A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree Licence en Langue et Littérature Anglaises.

RESUME,

This thesis deals with the sociolinguistic study of the jargon spoken by pupils at the Paramedical School of Gitega. It seeks to investigate jargon words and expressions and analyse them from a sociolinguistic perspective. Since pupils at the Paramedical School of Gitega form a social group, most of words and expressions that they use in their jargon cannot be understood by an outsider. Hence, the aim of this study is to gain deep description and understanding of their jargon. To achieve this, I used the simple random sampling technique to select my informants. The instruments used to collect data included among others, personal observation, pupils and teachers’ questionnaire and face-to-face conversation. At the end of the day, I came up with ninety-four words and expression which originate from Kirundi, French, English, Kiswahili, Latin and Kinyarwanda. This work revealed that pupils use their jargon in order to exclude others; to reduce seriousness; to show that they belong to their social group; and finally, to be different. It was also revealed that the jargon words and expressions used by pupils at the Paramedical School of Gitega undergo a semantic change. Finally, as the impact of the pupils’ jargon on surrounding people is concerned, it was found out that the majority of teachers were interested by the pupils’ jargon.