Death of English and the Language of the Internet: Mistakes and Errors

ELT was introduced in the Western world in the 1970s, but it took another decade to reach India. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the many problems ELT practitioners face in a linguistically and culturally diverse country like India. Emojis were the first language to emerge from the Internet. They evolved from the first emoticons, a blend of punctuation marks and other symbols. Emoticons have used cultural, ethnic, and gender cues to depict nearly every imaginable segment of our society. Internet has brought about a paradigm shift in human communication, expression, and human conscience. The sharp increase in the usage of emojis has made critics wonder about print-based literacy. Emojis are a popular choice among social-media platforms, facilitating a smoother interaction between intercultural speakers. This paper presents the finds of an error analysis conducted on the answercripts of the students of a management school. It is found that Students' inability to recognise or overlook a high number of faults in their work indicates a lack of concern for acceptable English use. Students' apparent disrespect for English language and usage was also attributed to their constant exposure to social media and other internet-based communication platforms.