WR 121: Should International Students Study American Slang?

English 101

American Slang Counterargument Mini-Essay Guidelines Counterarguments build credibility for the author. At the very least, an author who sees and understands opposing views is informed in their decision-making. More importantly, however, an author who acknowledges the other side shows empathy, reasonableness, and a willingness to listen. These are markers of a credible speaker and someone […]

Should International Students Study American Slang?

Slang is informal words used to reinforce an individual’s identity within a trend in a social group. Consequently, it embodies the language’s function in a population that is large and diverse enough to contain discernable subgroups. The slang’s psycholinguistics and sociolinguistic construct comprise of aspects that are unique to its usage. It tends to severely lower speech formality, works better with a class of people familiar with the terms, and is perceived as taboo words, especially in professional circles or high-status societies (Dalzell). The usage of slang is detrimental to the education fraternity, and international students should not study American slang because they can hardly benefit from it.

By not focusing on improving their academic performance, international students will be in a position that is pernicious to their careers. Firstly, the education system seeks to use lexicology to put a stress on specific dictions affiliated with one’s future profession. Therefore, poor language choices may inhibit a person’s comprehensibility of relevant information, and the replacement words may be deemed offensive. Consequently, its usage may transcend from the study environment into one’s professional life, portraying them as irreverent people with poor work values and inappropriate attitude. For example, the doctor who uses slang constantly tells the family of a patient in a coma that “his condition is dope” rather than “he is in fine condition and steadily stabilizing”. Arguably, the word’s meaning may appear ambiguous because people outside the specific field are not familiar with it. Finally, language usage affects the individuals’ perception of themselves and others (Dalzell). In this regard, using conventional language is the best way for a professional to translate the knowledge into a form that anyone could understand easily. Usage of non-conventional diction is damaging to a learner’s performance both in class and in career preparation, and that is why they should strive to use formal language and focus on improving their academic achievement.

Another reason why usage of slang for international students should be discouraged is that it can hardly improve their academic performance. Firstly, its usage is characterized by group-identifying function; this means that its practice is acceptable within a specific social group’s cluster to enhance the feeling of internal solidarity (Dalzell). The school’s student pool is diverse, with people of different cultures, age groups, and conceptual orientation; because of this, the slang convention may not auger well with them. The effectiveness of the student-tutor experience may also be deficient, especially with discrepant communication, which may hamper with the pupil’s grades. If the language-use relationship between an individual and the other students is not considered, it may inhibit essential activities like group discussions and projects. Consequently, it will lead to distortion of the thought process brought about by cross-linguistic variation between the tutor’s formal and the student’s informal language (Boroditsky).

Secondly, the student may find slang language tainting their scholarly papers, depriving their work of credibility and affecting the marks negatively. This is why their work’s trustworthiness will be under question. Slang is a fundamentally unique lexical and syntactic linguistic variation from conventional English; its prominence and intricacy in spontaneous communication and academic research in scholarly social context is harmful to the academic comprehensibility, conceptualization, scholarly performance, and pedagogical knowledge transfer. Arguably, these effects may cause complications even in the people’s future professional life; this is why international students should not study slang.

Works Cited

Boroditsky, Lera. “How Does Our Language Shape the Way We Think?” Edge, 11 June 2009, www.edge.org/conversation/lera_boroditsky-how-does-our-language-shape-the-way-we-think. Accessed 21 May 2018.

Dalzell, Tom. “The Power of Slang.” PBS, 2005, www.pbs.org/speak/words/sezwho/slang/.

Accessed 21 May 2018.


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