The media and lexical borrowing: Implications for vocabulary acquisition among ESL students

With the increasing presence of English in entertainment, technology, communications, and Internet, mass media have become a large domain for lexical borrowing to occur. To a large extent, these mass media domains have become dominant in the lives of adolescents.;The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed methods research was to examine lexical borrowing from the mass media as a source of vocabulary acquisition in the context of learning English as a second language. The population consisted of 71 tenth grade students from a public school in the southeast of Puerto Rico. Quantitative phase one involved the administration of a questionnaire to identify the most frequent media domains where adolescents participate. As part of qualitative phase two, a content document analysis of the mass media domains of music, radio, and local TV, produced a corpus of loan words and a preliminary description of the contexts in which loan words occur. Furthermore, focus group interviews provided information regarding the use, interpretations, and trends of lexical borrowing among adolescents.;Results indicated that adolescents hold ample and varied preferences regarding the media, where lexical borrowing constitutes an integral part of their linguistic repertoire. The integration of loan words, which denotes a high level of alternation and a sense of 'appropriateness,' becomes distinctive of the youth. Even though adolescents were aware that making use of loan words validates the presence of English in the Puerto Rican lexicon, especially as part of the commercial media, they revealed a positive perception of lexical borrowing and of the linguistic value of both languages.;Based on the findings of this investigation, it was concluded that the media represent a space for adolescents' active participation in the appropriation of English words. In addition, the positive attitude and the creativity demonstrated in their linguistic constructions reflect a basic grasp of the meaning of loan words which would need to be extended to other aspects of vocabulary knowledge.;It was recommended to be more appreciative of the linguistic market available in the media and to take advantage of the positive attitude adolescents have towards lexical borrowing to promote vocabulary acquisition.