THE INFLUENCE OF THE LANGUAGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE WRITING SKILLS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN OVIA NORTHEAST

ABSTRACT

The study investigated influence of social media language on the writing skills of English language learners in Junior secondary schools in Ovia North East local government area of Edo state. The design adopted for this study was the survey method. Four (4) research questions were raised to guide this study: The population of the study consisted of students from five (5) selected junior secondary schools in Ovia North East local government area. The sample size for this study was a total number of forty (40) students who were selected using the simple random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain data from respondents. Data collected from the survey was statistically analyzed. After analysis, results were displayed in tables and analyzed using thematic analysis to generate themes from the results. From findings of the study, it was revealed that social media language interference is a major setback on the writing skills of English language learners in Junior secondary schools in Ovia North East. The learners face diverse challenges when navigating between writing in social media and writing in real-world formal setting. It was therefore recommended that writing programs, educational awareness campaigns, and teacher training be conducted periodically in order to enlighten learners on how to navigate between writing in social media vs writing in real-world setting.