The effect of teenage language in health communication: A study among English and Sepedi teenagers

Abstract

The use of teenage language in health communication has become more evident during the past decade. The loveLife campaign in South Africa is one such example. The perception is that when you talk to teenagers it is best to address them in their own ‘lingo’. In this study, two teenage slang versions of the same message were compared. One version was the English variety that is used by loveLife (the ‘loveLife variety’). The other was developed by having young people express the same message using their own teenage variety (the ‘authentic teenage variety’). These two teenage varieties were also compared to the corresponding standard variety. This comparison was conducted through two separate experiments among Sepedi and English teenagers in Pretoria. The English participants showed a greater dislike of the two teenage varieties compared to Standard English. The Sepedi participants, on the other hand, showed a clear liking for their authentic teenage variety and considered it similar to their linguistic style. However, this positive evaluation of their authentic variety did not result in enhanced favourable perceptions of the source and made no difference to the persuasiveness of the message.

Keywords:

• document-mediated communication
• health communication
• language expectations
• message acceptance
• persuasion
• source perceptions
• teenage slang