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Using Memes in the Language

Classroom
Nurda Karadeniz Kayali
Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5536-3218
OPEN ACCESS

Aslı Altuntaş
Manuscript ID:
Instructor, College of Foreign Languages, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey
EDU-2021-09033908
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4388-215X

Volume: 9 Abstract
Teaching vocabulary is a big challenge for teachers, and also a huge difficulty for students is to
Issue: 3 remember the vocabulary items. The main purpose of this study is to create an enjoyable learning
and teaching environment to help students revise certain vocabulary items and make students
have fun by being creative. In that, memes are trendy phenomena which are both entertaining
Month: June
and creative way of expressing one’s feelings on one topic. In this study, memes were used for
vocabulary revision. To see its effect on vocabulary recall, a quiz was conducted before and after
Year: 2021 the experiment. To determine its effect on students’ opinions, a feedback form was also applied
after the experiment. The results show that the use of memes affected the vocabulary recall of the
P-ISSN: 2320-2653 Medicine students positively. Therefore, they could be used as one of the strategies to create an
innovative learning and teaching process.
Keywords: Memes, Vocabulary, Language learning, Language teaching
E-ISSN: 2582-1334

Received: 17.04.2021 Introduction

Over the past decade, technology has been developing at an overwhelming
Accepted: 25.05.2021 speed and it is often changing people’s lives to make things easier and better
for them. On the other hand, it has taken over control of people’s lives. They
Published: 01.06.2021 cannot go through the day without having to text someone, watch videos, surf
the internet or use any kind of tools and applications. It has settled in the center
Citation: of people’s lives; therefore, without it, they feel disconnected from the world.
Kayali, Nurda Karadeniz, In an era when people’s lives are surrounded by so much technology, no one
and Aslı Altuntaş. “Using can deny the need to integrate technology in way people teach and learn. One
Memes in the Language
way of integrating technology in language classrooms is by generating memes.
Classroom.” Shanlax
Memes are cultural composites - ideas, symbols, and practices - that spread
International Journal of
in multiple forms through imitation and appropriation. The concept of a meme
Education, vol. 9, no. 3,
2021, pp. 155-160. was first applied to evolutionary theory in the 1970s to explain how cultural
information (i.e., norms, attitudes, values, and beliefs) spread from person to
DOI: person by the biologist Richard Dawkins (1976).
https://doi.org/10.34293/ The internet, with its immediate and infinite connectivity, enables memes to
education.v9i3.3908 evolve faster and spread farther than ever before. Essentially, every new social
network is another source of memes (Gleick, 2011). It is an activity, concept,
catchphrase, or piece of media that spreads, often as mimicry or humorous
purposes, from person to person via the internet. It may be just a word or phrase,
This work is licensed sometimes including intentional misspellings or corrupted grammar. These
under a Creative Commons
small movements spread from person to person via social networks, blogs,
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
direct email, or news sources. They may relate to various existing Internet
International License
cultures or subcultures, often created or spread on various websites.

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An internet meme usually takes the form of an humorous memes in the 21st century class of learners
image, GIF, or video. A meme is defined “in our and how they face the challenges of using humorous
case” as an idea or image spread very quickly on the memes in their classes. In conclusion, the teachers
internet. stated their experiences with those words as shown
In language learning classes teaching and learning in the table:
vocabulary has a significant importance since the
Statements of Teachers’ Experience
number of new vocabulary is high in one lesson
• Arouse students’ attention
especially if you have to follow a coursebook or if
• Appropriate the value of the course I teach
the students are at low proficiency level. Teaching
• Promote global consciousness
vocabulary means giving the word’s definition, • It makes the class happy
doing exercises about it, understanding and using • Set the mood of the class
them in new contexts, teaching its synonyms and • Determining the readiness of the students
antonyms and so on. However, it is not over because • Had their undivided attention
learning and recalling these vocabulary items is as • Could spark moments of laughter
challenging for the students as they have to practice • Filter the affective domain
and recycle the newly-learned vocabulary items in • Sustainer of learning interest
order to recall them when needed. • Concretely visualize an idea or concept
In previous studies, memes were used for different • Making the setting a very light atmosphere
purposes. In one study, memes and Instagram As clearly stated, memes are great ways to have a
enhance students’ participation (Purnama, 2017). positive atmosphere and grab the students’ attention
The participants of the study were 23 EFL students of throughout the lesson. In this study, memes were
Health College in the Malang. In their research, they used as an in-class vocabulary revision activity.
used observation and questionnaires. Each group Students worked in pairs and created their memes
was asked to develop one meme based on the given with the given photos and target vocabulary items.
topics that they had received during English classes.
Each group was assigned to upload or post their Method
meme creation in the appointed Instagram account. The study was conducted in March 2019 at Gazi
Results of the study showed that creating memes University, College of Foreign Languages in Turkey.
supports intrinsic, integrative and instrumental In the College of Foreign Languages, classes are
values which affect the students’ motivation. organized according to the student’s scores in the
Namely, using memes supplied the actual process placement test to have homogenous classes in the
of learning the target language-intrinsic value; target fall term. The classes are organized according to
language itself and its speaker-integrative value; students’ departments (Engineering, Economics
and consequences and benefits of having learned the and Administrative Sciences, Architecture and
target language-instrumental value. These are the Medicine). There were nearly 43 classes organized
values and attitudes; as Dörnyei (2001) explained, according to the students’ departments. Two
“the most far-reaching consequences in motivating Medicine classes with nearly forty students were
L2 learners can be achieved by promoting positive chosen. They were 18 male and 20 female and their
language-related values and attitudes.” ages ranged from 17 to 20.
In another study (Davison, 2012), they defined Before the experiment, all of the students studied
a meme, brief history of the memes, early internet English in the School for more than 5 months.
memes and at the same time, current internet memes. Thus, the students had been exposed to the same
Also, some types of memes’ language examples amount of English. To assure the homogeneity of
were given. the two groups in terms of their general proficiency
The other study (Baysac, 2017) made use of in English, classes’ general point of average was
psychological phenomenology aimed at describing the same (83/100). For general English, Speak Out
the lived experiences of the teachers in using Intermediate books were being used.
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Data Collection
The instrument in this research is a quiz (15
questions - fill in the blank statements) Appendix
1 (the quiz). A poll of target vocabulary items was
created from the two units which were covered
the previous week and a quiz of 15 fill-in-blanks
statements was designed to be used before and
after the creating memes activity to check its effect
on vocabulary recall. To find out about students’
opinions, a feedback form was applied after the
Figure 1 Figure 2
experiment Appendix 2 (feedback form).
Before the study a brief information about the In Figures 1 & 2, it can be seen that all of the
memes was given to the students; also, some student target 3 items were used. In Figure 2, it is also seen
and university life memes were shown as examples. that the students changed the part of speech of one
The quiz was applied to the students as a pre-test word- invention- and they used it as an inventor in
to see if using memes is an effective way to recall. the correct way.
During the study, for vocabulary revision, target
vocabulary items of Unit 9 and 10 were grouped into
3 sets. Students worked in pairs and were supposed
to create a meme by using these sets of 3 words. The
images were given by the instructors.
Since unit themes are a little bit abstract, the
vocabulary items were hard to combine as well. So,
the students had difficulty in developing a meme.
However, they could all do it well with the help of
pair work. In this case, students were given the image,
Figure 3 Figure 4
an empty laminated paper and a board marker. It was
not an internet meme because of an access problem In Figures 3 & 4, the students used only two
to the internet. of the target items. However, they individualized
Each group was given the image and 3 vocabulary their situation as content in Figure 4. Since they are
items and the same amount of time. Guidance and Medicine students, they know how difficult to enter
help were supplied when needed. the faculty.
Three vocabulary items related to the
environment and a trendy meme photo were a Findings and Discussion
challenge to complete. Still, the students both revised This chapter attempts to present the analysis of
the vocabulary items and put them in a context and the data by providing a graph. In fig. 5, below blue
also use the words in the sentence, which requires line shows the pre-test results and the red line shows
higher thinking skills. If they made use of only 2 the post-test results. It can be concluded from the
of the words (because of irrelevant content), it was figure that there has been an increase in the post-quiz
welcomed too. results of students compared to the pre-quiz results.
After completing their memes, they were
supposed to share on Whatsapp to vote on the best.
By doing so, the students were able to read and check
all of their friends’ memes. On voting, they were
appreciated by their peer.

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When we have a look at the feedback form to activity was a bit hard to do for them, it was pretty
understand student’s ideas about the activity, the good. They asserted that they also enjoyed while
results were again promising. We originated the reading the memes produced by the other groups in
feedback form in 4 categories: ‘What is your opinion their class.
about using memes in the classroom?’, ‘Have memes The last question was about whether the students
helped you to remember words better?’, ‘Do you find would enjoy doing this kind of classroom activity
creating memes enjoyable?’ and ‘Would you like for another topic. The students certified that they
to have this kind of classroom activity for another would love to try this kind of activity more because
topic?’ they learn better. At the same time, they have fun in
Regarding the first question on the feedback the classroom and that it is a much more effective
form related to the students’ opinions, they found the method than studying traditionally and learning
memes in the classroom use, good, fun, interesting, words by heart; however, they stated that they found
enjoyable, beneficial and efficient. They expressed it a bit difficult as it requires production.
that it has so many benefits. They stated that they All in all, this study reached its aim in creating
enjoyed the activity. They said it was an enjoyable a fun and beneficial teaching and learning
activity and it helped them to learn how to use some environment. Students who were subject to this
words. study were all willing to participate in the activity.
The second question on the feedback form asks In their groups, they were enthusiastic about creating
whether the memes have helped them to remember the best meme among the others because when
words better. Most of the students stated that using they created their memes, they shared them on the
photo images and colorful cards to write their classroom WhatsApp group and the best meme was
memes on made them more memorable, that forming chosen. They reflected these in a positive way on
sentences with the given words helped them to their feedback forms.
remember those words more easily, and that before
the memes, it was difficult for them to remember Conclusion
the vocabulary items. Still, after doing the memes This study seeks to facilitate the language
activity, they learned the words. In conclusion, they learning process, especially by incorporating
said they found this method useful. images, vocabulary items and written text, namely
memes. The result, as is expected, shows that the
use of memes affected the vocabulary recall of
the Medicine students who study at the College
of Foreign Languages positively. There are many
positive effects of employing memes for language
students to be more creative and engaged in language
learning. First of all, using memes in vocabulary
revision activities promotes the students’ proficiency
level. The students scored higher in the post-test,
having been conducted memes in the classroom.
Figure 6
Secondly, the students became more interested in
As it is clear in Figure 6 that the students want the activity by images. They tried to come up with
their teacher to carry on doing this. contexts and use the target words in the right way.
Using memes in the classroom made them help Last but not least, memes created a positive teaching
to learn more effectively. It helped them remember and learning environment, which helped the students
words better. cast aside the burden of learning a new language and
In the third part asking, “Do you find creating concentrate solely on the learning task.
memes enjoyable?” again, students said, “yes, of Creating memes for vocabulary revision itself
course. When I did it, I had lots of fun.” Although the was an effective and fun activity for students. After

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generating their memes with the given words on Dörnyei, Zoltán. “New Themes and Approaches
the given images, sharing them on the classroom in Second Language Motivation Research.”
WhatsApp group to select the best meme of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, vol. 21,
classroom was even more challenging, engaging 2001, pp. 43-59.
and joyous. However, they were really honest while Gleick, James. “What Defines a Meme?” Smithsonian,
selecting the best meme. They did not vote for their 2011, http://www.smithsonianmag.
memes to be selected. They voted for the meme they com/artsculture/What-Defines-a-Meme.
liked most. html?c=y&story=fullstory
The results of this study overlapped with the Prensky, Marc. “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.”
study by Purnama (2017) in that, in our case, students On the Horizon, vol. 9, no. 5, 2001.
shared the memes on a classroom WhatsApp group Purnama, Agnes Dian. “Incorporating Memes and
and were voted by their friends to choose the best Instagram to Enhance Student’s Participation.”
meme in the classroom. When they got voted by their Language and Language Teaching Journal,
friends, it affected their motivation in a constructive vol. 20, no. 1, 2017, pp. 1-14.
way.
Appendix 1A
Suggestions Fill in the Blanks with the Words from the Box
Since we are teaching digital natives, who (There is one extra)
perform and rely almost all of their activities on mispronounce charismatic era
technology, as Prensky (2001) stated, we should be irrational reusable misjudged
integrating technology into our classes. Purnama revolution fortnight inability
(2017) used memes and Instagram to enhance
insulated underestimated irrelevant
students’ participation. She used two groups as
disobeying protect harmful
participants and they were supposed to develop one
inappropriate
meme based on the given topics and upload or post
their memes in the appointed account. 1. The influence of the media should never be
Baysac (2017) emphasized that with the advent of __________.
e-technology, teachers are fast exploiting humorous 2. I thought he wasn’t going to support me, but I
memes to spice up their lectures. In our study, due __________ him.
to some physical drawbacks, we preferred a non- 3. David’s clothes were wholly __________ for
technological method of using memes. However, a such a formal occasion.
meme can take the form of an image, GIF, or video. 4. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk has been the most
Thus, there are some websites and tools on the __________ leader ever.
internet that can be used to generate memes. Videos 5. I know it is quite __________, but I am frightened
can be used as a form of creating memes, as well. of butterflies.
6. Sophie is a rebellious girl. She has a tendency of
References __________ rules.
Baysac, Paulo Emmanuel G. “Laughter in Class: 7. We spent a __________ with my ex-wife in
Humorous Memes in 21st Century Learning.” İstanbul two years ago. However, it wasn’t
Journal of Social Sciences, vol. 6, no. 2, 2017, enough to see all the beautiful sights in the city.
pp. 267-281. 8. You can have your house __________ against
Davison, Patrick. “The Language of Internet heat loss by having the windows double-glazed.
Memes.” The Social Media Reader, 2012, 9. These documents are pretty __________ to the
pp. 120-134. present investigation.
Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene. Oxford 10. The ex-prime Minister used to __________ some
University Press, 1976. words although he was very talented at giving
speeches.

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11. This group of chemicals is known to be 6. He is regarded as one of the most __________
__________ to people with asthma. film directors of his generation.
12. In the past there were no disposable nappies. 7. It is important to encourage children’s dreams
Women used to wash their babies’ __________ and __________ .
nappies. 8. Russian conquest and __________ of Siberia
13. The fall of the Berlin wall marked the end of an gathered force by the middle of the eighteenth
__________ . century.
14. In the last decade marketing underwent a 9. Having the baby was a __________ in their lives.
__________ . There has been a great change. 10. The survey showed that 32 percent of respondents
15. My ex-boss’ __________ to accept new ideas approve, 54 percent __________, and the rest are
was the main cause of the company’s failure. undecided.
11. Before the __________ of the light bulb, you had
Answer Key to watch plays during the day when it was light
1. underestimated 9. irrelevant outside.
2. misjudged 10. mispronounce 12. After 30 years in __________, our local member
3. inappropriate 11. harmful of parliament is retiring next year.
4. charismatic 12. reusable 13. She does aerobics four times a week in her
5. irrational 13. era __________ to achieve the perfect body.
6. disobeying 14. revolution 14. Some said her work was __________ beacuse
7. fortnight 15. inability only God could create such beauty.
8. insulated
15. What is considered __________ in one country
may be standard business practice in another.
Appendix 1B
Fill in the Blanks with the Words from the Box Answer Key
(There is one extra)
1. overestimated 9. turning point
divine invisible overestimate 2. invisible 10. disapprove
misunderstanding unethical decade 3. misunderstanding 11. invention
spread quest disapprove 4. spread 12. politics
politics on standby invention 5. decade 13. quest
6. influential 14. divine
colonisation influencial turning point
7. aspirations 15. unethical
aspiration
8. colonization
1. The benefits of nuclear technology, she said, had
been grossly __________. Appendix 2
2. These bacteria are __________ unless viewed Feedback Form
with a microscope. 1. What is your opinion about using memes in the
3. His ridiculous comments showed a complete classroom?
__________ of the situation. 2. Have memes helped you to remember words
4. The __________ of the disease in the last few better?
years has been alarming. 3. Do you find creating memes enjoyable?
5. Environmental awareness has increased 4. Would you like to have this kind of classroom
dramatically over the past __________ . activity for another topic?

Author Details
Nurda Karadeniz Kayali, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey, Email ID: nurdakaradeniz@gazi.edu.tr

Aslı Altuntaş, Instructor, College of Foreign Languages, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey,
Email ID: aatali@gazi.edu.tr
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