
manifesting gradually. This is evident in the writing of many Nigerian students. The effect of
social media language is seen mostly in these areas:
iii. Grammar and spelling errors: The most common error social media language brings
are grammar and spelling errors. Grammar and spelling are more important in school
but abbreviations, wrong spelling and omission of rules of grammar are acceptable on
social media. This brings conflicts to writing as students write inappropriate and
incorrect grammar and spellings in their writings at school.
iv. Using Text Language: Abbreviations that are common in social media are frowned
upon in formal writing. Students ought to spell words completely and not use ‘text
speak’ or ‘slang’. Students’ academic writing are now marked by social media
abbreviated words (text speak) and slangs.(www.poynter.org/news ).
 Methodology

This article is based mainly on samples of social media language (text speak) collected daily
for 4 weeks on Facebook (88 selections), sms (86 selections) and WhatsApp (50 selections),
as well as expressions and spellings taken from 40 Senior Secondary School 1
(SSS1)students’ essay writing in 4 secondary schools in Mopamuro Local Government Area
of Kogi State. The schools are: ECWA Secondary School, Mopa, Baptist Secondary School
Mopa, Amuro Community Secondary School, Amuro and Takete-Ide Secondary School,
Takete-Ide. 10 studdents were randomly selected per class per school and their essays (4 per
student, 1 in a week) were read over the period of 4 weeks to get the social media language
used.The first set of expressions and spellings are examples of social media language. The
second set is an example of expressions found in students’ writing. These form the data for
this study.

Data Analysis

This section presents the classification, analysis and features found in textspeak
and classification and analysis of features of errors found in students’ essays.
The frequency and percent distribution was also presented.

B. Ten expressions and spellings are presented below indicating social media
language
(textspeak), its features and source:

S/N Text Source freque Perce Meaning Features

Speak ncy ntage

1 Lol FB 38 17 Laughing out loud Abbreviation

2 Wl, giv Sms 34 15 Will, give Deletion of last letter

3 Ttyl Sms 12 5 Talk to you later Abbreviation

4 Gd 9t/ Sms 36 16 Good Night

numerals

5 Bcnu FB 20 9 Be seeing you Single letter spelling

6 Llnp, FB 30 13 Long life and Single letter spelling

prosperity

7 Gr8 Whats 14 6 Great Spelling in numerals

App

8 Dia Sms 22 10 There, their, Pidgin forms

they’re

9 Tnx, Whats 8 4 Thanks Use of phonemic spelling

App

10 Urs, nd Whats 10 5 Yours, and Consonant clusters

App

Total 224 100

 B Expressions from students’ writing:

S/N Expres students Frequen % Correct Features

sions who cy usage
used it

1 I saw pics. 1 1 2.5 I saw Dropped

They were thepictur article,
design years es. They wrong
back were tense
designed
years
back

2 a.Thnks 4 2 2 5 a.Thanks Wrong

been there for being tense,
there wrong
b.Tnx 4 evri 2 2 5 spelling/us
tin b.Thanks e of
for phonemic
everythin spelling
g

3 He tolerate n 1 1 2.5 He Wrong

understand tolerates person and
me when no and number
1do understa
nds me
 when no
one does

4 a.Idea is nid. 1 a. Wrong

1 2.5 (My/His/ spelling
b.I no him
3 Her/Thei
3 7.5 r) Idea is
needed

b.I know
him

5 My skul won 1 1 2.5 My Wrong

another school spelling,
troofy has won faulty
another sentence
trophy constructio
n

6 a. God we 4 4 10 a.God Wrong

guide you. will guide spelling
b. God we 5 5 12.5 you
bless u
b.God
will bless
you