Communicative Features of Selected Nigerian ESL Generation Z’s Language Use on Twitter

Abstract

Various studies on Generation Z have concentrated on other social media platforms, but less attention has been paid to the micro-blogging site, Twitter (recently renamed as X). This study fills the gap by examining the various communicative features and factors that influence the language use of selected ESL Generation Z individuals on Twitter. The study adopts purposive sampling to select 5 popular Nigerian Generation Z media personalities (Enioluwa Adeoluwa, Rinu Oduala, Emeka Nwagbaraocha, Hauwa Lawal and Abdulsalam Idris) who constitute the population size. Data analysis is subjected to qualitative method with analytical drawn from the tenets of Lesley Jeffries’ (2010) Critical Stylistics theoretical framework: naming and describing, representing action/events/states, equating and contrasting, and prioritising. Although there are several social media influencers on Twitter, the sample is concerned with influencers who are first Nigerians, between the age bracket 18-26 years and active users of Twitter. This, however, formed the population for this study. From the findings, five communicative features are commonly employed by ESL Generation Z individuals: emoji, slang, meme, hashtag, and code-switching. However, slang expressions and memes are more commonly used than code-switching and hashtags. This study, therefore, demonstrates that ESL Gen Z’s language use on Twitter is influenced by a complex interplay of factors, including character limits, social issues, social identity, pop culture, and digital nativity, ultimately shaping their unique online language practices and identities.