Psychological background of usage of English phrases acronyms in schools

The thesis talks about psychological aspects of English phrases acronym usage among adolescent students of primary and secondary schools. It looks at which acronyms adolescents use, how they understand, use and perceive them and finally what are the specifics of vulgar acronym use. The theoretical part introduces the term acronym and sets it into a broader context of language and specifically e-language. It further talks about adolescence and specifics of adolescent communication. As acronyms that adolescents use the most come from electronic communication, it is also given a fair amount of attention. The empiric part offers research results of a survey consisting of two questionnaires. The results show that due to electronic communication adolescents abbreviate language intensively. The most popular way of abbreviating are acronyms. They use only limited number of selected acronyms though. Adolescents use acronyms exclusively among themselves. They expect rejection from adults. Even though almost all of them use acronyms, not all perceive them positively. Vulgar acronyms are used often and are not perceived as as strong as their unabbreviated versions. Keywords: acronym, abbreviation, English phrases, e-language, electronic communication, adolescent