A qualitative study of the use of netspeak in English language classroom : implementation of netspeak in high school and university language teaching

Abstract

The aim of this research is to explore the presence and pedagogical implications of Netspeak in English language classroom. Netspeak is the type of language that evolves within the electronic environment, and it is classified as an informal language. The goal of this research is to examine how Netspeak is accepted by high school and university English language teachers from Finland and Serbia, and whether and how they implement Netspeak in their teaching.

The topic of the educational use of Netspeak has not yet been widely explored, and, therefore, there are not many researches done on this matter. In this regard, researching the use of Netspeak for teaching purposes is a relatively new field, and this MA thesis brings new results on the subject and paves the way for further researches. It is a multidisciplinary research which combines linguistic research with media education.

The data are collected through 18 interviews of the English teachers working in high schools and universities in Finland and Serbia, and through the review of 3 segments of written teaching materials in which the use of Netspeak is present. The method used in this qualitative study is inductive qualitative content analysis (IQCA).

The findings show that the pedagogical potential of Netspeak is noticed by the teachers. The theory which comes out of the overall result of the research is that the majority of English language teachers implement Netspeak in their teaching. The approaches in the use of Netspeak are presented in the thesis.