INFLUENCE OF INTERNET MEMES IN THE

ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH AS SECOND LANGUAGE

Elinor F. Cuaresma
Teacher – DepEd Bulacan
Sto. Nino, Baliwag, Bulacan
elinor.cuaresma@deped.gov.ph

Nancy G. Pagsanghan
ESL Teacher – Native Camp, Inc.
0390 Gatbuca, Calumpit, Bulacan
pagsanghannancy07@gmail.com

Abstract

Today’s teaching and learning faces more challenges as technology keeps

on updating itself. Teachers are expected to adopt as many as possible technology

products to promote students’ engagement in classroom activity. Utilizing technology

products may help teachers to decrease students’ boredom inside classroom since it

proposes a new kind of activity. The study aims to assess the influence of Internet

memes in the acquisition of English as second language. The data gathering procedures

include test and interview questionnaires. The data collected were analyzed through

standard deviation. The researchers found out that students feel more relaxed and inclined

in studying the English language by incorporating Internet memes as pedagogical tools.

Keywords: language acquisition, internet memes

Introduction

1
 Users of social networking sites, Internet portals, forums, websites, blogs,

videos, etc. have developed a unique system of communicating with other group of

people that might be difficult to understand – with little understanding of the Internet.

These Internet applications and trends have enabled the present generation to

communicate freely their ideas, jokes, thoughts, funny anecdotes, as well as being open

to comments and critiques about their societal and political leaders in a much more

creative way than the traditional way that we know. Technology helps this generation to

develop their own communicational system through the usage of emoticons, GIFs, and

memes.

According to Shalevska (2018), memes are considered to be part of the

online – mostly, containing jokes that are presented through image plus text or GIF plus

text combination or just plain text and are spread virally on the Internet based platforms.

In a study cited by Stojchevska (2018), the word meme was coined by English

evolutionary biologist and author Richard Dokins in 1976. In his book, The Selfish Gene,

Dokins used the term meme in order to denote all non-genetic behavior and cultural

ideas that are passed on from person to person, spanning from language to the

conventions of football (Davison). The term itself is based on the one Ancient Greek

word, “mīmēma” which can roughly be tra

nslated as “something that is imitated”.

Terry (2016) explains that in the early days of the meme, a creator would

take a popular picture on the web and add text to the top and bottom of the picture, both

of these texts being the same font on all of these memes. These memes did not do much

for the sake of internet emotions. The new age of memes, beginning around 2014, began
to shape how we all speak with each other online. Behind a keyboard, one cannot portray

face expressions while talking or telling a story. Through these new memes, such as the

popular Primitive Sponge (SpongeBob) or Crying Michael Jordan, one can easily relay to

another person exactly what is felt during whatever event or story the person is telling. As

these memes are so popular online, nearly every user knows what the memes represent.

Davidson (2015) further states that while not all Internet memes are jokes,

comparing them to offline jokes makes it clear what makes Internet memes unique: the

speed of their transmission and the fidelity of their form. A spoken joke, for instance, can

only be transmitted as quickly as those individuals who know it can move from place to

place, and its form must be preserved by memory. A printed joke, in contrast, can be

transmitted by moving paper and can be preserved by a physical arrangement of ink. Te

speed of transmission is no longer limited by the movement of individuals, and the form

of the joke is preserved by a medium, not memory.

However, Dancygier and Vandelanotte (2017) argue that Internet memes

can only be used as a tool for language learning if there would be proper description that

requires proper construction grammar approach. Thorne (2005) explains that Internet

access remains unequally distributed among social classes and geopolitical regions which

makes language learning through Internet memes difficult for all the learners.

According to Lex Adizon from his opinion on Inquirer.net (2017), there is

also a downside to these memes. Sometimes people generate memes that are hurtful and

mean—for example, a few months back there was a trend among unkind internet users to

post unflattering pictures of random people affixed with provocative captions.

 All of these issues raise questions as to how educators and researchers

should orient themselves to the condition of additional tools in language learning through

Internet memes.

Through conducting this study on the influence of Internet memes on the

acquisition of English as Second language, we could find out the potential for a

pedagogical paradigm shift in response to the change in the communication landscape of

the internet, and then suggest practical ways to apply inside the classroom setting

(Kessler, 2013).

Furthermore, Purnama (2017) discusses that utilizing Instagram and

Internet memes may help teachers to decrease students’ boredom inside the classroom.

Students nowadays tend to be visual and addicted to rapid information. That’s why

memes and Instagram may be used as one of the strategies to develop an innovative

teaching and learning process.

As cited by Rutgers and Hattem (2014), Gawne and Vaughan (2011)

explored how Internet memes, in which people take on the role of personified cats that

use non-standard grammar to communicate lucid messages, helped second language

students develop their understanding of identity and grammar, such as: morphology,

clause structure, orthography, lexemes, and syntax. Through conducting this study,

Solmaz (2017) explains that tweets, social network conversations and memes have the

potential to create a space for autonomous learners to learners to enrich their language

learning experiences.
Objectives

The study aims to assess the influence of Internet memes in the acquisition

of English as second language of the selected Grade 6 students of the municipality of

Baliwag, Bulacan:

Specifically, the study has the following objectives:

1. to list down available Internet memes on socials;

2. to discuss the influence of Internet memes on the acquisition of English as second

language; and,

3. to decide whether or not the Internet memes have a significant influence on the

acquisition of English as second language.

Review of Related Literature

Teaching ESL/EFL in a World of Social Media, Mash‐Ups, and Hyper‐

Collaboration

Kressler (2015) explores the emerging pedagogical potential offered by

today's technologies and how understanding the relationship between emerging

technology and emerging pedagogy can enhance the teaching of English as a second or

foreign language (ESL/EFL). The study begins with an overview of recent developments

in the field, focused upon pedagogical practice and computer ‐assisted language learning

(CALL), and then describes suggestions for incorporating various forms of social and

new media within collaborative learning practices.

 By incorporating these forms of popular communication into language

teaching, teachers can promote participation and engagement. They are also able to raise

awareness of the benefits of various forms of literacy. The result of the research

concludes with some thoughts about pedagogical and technological developments that

teachers might anticipate in the future.

Make a Meme Instead: A Concise History of Internet Memes

On the other hand Borzsei (2015), aimed to investigate the ontology and

history of the Internet meme (a piece of content spreading online from user to user and

changing along the way) from the 1980s to the early 2010s. After looking at the question

of defining the Internet meme, the author analyzed the evolution of the phenomenon from

social, cultural and technological perspectives, such as chaos theory, the new aesthetics,

generative systems, as well as traced the origins of certain elements of the Internet

memes from a media-archaeological aspect.

On the Language of Internet Memes

Internet Memes transverse and sometimes transcend cyberspace on the

back of impossibly cute LOLcats speaking mangled English and the snarky remarks of

Image Macro characters always on the lookout for someone to undermine. No longer the

abstract notion of a cultural gene that Dawkins (2006) introduced in the late 1970s,

memes have now become synonymous with a particular brand of vernacular language

that internet users engage by posting, sharing and remixing digital content as they

communicate jokes, emotions and opinions.

 For the purpose of this research the language of Internet Memes is

understood as visual, succinct and capable of inviting active engagement by users who

encounter digital content online that exhibits said characteristics. Internet Memes were

explored through an Arts-Based Educational Research framework by first identifying the

conventions that shape them and then interrogating these conventions during two distinct

research phases. In the first phase the researcher, as a doctoral student in art and visual

culture education, engaged class readings and assignments by generating digital content

that not only responded to the academic topics at hand but did so through forms

associated with Internet Memes like Image Macros and Animated GIFs.

In the second phase the researcher became a meme literacy facilitator as

learners in three different age-groups were led in the reading, writing and remixing of

memes during a month-long summer art camp where they were also exposed to other art-

making processes such as illustration, acting and sculpture. Each group of learners

engaged age-appropriate meme types: 1) the youngest group, 6 and 7 year-olds, wrote

Emoji Stories and Separated at Birth memes; 2) the middle group, 8-10 year-olds, worked

with Image Macros and Perception memes, 3) while the oldest group, 11-13 year-olds,

generated Image Macros and Animated GIFs. The digital content emerging from both

research phases was collected as data and analyzed

Research Methodology

In order to fulfill the objectives and the needed data for the paper, a

quantitative research has been done. A quantitative research aims to provide objective

measurements and numerical analysis of data through questionnaires, polls, or surveys.

A quantitative research centralizes on numerical data and generalizing a

group of people to explain a situation or phenomenon.

The participants of the study were the selected 30 Grade 6 students of

Baliwag, Bulacan. The instruments used in this research were observation and

questionnaires. The observation was carried out using Internet memes analysis. They

identified the meaning of the meme through the given set of choices. The questionnaires

were distributed in the beginning and at the end of the study. The questionnaires and

research procedures were adopted from the study of Purnama (2017).

Prior the study, participants were given a preliminary questionnaire about

English and Internet memes. The questions are as follows:

1. What do you think about English?

2. Do you know some Internet memes? Please, give examples.

3. Where do you post Internet memes?

4. What is your opinion about memes? Do you like it?

After answering the preliminary questionnaire, the researchers carried out

the Internet memes analysis. The participants were instructed to identify the hidden
meanings of the given Internet memes by matching them to the given set of words. There

were 10 Internet memes to be identified. After the analysis, the participants were now

instructed to answer interview questionnaire. The questions were as follows:

1. Does Internet meme help you understand English better? Why?

2. Is it enjoyable to make memes and post them online? Why?

3. Would you like to have this kind of classroom activity for another topic? Or on

what kind of English lesson?

4. Do you like to combine Internet memes with the teaching of English inside the

classroom? Why?

5. Do you have any other idea on how to use Internet memes in English? What is it?

6. What is your suggestion for English classroom activity?

The researchers determined the mean, median and mode of the Internet

meme analysis to serve as primary data and the interview questionnaire served as the

secondary data for the study.

Results and Discussion

This part of the study presents, analyses, and interprets the data collected

in the research.

Scores Frequency Percentage

1-2 5 16.66%

3-4 2 6.67%

5-6 6 20%

7-8 2 6.67%

9-10 15 50%

Total 30 100%

Mean 7.19

Median 9

Mode 10

Standard Deviation 3.34

Skewness -0.74

Kurtosis -1.03

Table 1: Score Distribution of Grade 6 Students of Baliwag, Bulacan

The Table 1 presents a unimodal test scores distribution of the selected

Grade 6 students of Baliwag, Bulacan. The scores of the students ranged from 1 point the

lowest, to 10 points the highest. The modal test scores range was 9-10 with fifteen Grade

6 students falling in this category representing 50 percent. Five students or 16.66%

scored between 1 to 2 point/s. The most frequent score was 10. Also, the median score

was 9. This finding suggests that about 15 students were able to score lower than 9
points, and the other 15 students scored higher than 9 points. A closer look at the data

could be gleaned that the test scores distribution is negatively skewed (-0.74) and

platykurtic (-1.03). This means that majority of the Grade 6 students scored higher than

the mean score 7 (7.19), fewer were lower than 7, and the distribution is relatively flat.

Meme Item Correct Answers Percentage

1 21 70%

2 21 70%

3 20 67%

4 22 73.33%

5 22 73.33%

6 22 73.33%

7 18 60%

8 20 67%

9 18 60%

10 20 67%

Mean 20.4

Median 20.5

Mode 22, 20

Standard Deviation 1.43

Skewness -0.62

Kurtosis -0.67

Table 2: Frequency Distribution of Correct Answers for Meme Item Questions

 The mean score was 7.19 with a standard deviation of 3.34. This means

that half of the Grade 6 students were knowledgeable enough about the recent memes on

social media. The scores data revealed the wide dispersion of the Grade 6 students in

terms of their knowledge of memes which means that the selected Grade 6 students of

Baliwag, Bulacan are a combination of students who are familiar and unfamiliar with

memes.

The data in the Table 2 reflects that the frequency of correct answers for

each meme question is bimodal. The number of correct answers can be described from 18

as the least frequent, to 22 as the most frequent. Items number 4, 5, and 6 represent the

most mastered meme question item, with 22 students who answered each correctly. Their

number consist of the 73% of their total population. On the other hand, 18 students

representing 60% of their total population were able to answered items 7 and 9 which

were considered to be the least mastered meme question items. 22 and 18 are the most

frequent number of correct answers. The median correct answer was 20.5. This number is

suggesting that about 5 meme questions were answered correctly by more than 20

students while the other 5 meme questions were answered by less than 20 students.

Another important finding of the study is that the frequency of correct answers for

each meme question item is negatively skewed (-0.62) and platykurtic (-0.67) revealing

that majority of the meme item questions were answered by more than 20 students, fewer

were answered by less than 20 students, and therefore the frequency distribution is

relatively flat.
 20.4 was revealed to be the mean number of correct answers while the standard

deviation is 1.43. This memes that the meme questions used in the study were relatively

available on social media and must be often encountered by the Grade 6 students.

Questionnaire

Questionnaire I

Question 1: What do you think about English? From the total number of

30 participants, 24 participants think that English is difficult. Three participants have an

opinion that English classroom is fun but learning English is hard. Only three participants

truly consider learning English fun.

Question 2: Do you know some Internet memes? Please, give examples.

Only one participant does not know about social media sites. Twenty-five participants are

able to give example about social media sites.

Question 3: Where do you post Internet memes? Twenty-five of them post

Internet memes on Facebook, but five of them post on Instagram.

Question4: What is your opinion about memes? Do you like it? All of

participants like memes because they are funny.

Questionnaire II

Question 1: Does Internet meme help you understand English better?

Why? One participant feels that memes fail to help him to understand English materials

better. Three participants strongly agree that memes help them to learn English better

although it is not commonly used.

Question 2: Is it enjoyable to make memes and post them online? Why?

Participants do not have any objection in posting memes. They say, it is an enjoyable

activity.

Question 3: Would you like to have this kind of classroom activity for

another topic? Or on what kind of English lesson? Participants only answered the first

question that they would prefer to have another experience utilizing memes as a learning

tool without describing any further references of kind of English lesson that they wish

for.

Question 4: Do you like to combine Internet memes with the teaching of

English inside the classroom? Why? All participants state their agreement on using

Internet memes into the English learning process.

Question 5: Do you have any other idea on how to use Internet memes in

English? What is it? All participants do not have any suggestions in how to use Internet

memes inside the classroom.

 Question 6: What is your suggestion for English classroom activity? This

question is not counted as questionnaire result because most participants have

misconception about the meaning of the question.

Conclusion

This study provides a chance to have a wider perspective on a meaningful

engagement of technology and language learning, especially by incorporating images,

written text, and specialized topics into a social media application posting, specifically,

the Internet Memes. The result, as it is expected, students prefer this kind of activity

better than previous activity that they have encountered inside classroom. There are

advantages in utilizing Internet Memes in order to be creative and innovative in language

teaching. The first advantage is that memes creation proposes an eye catching learning

process which will be easily adopted by students. The second advantage is memes are

easily in any social media platform. The third advantage is students gain a better

understanding on English class’ topics and English in general using a simple and

enjoyable technique. Technology rapid movement is arguably pervasive. Thus, by

creating an enjoyable yet fun mixed form of language learning activity and technology,

researcher believes that students would benefit more in the long run. Here, the researcher

argues that memes creation is by far the current evidence that supports those three values

well. Memes, at its basic meaning, is an idea which is shared among brains. It is about

how we influence others using our own idea by taking advantages through appealing

packaging, catchy phrases or tunes. (Brodie, 2009) When students feel relaxed, they

would not feel that learning English is an obligation to pass a semester. Our students
nowadays are marked with their high sensitivity to something hype and current. Meme is

one of it since it is quite accessible through handy mobile applications and smart phones,

the latest items that our students could not live without.

Recommendation

In spite of the results presented, further observation and research will be

needed to see whether incorporating memes has a significant contribution to students’

proficiency level of English since identifying qualified memes requires high order of

thinking and not all participants are able to do it correctly.

Future studies that involve memes as well as social media platform are

expected to highlight the opportunity of developing this kind of strategy. It is suggested

that future researchers use more than one social media applications to get a wider

attention and to investigate its effect to students’ language learning development.

References

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https://opinion.inquirer.net/102609/memes-and-me#ixzz5xnRobQI8
Borzsei, L. (2013). Make a meme instead: a concise history of Internet memes. Utrecht
University. From the Selected Works of Linda Borzsei. Retrieved from
http://works.bepress.com/linda_borzsei/2/
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Carillo, D. & Leon, E. (2015). On the language of Internet memes. The University of
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Appendices

Questionnaire I

Please answer each question briefly before proceeding with the Internet meme analysis.

Thank you!

1. What do you think about English?

2. Do you know some Internet memes? Please, give examples.

3. Where do you post Internet memes?

4. What is your opinion about memes? Do you like it?

Questionnaire II

1. Does Internet meme help you understand English better? Why?

2. Is it enjoyable to make memes and post them online? Why?

3. Would you like to have this kind of classroom activity for another topic? Or on

what kind of English lesson?

4. Do you like to combine Internet memes with the teaching of English inside the

classroom? Why?

5. Do you have any other idea on how to use Internet memes in English? What is it?

6. What is your suggestion for English classroom activity?

 Internet Meme Analysis

Identify the meaning of each Internet meme from the given set of words. Match Column
A to Column B by writing the letter of your answer on the space provided.

_____1. A. The baby does not want to go to

school.

______2. B. The baby will cry at 3am.

_______3. C. The boy will eat anything he

sees.
______4. D. The guy is disappointed for not
the not charging the phone.

______5. E. The baby and the cat are both not

impressed.

_______6. F. The boy is about to sneeze.

________7. G. The baby will help the cat catch
the laser.

_______8. H. The boy wants to extend

summer.

________9. I. The guy tells that they

played outside a lot when
they were younger.

_______10. J. One kid will not have a partner

because of the groupings.