A study on the use of english in students’ social forums on facebook at thai nguyen university of education

udent again, where-
que 
It can be withdrawn from table 4 that the students’ mistakes in their English uses can be 
categorized in two broad groups: Grammatical competence and Pragmatic competence. In terms 
of grammatical competence, the errors that students have made belonged to 3 subgroups: 
vocabulary, morphology, and syntax. Most of the vocabulary errors were about spelling, for 
example coppy (copy), servey (survey), etc. The morphology errors are often of plural/singular, 
for example, 2 slot (2 slots). Syntax errors occured because of the students’ lack of grammar, for 
example, for me to sing (let me sing), they just asking (they were just asking). In terms of 
Pragmatic competence, the errors were only related to cultural references, for example love (lớp), 
cook (Cúc), dell, diss, etc. Despite the wrong use, these words reflect quite a innovative way of 
using English among Vietnamese young people, which has become a noticeable trend in social 
forums, media as well as daily life. 
Table 5. Code-switching between English and Vietnamese 
No Examples Forums 
Basis of inserting 
English 
1 
Em đã đi đượt muật phần bar cuộc đời 
(Em đã đi được một phần ba cuộc đời) 
TUE confession 
Pronouncing 
references 
2 
mình thin được bốc họ cho high bạn 
(mình xin được bốc họ cho hai bạn) 
TUE confession 
Pronouncing 
references 
3 
đỉnh kout 
(đỉnh cao) 
TUE confession 
Pronouncing 
references 
4 
hưởng lương theo bream lương của công ty 
(hưởng lương theo barem lương của công ty) 
TUE – Đại học Sư Phạm 
Thái Nguyên 
Code - switching 
5 
eat cái này no fat và no pig too 
(Ăn cái này không béo và cũng không ) 
TUE confession Code - switching 
6 
tán Cook thì sao 
(tán Cúc thì sao) 
TUE confession 
Pronouncing 
references 
7 
e thì cũng kute phô mai where 
(em thì cũng rất dễ thương) 
TUE confession 
Pronouncing 
references 
8 
Vào cf đi chứ 
(vào xác nhận đi chứ) 
Anh K51 ĐHSPTN Code - switching 
9 
ad cho xin cái list fan cứng để of 
(quản lý cho xin cái danh sách người hâm 
mộ nhiệt tình nhất để tổ chức buổi gặp mặt) 
TUE confession 
Code - switching 
10 
năm nay nhân vật main có ai 
(năm nay nhân vật chính có ai) 
TUE confession Code - switching 
Nguyen Thi Hong Minh et al TNU Journal of Science and Technology 199(06): 37 - 43 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 42 
As obviously shown in table 5, students 
inserted English in their posts frequently, and 
the words they used were not completely 
standardized English nor standardized 
Vietnamese. The ways of inserting English in 
those posts can be categorized in two groups. 
The first group is sentences containing 
English words that have the similar 
pronunciation with Vietnamese words. Some 
examples of this group are Mình thin đượt 
bốc họ cho high bạn, E thì cũngkute phô mai 
where, etc. (thin – xin, high – hai, where – 
que). The English words in these sentences 
are not used as English notional words but 
Vietnamese words so as to make the 
conversation become more interesting. 
However, they are still English originated; 
besides, clearly, these words require the 
knowledge of both languages from readers to 
be understood. 
The second category is sentences containing 
English notional words. Sentences for 
example Eat cái này no pig và no fat too, Ad 
cho xin cái list fan cứng để of, etc. 
demonstrate code-switching phenomenon. 
The English words in these situations were 
just used to replace Vietnamese words in 
meaning in order to make the sentences 
become shorter and funnier. Despite having 
different basis of inserting English, the 
sentences in these two groups are all 
ambiguous in meaning, and hence, 
misunderstanding may occur. 
4. Discussion 
From the data recorded through corpora, it 
can be summarized that the English words 
that students used in social forums on 
Facebook can be categorized in two ways. 
The first group of English words used in 
social forums is to replace equivalent 
Vietnamese words. Students mostly employed 
English words to replace longer Vietnamese 
words such as ad/admin for người quản lý, 
csf/confession for lời bộc bạch, fulltime for 
toàn thời gian, etc. These English words are 
shorter; therefore they are more convenient to 
use. Commenting on posts is similar with 
chatting in daily life, so people tend to use 
verbal expressions; as a result, people try to 
type as fast as they are thinking, so short 
words are necessary and thus are preferred. 
This phenomenon is called code-switching 
which to some extent is believed to help 
people in learning new words as well as 
practicing English use in daily life. It is a 
natural process where the two languages 
integrate and have mutual impacts. This 
somehow demonstrates that young people 
have acquired some certain English and have 
been accustomed to using the English in their 
communication, which can be a good signal 
for the teaching and learning of English in 
Vietnam after huge efforts of the government, 
schools, parents, teachers and students. 
However, in some cases, students use too 
many English words to replace Vietnamese 
words, which can make the conversation 
become hard for others to understand. 
Moreover, abusing code-switching too much 
might be the main reason leading to the use 
unstandardized Vietnamese language in daily 
communication. 
The second way of using English words in 
social forums is to replace Vietnamese words 
that share similarities in pronunciation. 
Students prefer words such as diss, dell to 
replace the Vietnamese words which have 
similar pronunciation but impolite in 
meaning. This is a new way of euphemism in 
Vietnam. There are also Vietnamese words 
being replaced just for entertaining. Students 
used words such as love trưởng (lớp trưởng), 
kim cook (Kim Cúc), high bạn (2 bạn), etc. to 
make the conversation become more 
interesting and funny. This way of 
euphemism is quite creative, and has just 
appeared among youngsters. Objectively 
speaking, this kind of language of the 
youngsters is like fashion trend but partly 
Nguyen Thi Hong Minh et al TNU Journal of Science and Technology 199(06): 37 - 43 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 43 
shows the characteristics, psychological 
renewal of the young. Somehow it reflects the 
youngsters’ language which has become quite 
common in their communication. In fact, this 
way of replacing words is a personal way of 
expression, but with the support of social 
forums on Facebook, it has been quickly 
spread, and become a new trend among young 
people. But like code-switching, this 
phenomenon can also make people 
misunderstand others’ ideas, and partly 
contribute to the wider use of unstandardized 
Vietnamese. This practice of euphemism in 
the mother language is a noticeable 
phenomenon that may need study and 
recommendations from educators for better 
preservation of the native language. 
Moreover, upon analyzing the corpora, it is 
realized the variety of English syntax in use is 
rather limited. The students only apply only 
two types of sentence structures: truncated 
simple sentences, for example so sad, trust 
me, etc. and simple sentences, for example 
you’re welcome, I want to kill him. These 
kinds of sentences are easy to use and 
understand, and do not required complex 
grammar. This somehow can indicate TNUE 
students’ low competence in English as well 
as their preference for straightforward and 
simple ideas. Quotes are also brought into 
students’ posts, for example In the end, we 
only regret the chances we didn’t take 
appears in posts for hiring employees. 
However, in fact this kind of posts can be 
merely copied from others’ then pasted into 
the social forums as a new post. Obviously, 
students cannot use non-literal English, which 
requires a higher proficiency to be practiced 
effectively. 
5. Conclusion 
In summary, there have been a considerable 
number of students using of English in social 
forums on Facebook at Thai Nguyen 
University of Education. However, their use of 
English is largely restricted to word level and 
demonstrates quite constant error systems. 
While the quality of students’ English use in 
social forums is still limited and does not help 
much with their learning of English, the 
frequent switches between English and 
Vietnamese languages in communication may 
present some threats to the standard and purity 
of the mother language. This may require 
further study with recommendations from 
experts for better solutions to the study of 
English and the preservation of Vietnamese as 
the native language. 
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Nguyen Thi Hong Minh et al TNU Journal of Science and Technology 199(06): 37 - 43 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 44