Internet memes and the improvement of writing skills

Abstract

This study focused on the topic of Internet memes. These digital items are formed by a combination of images of all kinds, especially pictures featuring people in different situations, and usually humorous text that permit to communicate written ideas that surpass the sum of their parts. Internet memes were applied in order to achieve the improvement of the writing skills based on the cognitivist model of knowledge acquisition. Such model, contains a diverse amount of writing skills such as knowledge (the ability to use knowledge covered in class), comprehension (the ability to use grammar and spelling correctly), analysis (the ability to use Internet meme templates appropriately) and synthesis (to effectively combine text and images to convey ideas beyond those separated elements.) The population of the study was formed by 32 students (25 female and 7 male) who constituted the totality of students from the English school of IST “Manuel Lezaeta A.”, private technological institute located in the city of Ambato, Tungurahua province, Ecuador. To begin the study, the students were evaluated through a pre-test based on the previously mentioned skills. Afterwards, the complete group was instructed on the creation of memes using webpage imgflip.com’s meme generator, as well as on the particularities and potential applications of specific Internet memes using the Xia and Zhu method. As instruction unfolded, students were asked to generate Internet memes based on templated with the aim of monitoring their progress. Finally, students took a post-test with the goal of measuring improvement. The data collected were processed using statistical software SPSS and evidenced positive results since the program displayed statistically relevant improvement on the students’ writing skills. After the process was finished based on information gathered, this non-experimental study concludes that Internet memes influence positively on the improvement of writing skills of the chosen study group.