The Effect of Virtual Interactions on Students Writing

Abstract

The study at hands deals with students’ virtual interactions and their effect on academic writing. It further seeks to know whether or not Third Year English Students at Mila University use common internet writing practices in both their virtual interactions and academic writing, and if they do, how much of an effect these internet writing practices have on their academic writing. In order to respond to such questions, we opted to use both a onnaire and an interview to gather and analyse the needed data. The students’ questionnaire was ubmitted to fifty (50) participants and the interview was conducted with ten (10) teachers at Foreign Languages Department at Mila University. The research findings do confirm that Third Year English Students at Mila University do use common internet writing practices both in their virtual interactions and academic writings, and those internet writing practices are causing a decrease in the students’ academic writing value. By the end of the study, a set of edagogical recommendations were proposed to help to reduce the spread of this phenomenon and encourage the students to use more formal language both in their academic writing and virtual interactions