The use of slang among the students of the Higher Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (I.S.A.E.).

Abstract

The present study on “the use of slang among the students of the Higher Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (I.S.A.E)” attempts to examine how and why the students use slang terms to commutate various issues. The research focuses on slang used by I.S.A.E students because most studies have dealt with Rwandan regional dialect, but in my knowledge none of them has been conducted on the slang terms used by the students of I.S.A.E. In conducting this research, I intended to give my contribution by producing a study on slang in the context of Rwanda and particularly on students’ slang. The research begins with different definitions of slang and the theoretical approach is discussed afterwards. The present study is empirical. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies are employed. The data was elicited from I.S.A.E students, staff and five ‘outsiders’ using diverse methodological tools such as questionnaire forms, focus-group interviews and participants. On one hand, the questionnaire survey was used mainly to gather lists of slang words. On the other hand, focus-groups and participant observations were used to reach a deeper ‘ethnographic insight’ into the meanings and contexts of usage of the slang. The current study focuses primarily on the morphological and semantic etymology of the 77 selected slang terms. The study indicated that the slang terms found in the speeches of the students of I.S.A.E are the results of various morphological processes such as coinage, borrowing, clipping, compounding and acronyms.