SPELLING ISSUES IN EFL GRAFFITI: ANALYSIS AND IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

Anonymous inscription on others‟ properties has attracted research from multiple perspectives. This paper takes interest in graffiti from linguistic and pedagogical perspectives. It is concerned with spelling phenomena in statements made by Jordanian non-native English speakers. It delineates the phenomena unique to Jordanian foreign learners and those exclusive to English native speakers, as well as the phenomena common to both groups. Graffiti from private English-medium schools have been videotaped, transcribed, and coded. The resulting corpus has been analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results revealed that Jordanian learners of English did develop a sense of ownership of the language that motivated them to play with its spelling for attention-seeking, innovation, simplification, emotiveness, or politeness. They also followed spelling trends in English-speaking communities under the influence of globalization, SMS texting, and internet communication. In fact, some of these trends and the innovation spirit had a spillover effect on how students spelt their native Arabic using Roman rather than Arabic script. Quite often, they used Romanization for effect, emotion, boasting, or demeaning others. Jordanian English speakers made spelling errors in capitalization, contraction, vowel sequencing, and noun compounding. Most errors were due to sound assimilation, mispronunciation of English words, mother tongue interference, and rule overgeneralization. (200 words)