A new study has challenged the widely held belief that younger generations are damaging the English language, concluding instead that Gen Z is driving one of the most rapid periods of linguistic change in recorded history. The report, published by The TEFL Academy, a leading provider of English language teaching qualifications, finds that far from weakening communication, today’s young Americans are continuing a centuries-old tradition of cultural reinvention through language.
The report, titled It’s Giving… Fluent, examines how Gen Z, TikTok, African American Vernacular English (AAVE), internet culture and the United States’ multicultural identity are reshaping American English in real time. Its central argument is that American English was never static to begin with — and that the changes visible today are simply the latest chapter in a long history of linguistic adaptation.
A Language Always in Motion
The research traces the evolution of American English through a series of defining cultural moments: the influence of Indigenous American languages on place names and vocabulary during early colonisation; Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary, which formalised distinctly American spellings; the Harlem Renaissance, which elevated Black cultural expression into the mainstream; the global spread of hip-hop slang; and the internet and smartphone era, which dramatically accelerated the pace of informal communication. Each of these turning points reshaped the language in ways that were, at the time, often criticised by those who saw them as threats to linguistic standards.
Today, TikTok and livestream culture have added a new dimension: slang that once took decades to travel from one community to another now circulates globally within hours. The study describes this as a “real-time language ecosystem,” in which expressions emerge, peak and fade according to platform algorithms and creator influence rather than the slower rhythms of print media or television.
The data underpinning the report reflects just how embedded informal language has become in everyday American life. Four in five Americans report using slang regularly, while half admit they sometimes use slang terms without fully understanding their meaning. Some 46 per cent of respondents believe slang is now appropriate in professional settings — a finding with significant implications for workplaces, hiring and business communication. Around 40 per cent of younger Americans now use platforms such as TikTok and Instagram as search engines, further entrenching digital culture as a primary driver of vocabulary and tone.
The Deep Roots of Gen Z Slang
A significant portion of the report is devoted to the continuing influence of African American Vernacular English on mainstream digital communication. Many of the expressions most closely associated with Gen Z online culture — including “no cap” (used to assert honesty), “slay” (to perform or present oneself exceptionally well), “tea” (gossip or inside information), “shade” (subtle or overt disrespect) and “it’s giving” (used to describe the vibe or impression something conveys) — originated within Black American communities long before they entered the wider internet lexicon. The report highlights this cultural lineage as an important, and often overlooked, dimension of how language spreads and is adopted.
The study also documents the growing role of bilingual communication in shaping American English. More than 42 million people in the United States speak Spanish, with 13.4 per cent of Americans speaking it at home. Notably, 75 per cent of Hispanic Gen Z respondents reported code-switching between English and Spanish on a daily basis — a practice that is increasingly influencing vocabulary, sentence structure and cultural tone in wider American communication.
What This Means for Education and the Future of English
One of the report’s most significant conclusions concerns what fluency actually means in the modern era. The ability to communicate effectively is no longer determined solely by grammatical accuracy or vocabulary range, but increasingly by an understanding of context, tone, cultural awareness and the conventions of digital interaction. This shift has direct implications for English language education, professional communication training and the way language qualifications are designed and assessed.
To accompany the findings, The TEFL Academy has developed a Gen Z Dictionary documenting more than 200 expressions currently shaping contemporary American communication — a resource aimed at educators, employers and anyone seeking to understand how the language is changing.
The research arrives at a moment when debates about linguistic standards are intensifying on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, similar anxieties about the influence of American internet slang, text-speak and social media on the English language have become a recurring theme in discussions about education and literacy. The TEFL Academy’s findings suggest that such concerns may misread the nature of language change itself — a process that has always been driven by the communities that use it most actively, and that resists being frozen at any particular historical moment.
