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Influence of information and communication technology (ICT) on English

language structure

Thesis · May 2012

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INFLUENCE OF INFORMATION AND

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE STRUCTURE

THESIS
SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF

Doctor of Philosophy
IN

LINGUISTICS
By

JAMAL KAID MOHAMMAD ALI

Under the Supervision of

PROF. M. SALIM BEG PROF. S. IMTIAZ

HASNAIN
CO-SUPERVISOR SUPERVISOR
(Department of Electronics Engineering) (Department of Linguistics)

DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS
ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY
ALIGARH (INDIA)
2012
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PROFESSOR S. IMTIAZ HASNAIN DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS

M.A., PH.D. (J.N.U.) ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY
CHAIRMAN ALIGARH – 202002
(U.P.) INDIA

Dated: ………………

Certificate

This is to certify that Mr. Jamal Kaid Mohammad Ali has

completed his thesis entitled: “INFLUENCE OF INFORMATION
AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) ON ENGLISH
LANGUAGE STRUCTURE” for the award of the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy in Linguistics under our supervision.

It is further certified that Mr. Jamal Kaid Mohammad Ali

has fulfilled all the conditions laid down in the academic
ordinances with regard to the PhD degree, and that to the best of
our knowledge the thesis contains his own original research.

Prof. M. SALIM BEG Prof. S. IMTIAZ HASNAIN

CO-SUPERVISOR SUPERVISOR
(Department of Electronics Engineering) (Professor of Sociolinguistics and
Chairman of Department of Linguistics)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chairman, Department of Linguistics, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 202002 .
Mob: 09358208893, Res: 0571 2721768, email imtiaz.hasnain@gmail.com
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‫بسم هللا الرحمن الرحيم‬

Dedication

This thesis is dedicated

To the Memory of my Mother, Father, and Sister

(Fatimah) May Allah’s Mercy be Upon Them

To My Darling Wife

To My Brothers, Sisters, Nephews and Nieces

To My Beloved Country YEMEN, the Blessed and the

Greatest Country on Earth, and to All Those Who Died

for Its Sake

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The process of obtaining this degree has been long and arduous. I had many
challenges put in front of me. So First of all, all thanks and gratitude go to the Almighty
If you need the whole thesis, please send me a message to ResearchGate or to
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Allah Who always guides me to the right path and helped me to complete this thesis. I
also have to acknowledge several people who have supported me in this long journey.
I have to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, mentor and
guide Professor S. Imtiaz Hasnain for suggesting this topic and for helping me to
acquire the confidence to embark upon this work. The present thesis is the outcome of
his invaluable guidance, help and intellectually enlightening support that extends much
beyond this thesis. He helped me to begin, prepare, implement and complete this thesis.
He provided me constant support, guidance and feedback throughout the process. He
has always been a source of inspiration to me for the entire period of my PhD
programme. His convivial nature infused a great zeal in me to complete the work. I
really cannot thank him enough for this. I can hardly believe how much I have learnt
from him and my words cannot express how much I thank him.

I have also to express my deepest gratitude and sincere respect for my thesis co-
supervisor Professor M. Salim Beg for his continuous support and guidance. He
showed me different ways to approach the research problem, and helped me to see the
need to be persistent to accomplish any goal. He was most responsible for helping me
to complete the writing of this thesis as well as the challenging research that lies behind
it. He has fostered confidence in me when I doubted myself, and has guided me through
the process of refining my research as I carried out this study. Without his inspiration,
guidance, and unlimited support, this thesis would not have been possible. Indeed, it
has been a great privilege to work under his guidance.

Many thanks go to Prof. Naomi S. Baron USA, Dr. Sandra Greiffenstern,

Germany, Dr. Muhammed Muharram and Dr. Naheed Saba for their clarification
whenever I needed their help.

My appreciation also goes to the doctor of the future Ghazwan Al-Mekhlafi for
his brainstorming discussions, critical feedback and careful reading. His encouragement
carried me through the hardest days and made possible the accomplishment of this
thesis. I also thank my Indian friend, Yaser Arafat, who helped me in translation,
classification and categorization of Hindi/Urdu data which I collected from AMU
students.
Special gratitude goes to those whose contributions are sometimes less concrete
but equally invaluable as they made this thesis stronger. They are listed in alphabetical
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order. The great thanks go to Drs. Abdullah Shaghi, Abdulmalik Mansour, Abdulkhaliq
Almakhdari, Ahmed Saaed Almekhlafi, Ali Almekhlafi, Hasasn Matari, Ibrahim
Haidarah, Mohammed Bani Salammah, Mustafa Abdulmohsin, Nabil Farae, Nazerin B.
Laskar, Salmeen Alawid and to Twafik Al-Shara’abi. My great thanks also go to
Messrs Abdulaziz Almekhlafi, Abdulsallam Al-Shara’abi, Ameen Al-Ahdal, Atef
Odeh, , Mohammed Basheer, Tawfik Abdulmalik and to all those who genuinely asked
me how I was doing and what they could do to help me.

I am very grateful to the participants for their time and messages. I greatly
appreciate all the support from teachers and the staff of the department of linguistics
and all the support from everyone at Aligarh Muslim University.

My deepest and most sincere gratitude goes to my parents, brothers, sisters,

brothers-in-law, nephews, and nieces for their unparalleled support and their endless
prayers during my study. My mother (May Allah’s mercy be upon her) passed away
when I was doing BA II year, but her continuous influence and prayers supported the
completion of this thesis.

Words cannot express my gratitude for my wife for giving me the greatest inner
strength and a smiling heart and for standing behind me in the toughest moments.

I owe especial everlasting gratefulness to my brothers particularly Abdulateef,

Abdulmajeed and Abdulaleem for their limitless finance support. This study could
never ever have been started and accomplished without their continuous contribution.

Last but not the least my special gratitude goes to the Government of the
GREAT YEMEN for providing me governmental scholarship and for Indian UGC for
providing me Junior and Senior Research Fellowship.

Jamal Kaid Mohammad Ali

Table of Contents

Page No.

Certificate: ...........................................................................................................i
Dedication: ..........................................................................................................ii
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Acknowledgements:............................................................................................iii
Table of Contents: ..............................................................................................v

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND...................................1

1.1. Introduction ……………...……...……………...…………...….….......…1
1.2. Objectives of the Study ……...……………………...............................…3
1.3. Hypotheses of the Study ……………………......……...……..….............3
1.4. Significance of the Study ………………….…………......…….........…...4
1.5. Limitations of the Study ……………….….………………....….......…....6
1.6. Organization of the Study ……………...………………... …......…..…...7

Chapter 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE …………….……………...….......9

2.1. Introduction ………………………………………….....……………..….....9
2.2. The Negative Influence of ICT English .......................................................10
2.2.1. Confusion to the Learners of Standard English ……….…….......10
2.2.2. Communicative Incompetence …….………………………… ...10
2.2.3. A Threat to Standard English ……….………………………......11
2.2.4. Loss of Standard English ………………………………..……....15
2.2.5. Inadequacy in the Literacy Skills ………………...…..………..17
2.2.6. A Threat to Students’ Writing Skills …….……………..……….18
2.2.7. Using ICT English in Academics ……..…………………..…….19
2.2.8. Contextual Errors …………………….…………………....…….21
2.2.9. Gender, Age and Group Divides ………………..…………...….22
2.3. The Positive Influence of ICT English ....……………………….….…..…23
2. 3.1. Not as Deviant as Media Report.................................................. 23
2.3.2. Texters are Skilled Users ..............................................................24
2.3.3. A New Writing Genre ....................................................................25
2.3.4. New Syntactic Features ................................................................26
2.3.5. Hybrid New Language ..................................................................27
2.3.6. Minor Changes to Standard English Rules ..................................27
2.3.7. Poor Spelling not the Result of ICT English ............................... 28
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2.3.8. ICT English as a Sign of Creativity............................................. 29

2.4. My Position ..................................................................................................29

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH DESIGN .................31

3.1. Introduction ...…………….…….……………………….......….…..…...31
3.2. Data Elicitation Process ...……………………..…………............…..…31
3.2.1. Subjects Selection ...………………………………............……..33
3.2.2. Criteria for Selecting the Subjects of the Study ...……..….......…34
3.3. Data Collection ...……………...........………………….....…….……....34
3.3.1. Collection of Primary Data ...…………………….….……..……35
3.3.1.1. The Questionnaire ...………………….……....……….….35
3.3.1.2. The Fill-in-blank Test …………………………….….…..37
3.3.2. Collection of Secondary Data ...…..………………….….………38
3.4. Analytical and Statistical Procedures ...………………….............…...…41
3.5. Procedure of Data Interpretation ……………………………….....…....47

CHAPTER 4: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND RESULTS INTERPRETATION 48

4.1. Analysis of the Primary Data …...................................................................48
4.1.1. Analysis of Questionnaire Data........................................................48
4.1.2. Analysis of Fill-in-blank Test...…....................................................74
4.1.2.1. The Variations which were Given by the Respondents.....76
4.1.2.2. The Comprehended Short Forms ..................................... 84
4. 2. Analysis of Secondary Data .......................................................................84
4.2.1. Descriptive Analysis of the Emails Data ……...………….....…...84
4.2.2. Descriptive Analysis of SMSes Data .............................................85
4.2.3. Descriptive Analysis of Chats Data ............................................... 86
4.2.4. Analysis of Morphosyntactic Items .……..…............................... 88
4.2.4.1. Analysis of Morphosyntactic Items in Emails Data .....................88
4.2.4.2. Analysis of Morphosyntactic Items in SMSes Data .....................93
4.2.4. 3. Analysis of Morphosyntactic Items in Chats Data ......................97
4.2.5. Analysis of Phonological Items ....................................................101
4.2.5.1. Analysis of Phonological Items in Emails Data .........................101
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4.2.5.2. Analysis of Phonological Items in SMSes Data .........................105

4.2.5.3. Analysis of Phonological Items in Chats Data ...........................109
4.2.6. Analysis of Code Mixing Words .................................................113
4.2.6.1. Analysis of Code Mixing Words in Emails Data ......................113
4.2.6.2. Analysis of Code Mixing Words in SMSes Data .....................115
4.2.6.3. Analysis of Code Mixing Words in Chats Data ........................117

CHAPTER 5: LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF ICT ENGLISH …...............119

5.1. Introduction.................................................................................................119
5.2. Linguistic Analysis of Morphosyntactic Structure ....................................119
5.2.1. Deletion of Subject .....................................................................119
5.2.2. Deletion of Functional Head .......................................................120
5.2.3. Deletion of Punctuation ..............................................................120
5.2.4. Clipping ......................................................................................121
5.2.5. Contraction .................................................................................122
5.2.6. Words with Upper Case ..............................................................122
5.2.7. Words with Lower case ..............................................................122
5.2.8. Overuse of Punctuation ..............................................................123
5.3. Linguistic Analysis of Phonological Items ................................................123
5.3.1. Deletion of Consonants ..............................................................123
5.3.2. Deletion of Vowels .....................................................................124
5.3.3. Substitution of Equivalent Sounds .............................................124
5.3.4. Substitution of a Single Letter for Phone(s) ...............................125
5.3.5. Substitution of Number(s) for Phone(s) .....................................125
5.3.6. Words Represented by Single Letters ........................................125
5.3.7. Overuse of Sounds ......................................................................126
5.4. Linguistic Analysis of Code Mixing Items.................................................126
5.4.1. Code Mixed Nouns ......................................................................126
5.4.2. Code Mixed Adjectives ................................................................127
5.4.3. Code Mixed Adverbs....................................................................127

Chapter 6: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 128

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6.1. Summary of the study ............................................................................... 128

6.1.1. Purpose and Objectives of the Study............................................129
6.1.2. Limitations of the Study ..............................................................129
6.1.3. Methodology ...............................................................................129
6.2. Conclusions, Findings and Recommendations ..........................................130

References ........................................................................................................139
Appendices .......................................................................................................151
Appendix 1: Questionnaire...............................................................................151
Appendix 2: Non-Standard Forms which were Found in the Secondary Data 154

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the influence of information and communication

technology (ICT) on English language structure. The main objective of the

present study is to explore the linguistic features which characterize ICT English

and its impact on Standard English.

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As this study aims at investigating the influence of ICT English on the

structure of Standard English, the data of the study were of two types; primary

data and secondary data. The data were collected from ninety students who were

enrolled at Aligarh Muslim University. The students from which the data were

collected were grouped according to their levels.

The primary data were collected through a five-point scale questionnaire

and through fill-in-blank test. The secondary data were collected from email,

SMS and chat texts. The questionnaire aims to collect information from the

respondents about their knowledge on ICT English and its influence on Standard

English, their opinions towards the use of ICT English and their use of ICT

English. The fill-in-blank test aims at examining the respondents’

comprehension of ICT English. Five sent emails, five sent SMSes and five sent

chats from each of the respondents are collected to test the linguistic features of

ICT English.

After collecting the data, the processes of editing, coding, classifying, and

tabulating of the data were done. After the processes of coding, classifying and

tabulating, the data were inserted to SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social

Sciences), version 16.0, for analysis. Analysis of the data collected was done. To

report the numbers, percentages, means, standard deviations of the data

collected, descriptive statistics was used. To find out whether there is a

significant difference between the levels, ANOVA test was used. After
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analyzing the data and presenting the results in tables supported by graphs where

necessary, the results of the data were interpreted in details.

Main Findings

Through analyzing the data collected from the questionnaire, it was found

that the respondents had a negative attitude towards ICT English and they

viewed it to have a negative impact on the structure of Standard English.

Through analyzing the fill-in-blank test, it was found that ICT English

created lack of comprehension for the respondents. Regarding abbreviations

used by ICT users, the users themselves interpreted them differently. There were

many factors behind this different interpretation such as geographical factors,

religious factors, and cultural factors. Many abbreviations are not understood.

This suggests that most of the respondents did not understand and did not use

these abbreviations while communicating with others. It was found that the

context sometimes fails to help the reader to get the intended meaning which

ICT users want to convey.

By analyzing the texts of emails, SMSes and chats, it was found that ICT

English is differently used and it is also difficult to control and find certain

patterns followed. It was found that emails and SMSes were followed by the

chat texts in devastation from Standard English. SMSes are more deviated from

Standard English than chat texts in some cases such as deletion of subject and

deletion of punctuation. It is found out that chat texts followed SMSes in

deviation from Standard English and email texts were less deviated from
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Standard English than SMSes and chat texts. It is found out that there was no

significant difference between SMS, email and chat with regard to ICT English.

Phonologically speaking, the SMSes were found to be more deviated

from the Standard English than email and chat texts. There was no significant

difference between the level groups in the phonological items in email, SMS and

chat texts. A significant difference between the level groups was only seen in the

item “substitution of a single letter for phone(s)” in email texts.

The study arrived at the fact that most code mixed words are nouns in the

data of email, SMS and chat texts. There was only one code mixed adverb used

in SMSes. The study did not find any significant difference between the groups

in any of the code mixed words.

The thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter is an introduction

and background, which brings the focus of the research into light, including the

aims and objectives to be achieved in the study. The hypotheses, significance,

and limitations of the study are presented as well. The chapter ends with the

organization of the study. The second chapter presents a review of related

literature. It explores existing research within the field of ICT English and its

impact on English language structure. It is divided into three sections. The first

section is an introduction. The second section presents the negative views on

ICT English and the third section presents the positive views on ICT English.

The third chapter discusses the research methodology and design. It shows the

way the researcher conducted the questionnaire and got the texts for analysis. It
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describes the methodology for the study, including a description of the

participants, procedures, and methods for data collection and analysis. The

fourth chapter is devoted to statistical analysis of the data and interpretation of

the results. It consists of three sections. The first section presents the analysis of

the five-point scale questionnaire. The second section presents the analysis of the

fill-in-blank test. The third section shows the analysis and results of ICT English

data. The fifth chapter is devoted to linguistic analysis of the data collected. The

morphosyntactic elements, phonological elements and code mixing elements are

linguistically analyzed separately, providing some examples from the data

collected for the study. Finally, the sixth chapter presents the summary of the

study, the findings and the recommendations.

REFERENCES

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University students: A sociolinguistic perspective. The International
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Bamba, F. & Barnes, S. J. (2007). SMS advertising, permission and the
consumer: A study. Business Process Management Journal, 13 (6), 815-
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jamalalhomaidi@gmail.com

Barasa, S. & Mous, M. (2009). The oral and written interface in SMS:
Technologically mediated communication in Kenya. In I. van de Craats &
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Baron, N. S. (2000). Alphabet to email: How written English evolved and where
it’s heading. New York: Routledge.
Baron, N. S. (2008). Always on: Language in an online and mobile world.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Baron, N. S. (2009). Are digital media changing language? Educational
Leadership, 66 (6), 42-46.
Berger, N. I. & Coch, D. (2010). Do u txt? Event-related potentials to semantic
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