Author :
Abstract
Slang has always been a part of the daily language. Teenagers tend to use a colourful variety of slang words with higher frequency in comparison to that of the adults'. Teachers find it difficult to deal with the widespread use of slang in high schools. Teenagers' tendency to overuse slang is regarded as part of identity formation and their way of interacting with others. This study aimed to understand how a group of high school students (n:93), studying in a Turkish vocational-technical state school, perceived the use of slang in daily life. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire and an interview protocol. The questionnaire data were analysed using Independent Samples t-Test and frequenciesdescriptive statistics. The researchers determined the repeated themes in the interview data, and these were used as the supporting source of information to answer the research questions. The findings indicated that male and female student groups differed in their perception of slang. It was found that while male students mostly used slang to show that they belonged to a group, female students thought that it was a habit. The female students' answers showed that they also tended to think about their group when they used slang. For both groups, efforts for fitting in with the social group played an important role. Female students also reported being more affected by social media. It was found that there was a relationship between the male students' slang use habit and the educational background of their fathers. The students, whose fathers were more educated, did not use slang words as frequently as the ones whose fathers had less education. Those students, whose fathers had sent longer time in the education system tended to blame their peers. However, others whose fathers had spent less time in the education system tended to blame their family environment and social media.
Keywords
Abstract
Slang has always been a part of the daily language. Teenagers tend to use a colourful variety of slang words with higher frequency in comparison to that of the adults'. Teachers find it difficult to deal with the widespread use of slang in high schools. Teenagers' tendency to overuse slang is regarded as part of identity formation and their way of interacting with others. This study aimed to understand how a group of high school students (n:93), studying in a Turkish vocational-technical state school, perceived the use of slang in daily life. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire and an interview protocol. The questionnaire data were analysed using Independent Samples t-Test and frequenciesdescriptive statistics. The researchers determined the repeated themes in the interview data, and these were used as the supporting source of information to answer the research questions. The findings indicated that male and female student groups differed in their perception of slang. It was found that while male students mostly used slang to show that they belonged to a group, female students thought that it was a habit. The female students' answers showed that they also tended to think about their group when they used slang. For both groups, efforts for fitting in with the social group played an important role. Female students also reported being more affected by social media. It was found that there was a relationship between the male students' slang use habit and the educational background of their fathers. The students, whose fathers were more educated, did not use slang words as frequently as the ones whose fathers had less education. Those students, whose fathers had sent longer time in the education system tended to blame their peers. However, others whose fathers had spent less time in the education system tended to blame their family environment and social media.
Keywords
- Açıkalın, I. (1991). Türk Gençlerinin Yaşıtları Arasında Kullandıkları Konuşma Biçimleri. Ankara: Hitit Yayınları.
- Adamo, G. E. (2013). An analysis of students' slang terms for academic activities in a Nigerian University: A semiotic approach. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 31(1), 89-96.
- Aktaş, E. and Yılmaz, İ. (2017). Eğitim fakültesi öğrencilerinin kullandıkları hitapların toplumdilbilim açısından incelenmesi. Türkiyat Araştırmaları Enstitüsü Dergisi [TAEd], 59, 577-594.
- Allan, K. and Burridge, K. (2006). Forbidden words: Taboo and the censoring of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Artz, S., Nicholson, D. and Magnuson, D. (2008) Examining sex differences in the use of direct and indirect aggression. Gender Issues, 25(4), 267-288
- Fägersten, K. and Pereira, G. M. (2021). The commodification of swearing. Pragmatics and
- Beers-Fagersten, K. and Dalama, H. (2007). A sociolinguistic analysis of swear word offensiveness. Saarland Working Papers in Linguistics (SWPL), 1, 14-37.
- Beers-Fagersten, K. (2000). A descriptive analysis of the social functions of swearing in American English, Unpublished Doctoral Thesis. The University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
- Brown, P. and Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language use.
- Bucholtz, M. (2009). From stance to style: Gender, interaction, and indexicality in Mexican immigrant youth slang. In Jaffe, A. M. (Ed.) (2009) Stance: sociolinguistic perspective. (pp. 146- 170) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Cohen, L., Manion, L. and Morrison, K. (2007). Research Methods in Education (6th edition). London: Routledge.
- Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research Methods in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Eckert, P. and McConnell-Ginet, S. (1999). New generalisations and explanations in language and gender research. Language in Society, 28, 185-201.
- Eggins, S. and Slade, D. (1997). Analysing Casual Conversation. Cassell: London. Society. 12(1), pp.86-114.
- Friedman, D. (2012). How to collect and analyse qualitative data. (pp. 180-200) In Mackey, A. and Gass, S. M. (Eds.) (2012). Research Methods in Second Language Acquisition: A practical guide. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
- Güven, A. (2015). Türkiye’de Günümüze kadar Yapılmış olan Toplumsal Dilbilim Çalışmalarına Genel bir Bakış. Unpublished Master’s Thesis. Pamukkale Üniversitesi Eğitim Bilimleri Enstitüsü. Denizli, Turkey.
- Hummon, D. M. (1994). College slang revisited: Language, culture, and undergraduate life. The Journal of Higher Education, 65(1), 75-98.
- Johnson, R. B., Onwuegbuzie, and Turner, L. A. (2007). Toward a Definition of a Mixed Methods Research. Journal of Mixed Method Research, 1(2), 112-133.
- Klerk, V. (1990). Slang: A Male Domain? Sex Roles, 22(9-10), 589-606.
- McEnery, T. (2006) Swearing in English –bad language, purity and power from 1586 to the present. Oxon: Routledge.
- McEnery, A. and Xiao, Z. (2004). Swearing in modern British English: The case of fuck in the BNC. Language and Literature, 13, 235-268.
- Özbay and İpek (2015). Ortaokul öğrencilerinin kullandıkları arkadaşlık hitaplarının konuşma eğitimi açısından değerlendirilmesi, Dil ve Edebiyat Eğitimi Dergisi 15, 90-105.
- Özkazanç, A., Sayılan, F. and Akşit, E. E. (2018). Toplumsal cinsiyet ve mesleki eğitim: Mesleki Teknik Lise kız öğrencileri üzerine bir araştırma. Fe Dergi, 10(2),160-164.
- Pavlenko (2001). Bilingualism, gender and ideology. The International Journal of Bilingualism, 5/2 117-151.
- Sameer, B.M. and Jamia, M.I. (2007). Social intelligence and aggression among senior secondary school students: A comparative sketch. eric.ed.gov/./ED500484.
- Shahraki, S. H. and Rasekh, A. E. (2011). Check this one out: Analysing slang usage among Iranian male and female teenagers. English Language Teaching, 4(2), 198-205.
- Silverstein, M. (2004). 'Cultural' concepts and the language-culture nexus. Current Anthropology, 45 (5), 621-652.
- Şahin, F. Y. (2015). Predicting delinquency levels in Turkish adolescents. Hacettepe University Journal of Education, 30(1), 313-323.
- Trudgill, P. (1974). Sociolinguistics: An introduction to language and society. London: Penguin Books.
- Uçan, A. and Esen, B.K. (2015). Ergenlerin öznel iyi oluşlarının toplumsal konu ile ilgili risk alma değişkenine gore incelenmesi. Mersin University Journal of the Faculty of Education, 11(2), 288-299. Van Dijk, T. (1997). Discourse as interaction in society. In T. Van Dijk (Ed.) Discourse Studies: A multidisciplinary introduction. Volume 2. Discourse as social interaction (pp.1-37). London: Sage Publishing.
- Woolard, K. (1998). Simultaneity and bivalency as strategies in bilingualism. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 8(1), 3-29.
