THEIMPACTOFSOCIALMEDIADISCOURSEONSTUDENTSWRITTEN COMPOSITIONINSELECTEDSECONDARYSCHOOLSINANYIGBA

ABSTRACT viii This study examines the impact of social media discourse on students' written composition in selected secondary schools in Anyigba, Kogi State, Nigeria. The study aim to investigate the implications of social media discourse on students written composition quality. The study adopts a qualitative research methodology. The Long Essay is underpinned by Social Constructivism theory. Data were collected from sixteen written compositions drawn from a population of fifty Senior Secondary School Two (SS2) students across three schools, and analysed using close reading, manual coding, and comparison with standard textbook norms. The findings show that the emerging forms of language, such as number homophones (e.g., "2" for "to"), consonant words (e.g., "pls" for "please"), unconventional spellings (e.g., "wen" for "when"), and clipping (e.g., "comm. devt," for community development) were frequent, and negatively impacted the formal writing system in school. These linguistic forms of social media discourse violate grammatical correctness, vocabulary learning, and formalities needed for any normative academic context. The researcher concludes that a more deliberate instructional focus is needed to help students differentiate between informal digital communication and formal academic writings, and consciously attend to appropriate language choices dependent on context