LANGUAGE FAMILIARITY IN DIGITAL COMMUNICATION: A USAGE-BASEDSTUDY OF SOCIAL MEDIA SLANGCOMPREHENSION AMONG L2 ENGLISH LEARNERS
Keywords:
Digital Registers, Entrenchment, Familiarity, Comprehension Accuracy, L2 Learners, Usage-Based TheoryAbstract
This study investigated the processing of digital lexical items by the L2 English learners in social media language (abbreviations, neologisms, and phrases) under the lens of usage-based theory and entrenchment hypothesis. The two variables in this study, a) familiarity with a word and b) how accurately the L2 learners comprehends its meaning, operationalize the entrenchment hypothesis in this study. Ninety-seven participants rated 45 digital lexical items on a five-point Likert scale on familiarity, and subsequently, 78 participants completed the comprehension accuracy task on the 22 items that were retained out of the initial 45 items, categorized as high-familiarity (n = 14) or low-familiarity (n = 8). A paired-samples t-test revealed significantly higher accuracy for high-familiarity items (M = 84.3%) than the low-familiarity items (M = 77.6%; t (77) = 3.99, p < .001, d = 0.45). Point-biserial correlations confirmed that within-learner familiarity positively predicted item-level comprehension accuracy (r = 0.27, p < .001), supporting both hypotheses. The findings of this research validate entrenchment as a mechanism underlying L2 comprehension of digital registers.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Syeda Atifa Batool , Kamran Ali , Tahira Abdul Hakeem (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
