exploring college slang joe mcveigh alexis mussomeli middlebury college
TRANSCRIPT
Exploring College Slang
Joe McVeighAlexis Mussomeli
Middlebury College
Slang—an active introduction
Take two minutes to write down the most common slang terms that you can think of.
What is slang?
• Informal, one or two words, considered non-standard
• Varies by age, region, or other demographic factors
• May relate to illicit activities or may be vulgar or vituperative
• Over time may change to standard status
Student difficulties with slang
• Undergraduate international ESL students
Origins of the project•New first-year international students at Middlebury
•William Safire article in New York Times
•Checking with NS undergraduate informants
Methodology
• Slang Collection assignment in undergrad TESOL methodology course
• Results of the initial collection
• Problems with the initial collection
• Forming of project team– Alexis Mussomeli—editor– Ellie Molyneux & Natalie Sammarco—surveys– Katie Moon & Uma Tantri—web design
Project – Initial EditAlexis Mussomeli
• Duplicates
• Idioms
• Non-local items
• Standardization of definitions
Project – SurveyEllie Molyneux & Natalie Sammarco
• Smaller lists of words
• Survey construction
• Email requests
• Responses
• Survey results
Survey Objectives
• Obtain demographic information– First language, friend group, affiliations
• Determine frequency of slang use– “How often do you hear this…” vs. “say”
• Determine variability in slang meaning
• Investigate correlations between demographics and reported slang frequency
Hypotheses
• International and ESL students with less interaction with NSs probably hear and are aware of fewer slang terms
• Variations in frequency
• Most students would be aware of the words in the survey
Method
• 4 surveys
• 39 words per survey
• 156 words total
• Randomly distributed
Participants By Year
200834%
200919%
201015%
201132%
Participant Origins and First Languages
81.7% domestic students
17.7% internationalstudents
15.2% ESL students
84.7% native
English speakers
Middlebury 2007: 10% international
N = 203
Is there a connection between reported slang frequency and . . .
. . . social house residence ?
. . . class year ?
. . . gender ?
. . . international student status ?
Results
Is there a connection between reported slang frequency and social house residence?
Percentage of first years vs. seniors who often hear or very often hear the word…
0102030405060708090
jangler rager Proctorcrush
LNDP
2008
2011
Percentage of men vs. women who often or very often hear the word…
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Roll Bail
Male
Female
SausageFest
Bangin’
Percentage of NNS vs. NS students who never hear the word…
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
eye sex fro-yo fess up fly foxy
NNS students
NS students
Facebook stalk
ferreal fives fo’ shizzle
Survey Limitations
• Relatively small sample size– Confirmation bias, fatigue, correlation vs.
causality
• Self-reporting vs. discourse analysis approach
Project – Web ImplementationKatie Moon & Uma Tantri
• Dictionary – navigable or downloadable
• Categories
• Audio files
• Resources
• Practice materials
The Web Site
https://segue.middlebury.edu/index.php?action=site&site=slang-glos
Project – Idioms Team
• Dictionary of idioms with definitions
• Downloadable from web site
– Sophie Elphick & Ley Lacbawan
Suggestions for Teaching Slang
• Memory game
• Sentence matching
• Crossword puzzle
• Listening fill-in-the-blanks
Questions and Discussion
Electronic Resources• Middlebury College Slang Project
https://segue.middlebury.edu/sites/slang-glos
• Introduction to TESOL Course Web Sitehttps://segue.middlebury.edu/?&action=site&site=intd1028a-w08
• Joe McVeigh dot org – presentation resourceswww.joemcveigh.org
• Urban Dictionarywww.urbandictionary.com
• The Online Slang Dictionarywww.onlineslangdictionary.com
• The Internet Slang Dictionarywww.noslang.com/dictionary.php
Thank you