The Effect of Cyber Language on the Academic Writing of EFL Students

Abstract

The present dissertation seeks to reveal one of the most relevant issues that the majority of students face in relation to academic writing. The interference of texting and chatting among students has become as a serious problem that affects the way they write. This work presents an overview of the Cyber language that has attracted many Algerian students of English as a foreign language, and has eventually affected the quality of their writing as claimed by many teachers. Based on the research questions put forward to investigate the interference of social media in weakening EFL students' writing style, we hypothesize that if students are not aware about the damage that texting causes mainly in weakening their writing skill, they would adapt a new form of language that apparently would prevail their academic performance. Thus, the hypothesis is tested via a descriptive study using questionnaires that were handed to both Master one students and teachers of written expression of the English department at aAbdelhamid Ibn Badis University to find out their perceptions towards the effects of texting on academic writing. The findings of this research show that students rely more on technological tools in assisting and correcting their poor language items rather than doing efforts by themselves