“I Have Lost All Ability To Can”: Is Internet Really Ruining The English Language?

Abstract

Language is an important instrument through which members of a given community express their thoughts, feelings and emotions; it is one of the most fundamental means of human communication and a primary object of the study of linguistics. It is perhaps no more than trite to suggest that the internet has become a fact of social life globally. However, proving this fact needs an ordered frame of reference. Internet linguistics is yet another domain of linguistics advocated by the English linguist, David Crystal. It studies “new language styles and forms that have arisen under the influence of the Internet and other New Media, such as Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging”, (Wikipedia). There have arisen great disputations on whether or not the use of the Internet is hindering language development. This paper examines these arguments in relation to students’ proficiency in language use, generally. To what extent can one generalize the findings in other climes within the Nigerian context? Using both the Critical Discourse Analysis theory and Braddock communication model, the study examines “sent” and “received” SMS and e-mails from the sample population, with a view to determining the impact on the users’ proficiency level in English language.