AN INVESTIGATION OF SMS LANGUAGE IN WRITTEN ENGLISH COMPOSITIONS OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS OF FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, ABEOKUTA

Abstract

The popularity of SMS text abbreviations among students from the secondary school level to tertiary institutions has become increasingly evident in what passes as ‘good’ English.  SMS is a major form of communication in today’s day and age that has impacted in various areas especially in that of learning and teaching. The purpose of this study was to determine the non-standard English features in the written English of ESL pre-service teachers. This study also aimed to investigate the non-standard features that could be attributed to ESL pre-service teachers’ frequent use of SMS and its implications on teacher education in Nigeria. The study adopted the expost-facto descriptive survey approach. Two research questions and three hypotheses were raised to guide the study. A total of 81 ESL pre-service teachers and 6 lecturers participated in the study. Three instruments, teachers’ questionnaire, SMS forwarded by the students’ participants and a written composition test were used as the mode of data collection. The results of this study indicated that non-standard English features are present in the written composition of the ESL pre-service teachers. The results also showed a significant relationship between ESL pre-service teachers’ frequent use of SMS and their written composition. It was concluded that frequent usage of SMS language plays a great role in influencing ESL pre-service teachers written composition negatively. The implications for pre-service teacher education were discussed and recommendations were made