Exploring the Impact of Cyber Slang Adoption on Students’ Academic Writing Practices

Abstract

This study explored the impact of cyber slang usage in the academic writing of university students in Saudi Arabian context. The sample size was 100 respondents. This study is three layered. Firstly, there was a survey from the students about their sue of social media. Secondly, a pre-test was taken and then two equal groups were created. An essay writing test was executed at the start and end of the experiment from both the groups. Results were compared ad compiled by independent sample t-test. At the final stage the frequency of some marked cyber slangs used by the students was presented. The overall findings mirrored that those students who have high exposure to social media possessed high use of cyber slang which effected their overall academic writing performance. The study concluded that although cyber slang is pervasive in digital communication, yet it impacts the formal writing of the students. The study further validated that social media slangs are adopted due to more exposure and time given to social media.