Impacts of Facebook Language on Academic Writings of Undergraduate Students in Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the impacts of Facebook Language on the academic writings of undergraduate students. It additionally pursues teachers’ perspectives on this phenomenon and the extent of this impact. Extensive usage of abbreviations, spelling mistakes, writing Banglish words, poor use of grammar and punctuation marks, inadequate vocabulary and their carefree attitude in formal- informal writing are deranging students’ writing skills alarmingly. To show these errors, required data has been collected through different online questionnaires from 160 undergraduate students from Daffodil International University, Department of English, and 10 of their teachers. Excerpts from participants’ answer scripts and screenshots of Facebook statuses, comments, and text samples have been taken with proper consent for the purpose of this research. Lastly, the study has analyzed the data and the outcomes related to the findings. This research provides new insights into how Facebook Language impacts students’ academic performances and their formal writing in Bangladesh. Keywords: Facebook Language, Excerpts, Abbreviations, Academic writing.