Abstract

People construct distinctive communities according to language

variation which is tightly related to context. The present study on
Students slang in Terms of Specialty, level, and gender, its shift into
students writings, and the Attitude of Its Use :The case of Master
Community of English at Mostaganem University aims to examine how
students construct their own communities through slang use. The study
targets the first and second year master students of English because
there is a little interest on investigating the variety used by students of
English. Thus, the major contribution of this research is to give an
insight on students language features precisely in the context of
Mostaganem University. The study starts with the definitions of some
theoretical concepts as speech community and the issue of language
variation, slang variety and its sociolinguistic features. Throughout this
research, both the qualitative and quantitative approaches are opted for
.Data has been gathered from master students and their teachers
employing various tools as tape-recording, semi-structured interviews,
students writings and questionnaires. Tape-recording is used to illicit
how slang diverges in terms of specialty, and level. Semi-structured
interviews are organized to get an insight on the slang words
constructions female and male students employ to draw out gender
difference in terms of frequency. Both students academic and nonacademic writings are examined to see whether slang shifts into the
written form. Questionnaires are designed to withdraw the attitude of
both students and teachers towards the use of slang..