Social Media Boon or Bane

Social Media: A Boon or A Bane?
Malissa Maria Mahmud

Abstract
The accessibility and availability of social media sites provide convenience for
educators to use computer mediated communication as one of the pedagogies in the
context of English language teaching and learning. The advent of Web 2.0
technologies has altered the pedagogical approaches employed by the educators
and it has created an avenue for a collaborative and hybrid learning environments.
Educators have joined the bandwagon and utilized the social networking sites
(SNS) to draw interest among the current generations, often described as Net
Genres and one of the popular trends nowadays is the Internet memes that is
rapidly gaining popularity through websites like 9gag, Facebook and Twitter.
However, the prevalence of social media may lead to the potential of language
deterioration and positive attributions towards social media may increase the
tendency to overlook the implications it has on students language acquisition;
semantically and syntactically. In this paper, an investigation was conducted to
find out how does the language rendered on social media; Facebook and Twitter is
linguistically incorrect and how it deteriorates students language acquisition
namely the ESL students due to the occurrences of numerous syntax and semantic
violations which are used on these SNS could potentially influence students
academic writing. Data was collected via survey questionnaires and completed by
thirty one university students. Subsequently, the respondents were categorized
based on their level of English language proficiency to determine the correlations.
The result obtained concludes that Internet memes on social network sites like
9gag, Facebook and Twitter deteriorate language acquisition among lower
proficiency ESL students, whereas higher proficiency ESL students were not
affected.
Keywords: collaborative and hybrid learning environment, social media,
internet memes, social networking sites
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Introduction
Social media sites have offered numerous avenues for educators to enhance
English language learning in the context of blended learning environment. A
research done by (Grgurovic, 2011) proved that academicians and educators agree
that hybrid or blended learning approach is proven to be beneficial. However, do
this positive feedback and perception that students have upon social media sites
reflect their language acquisition? This question has prompted this study since
social media such as 9gags and Tumblr have become a globalized phenomenon
Social Media: A Boon or A Bane
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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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Background
Social media has become an essential part of the current generation which eases
communication and also is a form part social medium that is used by many people.
Educators and students reap the benefits of social media because of its convenience
and features; group chat, shared information via posted links and etc. This
computer mediated communication transcended into a different language of
communication which is not a form of standardised English. This has led to
computational linguistics and eventually desensitizes people with poor usage of
English language. According to (Nadzrah Abu Bakar, 2010), Facebook has more
communicative role because it has features that allow learners to look back on their
learning materials and make improvements (Seitzinger, 2006). However, there are
doubts that language teaching using social media is thoroughly and highly
supervised unlike the conventional way of teaching. In addition, the usage of social
media for language learning is still a novel approach. There are issues against
Facebook that propose that it is not an appropriate website for a learning platform
and it is more suitable for social purposes. The laid back environment it offers
creates a less constraint environment which translates to an informal language
used. For example, posts on Twitter are often highly ungrammatical and filled with
spelling errors. Words are not spelled correctly and a program known as the
Jcluster Algorithm (Goodman, 2001), was used to manually pick out clusters of
spelling variants. Some of the spelling variations are coming, commiiinng, enough,
enough, enuff, enuf, yuhr, your, ur (Ritter, Cherry and Dolan, 2010). These spelling
errors are not restricted among Twitter users but are also commonly violated by
Facebook users on 9gag and Tumblr memes. This is just a few examples of
language violation. There is more displayed through social media which errors
extend in forms of syntactical and pragmatic. In this study, it centralizes on the
semantic category focusing on vocabulary and as for syntax the focus is on
grammar.
Statement of Problem
As the social media phenomenon expands, it changes the mechanism of natural
language processing. It appears that the online language is substantially different
compared to other written text (Eisenstien, 2003). This way of communicating
online incorporates intercultural adaption which involves the process of promoting
understanding through interaction in order to increase the level of fitness so that
the demands of a new cultural environment (social media) can be reached. Some of
the examples from Eisensteins research are famous comedian, Sarah Silvermans
tweet Boom! Ya ur website suxx bro. Based on the casual observation, the
sentences used on social media sites like Facebook or Tumblr usually include nonstandard punctuation, capitalization, spelling, syntax, vocabulary used on the
Internet. Einsenstein conducted a survey regarding the non-standard spelling and
half of the participants agreed that; people are unsure of the correct spellings,
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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?

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Research Framework
The Mechanism of How Social Media Affects Language Acquisition
SOCIAL MEDIA
(Facebook, Twitter status,
memes from 9gag and Tumblr)
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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How is the vocabulary of an ESL speaker affected after the exposure of bad
English?
Suthiwartnarueput & Wasanasomsithi (2012) also posited that ESL speakers
who have limited knowledge of English grammar are likely to convey their
thoughts and construct sentences in the wrong way that will deeply affect the
meaningfulness of their communication. This is due to the fact that ESL speakers
need to learn the meaning of the word associated with the grammar before one can
actually use the word correctly and when internet memes present some words in
the wrong way, ESL speakers will use the word as it was used in the memes.
However, a research by Kabilan, Ahmad & Abidin (2010) shows that almost 71%
of the students that participated in his research agree that they have learned new
words through Facebook, they also noted that many of the participants look up the
words they did not comprehend which is one of the main reason that cause the high
rate of vocabulary development in their research. Similarly, another research by
Shahrokni in 2009 concur with Kabilan et al., that gives a positive result in ESL
speakers' vocabulary if they look up the words they stumbled across while on
Facebook.
Methodology
Participants
This study was conducted during the spring 2013 semester and focuses on
students of Sunway University ages from 18 to 25 years old. A total of 31 students
took part in this study.
Instrument
A survey questionnaire was designed for this purpose of study. The
questionnaire consist of four sections; Section A, Section B, Section C and D. Each
of this part has its sub-sections. Section A consists of students demographic
information.
Section A Gender, Age, Place of Birth (Demographics)
Section B Consists of an English Placement Test.
The students will be tested on (grammar and vocabulary; the independent
variable) where the students were required to undergo an English Placement Test
to categorize them based on their proficiency level in English. This English
Placement Test is used and set by the University of Wisconsin to place students
into the appropriate English levels. This is to see if there is a correlation between
their level and scores on grammar and vocabulary. There are three different subsections in Section B. Section Bi) tests on students ability in language usage.
Students are required to detect an error from the choice of underlined words. There
are 5 question sentences in this sub-section. Section Bii) comprises of sentences to
tests students correctness and effectiveness towards language. For every sentence,
there is a portion that is underlined and students are required to correct the
underlined sentences and replace it with other sentences that they think is correct
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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.

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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
%
Enjoy spending time on SM

SM has potential as a useful medium
Feel more confident communicating
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
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

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Feels sensitive towards
Thinks of different ways to post
Feels SM helps in writing
constructively
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
Disagree
%
%
Agree
learning
%
%
Feel more confidentcommunicating
Like communicating in SM in
English
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
%
%
SM
Able to use language expressions
More creative in expressing ideas via
SM
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
learning
Strongly
Disagree
%
Disagree
%
Agree
%
Strongly
Agree
%

Feel more confident communicating
Like communicating in SM in English
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
%
%
SM
Able to use language expressions...
More creative in expressing ideas
via SM
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

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Discussion
Some of the more apparent language violations found in any social media site
include spelling variations and abbreviations of commonly used statements on
these sites (Ritter,Cherry and Dolan, 2010). These forms of language manipulation
seem to increase the grammatical sensitivity on social media sites in the low level
and intermediate group of students. Based on the experiment done which tested
their grammar and vocabulary, the students with the lowest level of English
proficiency are not as aware of the abundant grammatical and mechanical errors
exhibited in the English Placement Test, however they are able to recognize
grammatical and mechanical errors exhibited in the memes and the social media
updates. The majority of students agree that social media does not improve
grammar but does improve grammar as they come across new words and tend to
look for the definition of the word. These students also proof read their posts often
and they have a higher grammatical sensitivity (Seitzinger, 2006). If the social
media movement continues and people invent new ways to shorten or abbreviate
words and manipulate grammar, the English language will slowly deteriorate and
we would be using a form of pseudo English. This is a negative trait of the
evolution of a language as it alters expectations set by the proper speakers of the
language. Once a need for the use of formal and grammatically correct English
arises, we will be able to see the extent of damage caused by social media on the
English language (Eisenstein, 2003).
The percentage difference of average scores for grammar is small, which is less
than 1.0% if compared the average scores between the advance and the low group
there is only 0.36% difference, with that as a largest difference. However the
percentage difference of average scores for vocabulary is large when compared the
intermediate and advance group, the group that has the lowest and highest average,
with a difference of 13.2%, which is the largest difference. The results showed that
the average scores when tested on grammar were consistent with the smallest
difference of 0.05% and the biggest difference with 0.36% when calculated. On the
other hand, the average scores in the vocabulary test displayed a larger difference,
with 20.71% as the biggest difference and 13.2% which is the smallest difference.
Based on the results of this study, there were participants from the advance group
who scored as low as 40% and 55% for both the grammar and vocabulary tests.
Their scores in the English Placement Test do not reflect their scores when tested
on the memes and social media updates from Facebook and Twitter. As for those
from the lower proficiency level, despite their poor scores they obtained from the
English Placement Test, they were able to produce scores as high as 90% when
tested on errors in memes and social media updates. What we could deduce from
this result is that there is an issue regarding practicality versus theoretical
knowledge of the English Language. Those from the more advance group of
English proficiency definitely have a solid foundation in linguistics which
13
14
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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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that can be easily taught of. There is no specific method to instil the richness of
vocabulary in students. Teachers always look back the availability of using the
dictionary as a solution. However, this attempt will be a frustrating and
meaningless process if students realized the definition of words they memorized
turned out to be a different meaning when used in a different context, because one
word can possibly have a different meaning (Heverly, 2011). For example The
thieves decided to head for the bank, it could be the thieves were in a car heading
to a bank or it might be a riverbank. It is hard to figure out methods to expand
students vocabulary. Heverly insisted that his students use each word in a sentence
so they will at least have one experience of seeing the word in context, assuming
the words he taught would be useful in upcoming readings. Unfortunately, it did
not work as the words learnt the students had forgotten within the next 2 months.
Hence, their writing assignments were filled with misused words. When Heverly
supplied a collection of books, students would argue that the time used to read
could be used to learn. Reading is a big part in language acquisition as it is a
process between the readers prior backgrounds and the text that eventually leads
to a guessing of meaning to make sense (Widmayer, 2003). Based on the schema
theory by Carrel 1984, he suggested that greater the background of a texts context,
the greater ones comprehension of the text.
Conclusion
Students responds regarding how they perceive social media and language
learning. All three groups agreed that social media has the potential as medium to
promote language learning, build ones confidence to communicate online rather
than face to face. As for the two groups; intermediate and low level, they perceived
that social media encourages them to actively participate in discussions on social
media. The interesting point is, percentage shows that there is a pattern to how they
perceive the statement Not worry of what others think if what they post on social
media. Most of the students with 80.75% from the advance group are worried of
how others perceive their posts on social media, 81.25 % for intermediate level and
only 12.5% from the low level are worried of how their posts are perceived in
social media.Only 33.5% students from the advance level group think that their
grammar has improved and more than 60.0% from the intermediate group
personally thinks that their grammar shows improvement. Majority of the students
from all three groups perceived that they are able to use different words to describe
common situations when using social media. 67.0% from advance level and
68.75% from the intermediate level agreed with the statement: check word
definitions often when using social media but not so much for the students from the
low level with only 25.0% agreed. The same pattern extracted from the statistics
showing that majority of the students from both advance (67.0%) and intermediate
(50.0%) agreed that social media helps them in writing constructively.
Interestingly, 63.5% students from the low level disagree that social media helps
15
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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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Social Media: A Boon or A Bane?

Malissa Maria Mahmud

Social Media: A Boon or A Bane

Malissa Maria Mahmud

Social Media: A Boon or A Bane

Malissa Maria Mahmud

Social Media: A Boon or A Bane

Malissa Maria Mahmud

Social Media: A Boon or A Bane

Malissa Maria Mahmud

Social Media: A Boon or A Bane

Enjoy spending time on SM

Malissa Maria Mahmud

Social Media: A Boon or A Bane

Enjoy spending time on SM

Malissa Maria Mahmud

Social Media: A Boon or A Bane

Malissa Maria Mahmud

Social Media: A Boon or A Bane

Malissa Maria Mahmud

Social Media: A Boon or A Bane

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