HomeTin-awvol. 2 no. 1 (2018)

Backchat of Generation Z Students towards the Verbal Concerns of their Parents in the Contemporary Milieu: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Rizalito H. Paga

 

Abstract:

Generation Z students have been observed to manifest characteristics different from their contemporaries in the previous generations. Particularly, they change the way they talk to their parents. This qualitative research design which employed interpretative phenomenological analysis aimed to unravel the lived experiences of the parents as recipients of their Gen Z students’ backchat. Further, this comprehensively analyzed, described, and interpreted the varied meanings of backchat drawn up by the parents based on their experiences. Lastly, this also explored the morpho-lexical features of backchat. The sources of information were the transcripts of the nine parent-participants. The authenticity and reliability of the information were confirmed through a triangulation method in which another three parents were invited for an interview. Results of the study revealed that the backchat of Gen Z students was in a form of profanity, argumentativeness, judging and ordering. Parents felt angered, offended, ashamed, guilty, and compelled to penalize. Moreover, their own generated meanings from this backchat were as a way of expressing their students’ emotion, a habit, an offshoot of peer influence, and the aftereffect of family influence. Finally, the backchat’s morpho-lexical features were in a form of single morphemes and of statements with dominance on the use of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and interjections as lexical categories.