An Analysis of Graffiti as a Communicative Strategy in ‎Selected Public Boarding Secondary Schools ‎

Abstract

This study is an investigation of graffiti written by secondary school students on walls of school buildings and on top of desks. There has been rampant writing of graffiti by students despite the existence of other channels of communication in their schools. Analysis of these graffiti may be an opportunity to understand them with the aim of assisting them overcome the challenges they face. The study described the types of graffiti used by students. The study was guided by Critical Discourse Analysis as its theoretical framework. The research design adopted descriptive survey design. Simple random sampling was used to obtain the graffiti to be analyzed from each theme.  Systematic random sampling was used to select two students in purely boys and girls schools. Stratified random sampling and systematic random sampling was used in mixed schools to select a boy and a girl from each form in a school to take part in focus group discussion. The study employed Critical Discourse Analysis approach to analyze the graffiti. The results indicated that the most common types of graffiti written by students were gang graffiti, tag graffiti and existential graffiti. The findings of this research contribute to linguistic knowledge in the area of sociolinguistics. In addition, this knowledge helps school administrators to make improvements in the management of the secondary schools by identifying new ideas which they may use to make communication effective and possibly control problems before they get out of hand