The Use of E-Language in Students’ Writing

Abstract

The growth of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) around the world has brought withits change in how language is used including short period of time and reading of texts anddiffusion of oral discourse features into writtenlanguage. This changes the communication habitof its users. Different types of languages, costumes, and norms have developed because of theinfluence of e-mail, web chat and SMS. The present research entitled ‘The Use of E-Languagein Students’ Writing’is an effort to find out the e-language used in students’ writing of Grade Xand its context where it is used. In order to carry out this study, the researcher collected datafrom six schools of Kathmandu district; three private and three public. The total sample of thestudy consists of 90 students of Grade X who were selected using simple random samplingprocedure, using fishbowl draw method. The main tool that the researcher used was test item (i.e.formal and informal types of writing) but to facilitate the study a questionnaire was also used. Onthe basis of collected data, the state of e-language used in students’ writing was identified andanalyzed using simple statistical tools such as frequency and percentage. The findings of thestudy showed thatthe use of e-language was plenty in informal types of writing only. Thefindings of the study also showed that the e-forms of auxiliary verb ‘are’, preposition ‘to’, andpronoun ‘you’ were frequently used in students’ writing. And similarly, e-language is used morefor the words which belong to minor word classes than those of major word classes. The study consists of four chapters. Chapter one deals with general background of the study,review of the related literature, objectives of the study and significance of the study. Chapter twodeals with methodology. It encompasses sources of the data, population of the study, samplepopulation, tools for data collection, process of data collection and limitations of the study.Chapter three consists of analysisand interpretation of the data on the basis of the frequency andpercentages they obtained. The data were analyzed descriptively using simple statistical toolslike table and chart. Chapter four consists of findings and recommendations of the study.