A Thematic Analysis Of Textbook Graffiti By UNRWA Preparatory School Students In Jordan From The View Of Sociolinguistics As An Act Of Vandalism

Abstract

Though graffiti has become a significant cultural and linguistic phenomenon that has been studied throughout history, there is still room for further investigation into how graffiti in various contexts, particularly in a primary education institution, serves to voice students’ thoughts and feelings. As a result, this study investigated the common themes as well as the lexical and syntactic elements of graffiti written on students’ textbooks at four UNRWA preparatory schools in Amman, Jordan. This study found that students' graffiti covered a wide range of themes, including love and hate as the most dominant themes and faith and religion as the least prevalent themes. The data analysis also found examples of lexical features such as autonomies and repetitions. The most common lexical feature observed in students’ graffiti was antonymy, while swear words were the least common feature. The findings provided great value to those interested in studying social, sociological, sociolinguistic and psychological issues as they explained some of the themes that help reveal the values and cultural norms of students’ society. The findings also offered a valuable source of data for those in education, especially teachers, school principals, school counsellors and education stakeholders to understand students’ community in an attempt to construct a conducive, supporting and peaceful learning environment and ultimately improve students’ achievements and performance.