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ABSTRACT
The study was designed to ascertain the use of chat languages in social networking sites by undergraduates’ students in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Four research questions were raised to guide the study. Descriptive survey research design was adopted by the study. The population of the consisted of all the undergraduate students of English Language in the Department of Educational Foundation, University of Benin, Benin-City in the 2019/2020 academic session with a total number of nine hundred and sixty-three (963) students. The sample for the study comprised of 200 students. The simple random sampling technique was adopted by the study to select the sample for the study. Fifty students each was randomly selected by the researcher from the four levels (100-400 level) to make up the sample for the study. The study used a structured questionnaire titled: The Linguistic Analysis of Chat Language among Nigerian Students Questionnaire (LACLNSQ) for data collection.
The instrument was validated by the project supervisor and two other experts, two in the Department of Educational Foundations. A test-retest method was used to establish the reliability of the instrument. The copies of the questionnaire was administered to a sample drawn from the population. After two weeks, the same instrument was re-administered to the group. The data collected after both administrations was analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient which yielded a co-efficient of 0.75 which meant the instrument was high. The data collected was statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency, mean (x), and standard deviation (SD). The frequency, mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions. Consequently, the study concluded that the majority of the participants did not use chat languages on social media for academic related purposes as a mean of communication, but to connect with their colleagues in order to discuss class related contents.
