Unpacking Students Chit-Chat In Messenger: Why English Is Missing In Action
Volume 5 - Issue 7, July 2022 Edition
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Author(s)
Jonalyn T. Abad, Joeza A. Aquino, Claire Joy G. Arcillas, Jasmin M. Clarianes, Rimma B. Datiles
Keywords
code-switching, instant messaging, learning community
Abstract
The demand for communicative competence in the English language motioned Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach’s inclusion in Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) applications. Remarkably, several MALL applications enable users to communicate with other language learners and teachers, and native speakers worldwide through instant messages, and audio or video chatting. Likewise, instant messaging (IM) applications such as Facebook Messenger served as an avenue for communication for students. Both MALL applications and Facebook Messenger assist and enhance the learning of their analogous demographic through their similar features. If MALL applications and Facebook Messenger have comparable features and users, can Facebook Messenger foster CLT approach too? However, according to Appel and Pieter (1987, as cited in Besa 2013), an overview of the language situation must be obtained before any further steps can be taken. Henceforward, the study aims to unpack students’ chit-chat in the Messenger application to determine why conversational English is missing in action. The study employed Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to present the lived experiences of fifteen English Major students situated in three existing group chats. The participants’ personal information is not to be disclosed in lieu of the Data Privacy Act of 2012. The recorded data from the observation and interview supplied responses and insights to the themes that emerged, the materialization of New London Group’s modes of communication, the language used by the students, and the circumstance of English in the students’ chit-chat. The study found that conversational English was underdeveloped and displaced by conversational code-switching. The pervasiveness of conversational code-switching can be attributed to actuation of the group chats as online learning community that promoted a shared context and natural language.
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