Abstract

The new developments in today’s life-style and needs have called for a good deal of language change. Due to this reason, language studies often strike fresh grounds. The researcher’s interest in this study is to investigate a language variety used in graffiti writing from multiple perspectives. This paper focuses on the grammar of statements written by non-native English speakers, i.e., Jordanian students learning English as a foreign language. The written English statements of graffiti have been videotaped from English medium schools. The collected data have then been transcribed, coded and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The study demonstrates that Jordanian learners of English as a foreign language when compared to English native speakers have developed a kind of ownership of English that enables them to simplify its grammar by playing with its rules affected by the internet communication, globalization, and SMS texting. The spill-over effect of applying grammatical rules in English on statements of graffiti is, in fact, due to some of these trends. The results reveal that graffiti writers commit additional errors due to mother tongue interference, overgeneralization, conformity with native speakers, and ignorance.

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