Teaching, Learning, and Using English on the Internet

Teaching, Learning, and Using English on the Internet:
Understanding the different sources of new language of the internet
Allen D. Williams
Is this even English?
A:LTNC
B: ye
A: uok?
B: gr8 u?
A:M2
B: @ru?
A:OMWH
B:T2T?
A:k
B:CUT
A: thx
While that might seem like science fiction or gibberish or a little of both for many
people, it is the normal, everyday language in use by millions of people on the internet,
and yes, it is at its core English. A loose translation might be:
A: Long Time No Chat (instead of 'see')
B: Yes, it has been.
A: How are you? (Are you ok?)
B: Great. And you?
A: Me, too.
B: Where are you?
A: On My Way Home
B: Do you have Time to Talk?
A: Okay.
B: I'll see you there.
A: Thanks.
With the number of English speakers world-wide continuing to grow and the number of
English as a Second Language speakers outnumbering native English speakers, the
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internet is also growing as a place for communicating with English and for language
learning. According to a study by W3 Techs, English is the main content language for
more than 56% of websites across the internet. This number might be slightly inflated
due to the research having been based on the top 1,000,000 sites web wide, but still it's
a significant number, and proportionately so as the next levels of languages used start at
about 2%. (W3techs.com, 2011) English is the undisputed king of internet languages.
Online formalized and accredited study courses have also continued to grow in both
offerings and attendance. Studies show that through 2011 enrollment has continued to
rise for 9 consecutive years. More than 6.1 million students took at least one online
class in the fall of 2010 which was more than a 10 percent increase over the previous
year. (http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/highered.html) The internet is also quite
likely the number one resource for language learners of all types, levels, abilities, and
even purposes. However, it also is a very complex, complicated, and confusing place to
many current and would-be users. While studying and learning English today has its
complications and idiosyncrasies, dealing with what passes for English on the internet
today is even more complex and confusing. This is due to a number of reasons. Not the
least of these reasons being that English itself readily borrows from other languages
without always maintaining spellings much less pronunciations, and as the internet is
truly global the language of the internet is daily incorporating regular vocabulary, slang,
acronyms, and abbreviations from other languages as well. Root sources, ever-changing
and growing vocabulary pools, and disparate levels of language ability in the classroom
all pose serious obstacles to understanding, using, and teaching internet English.
In fact, internet English if not a language unto itself is at the least a dialect that can be as
difficult to understand as another language for the uninitiated. It is important to point
out that most communication on the internet in English is that of the standard type in
emails, news articles, information articles, and company web sites. There are a variety
of different kinds of web sites containing content in English. The main ones using
Standard English include company web sites, traditional and media affiliated news sites,
search engines, directories, yellow pages, and portals as well as shopping and auction
sites. There may be some overlapping of the following types of sites that tend to use less
formal or non-standard English, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary: personal sites,
blogs and online diaries, forums, Web 2.0 and social networking sites (Types of Web
Sites).
Even arriving at specific numbers of English language users on the internet may not be
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possible, but there is enough data to let us know some important things in general about
the number or users and types of languages and levels being used:
Tallying the number of speakers of the world's languages is an increasingly complex
task, particularly with the push in many countries to teach English in their public
schools. How many people can actually use the global language? David Graddol
estimated a total of 750 million Ll (first or native language) plus L2 (second or nth
language) speakers of English in his Future o[English Report (pdf document) for the
British Council. One of our subscribers, Martin Schell, has reviewed Prof Bra}
Kachru's new book Asian Englishes which claims that India and China combined have
over half a billion "users" of English. (Top Ten Internet Languages)
English on the internet is derived mainly from one of two main sources. One source of
vocabulary comes from offline, in the real world as opposed to the 'virtual' world of the
internet, and the other is vocabulary that comes from the internet itself. These
vocabulary groups also have subsets of meanings and derivations.
A large part of the English used on the internet is simply language and vocabulary that
has been transposed to be used online and maintains for the most part its meaning and
usage. It also manages to maintain a fair semblance of standard and acceptable grammar.
As such, English as L2 speakers have little trouble understanding and communicating in
these environs at least within the levels of their English abilities. When dealing with the
internet as an information source, this is the main source and type of language being
used.
The second type of English on the internet however is not so easily discernible and
often poses understanding difficulties even for L 1 speakers of English.
This category of internet English has several groups as well.
•
Offline words with new meanings, or special meanings
•
Abbreviations
•
•
Acronyms
Special/secret code
•
Totally new vocabulary
There are a number of reasons why language is developing in this way. The first reason
was simply for speed and ease of use. When the internet was in its infancy, it was a slow
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and cumbersome process to send and receive even simple text messages over the system.
That situation created a need for a faster way to convey messages. Even today it is time
consuming to type with a single digit, your thumb for example, so the need still exists
and explains why more and more new codes, special vocabulary, and abbreviations are
still being created. Of course ease and convenience were also factors in the creation of
this hybrid language. It is faster, but it is also easier to use a few numbers to convey a
pre-specified meaning. Radio operators have been doing this for decades as well both
for convenience and to aid in reducing misunderstandings. Another reason for using and
developing these new approaches to communicating in English is to be different or for
social inclusion, to be part of a group, or social exclusion, to leave others out of the
group. There is a certain panache and feeling of superiority to knowing something
others do not. Finally, these methods have been and continue to be developed to help
obfuscate the real or intended message - that is to keep secrets, or at least the
appearances of doing so. Much of the coding was developed especially to foil parents
and teachers and keep them from totally comprehending messages between friends, or
couples.
First let us take a look at a few examples of each of these groups.
Group One - Offline words with new meanings or special meanings
Text - (n)message consisting of letters or symbols sent via cell-phone (v)the act of
sending such a message
Friend - (n)someone with whom a reciprocal relationship in the online world, someone
known at least as an internet entity or personality (v)to enter into such a relationship
Follow - (v) to subscribe to messages of another individual or entity, especially on
Twitter
Tweet - (n) message consisting of 140 or less characters and/or spaces sent via the
social networking site Twitter (v) to send such a message
Boat anchor - (n) piece of computer equipment, usually large or heavy, that is no
longer useful or is outdated
Group Two --Abbreviations
DBD- Don't Be Dumb
RBTL- Read Between the Lines
SWIS - See What I'm Saying
AFAIK-As Far As I Know
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WAYD- What Are You Doing
Group Three -Acronyms
HAND -Have A Nice Day
TIE - Take It Easy
TIME - Tears In My Eyes
BOOMM- Bored Out Of My Mind
WAS - Wait And See
WAM- Wait A Minute
These examples also give us a chance to discuss how much more difficult this can
become when the acronyms themselves are actual commonplace words that have known
meanings to the reader. This is a problem for native speakers as well though doubly so
for ESL learners. Of course not all acronyms fall into this category, but there are a large
number of them, and finding and understanding the real meaning in the given context is
not always a simple task.
Furthermore, when seen out of context, meanings are ambiguous as they are in everyday
English usage. While something like HAND might be easy enough to understand, TIME,
even once understood as meaning "Tears In My Eyes", could be more ambiguous and
might be an actual expression of grief or emotional outpouring or be a statement of
irony or sarcasm. Without either knowing the relationships of the communicators, the
surrounding context, or perhaps even previous conversations, it might not be
discernible.
Special/Secret Code- abbreviations, symbols, numbers created by and for texting
POS- Parent Over Shoulder (a parent has entered the room)
HLM- He Loves Me
SYS- See You Soon
143- I Love You- based on the code of how many letters in each of the words in the
phrase I( 1) Love(4) You(3)
CU- See You
303- M-0-M (if you tum the 3 'son their sides- similar to POS above)
Adding to the difficulties, pronunciation and meaning comes from several different
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places as well.
•
Shapes of letters, numbers
•
Sounds of individual letters, numbers
•
Correspondence to placement on a telephone keypad
182- I Eight Two
~I
Hate You
3>- Hate, the opposite of <3 which loosely resembles a heart
459- I love you- (corresponding toI-L-Yon a phone keypad)
Difficulties arise once again due to the fact it is not entirely possible to set rules for
what particular numbers mean even though for example the number 1 (one) often refers
to the letter I. It is not always the case. This means that often new vocabulary must be
learned on a case by case basis. As in standard language use, the background knowledge
and relationship of the speakers also play a role in the meaning of any given word,
abbreviation or number being used in this coded text.
Some vocabulary from the special internet only language has even been making its way
into the communications of people in the real world as well.
OMG- Oh, my god, and pronounced 0-M-G
BFF- Best Friends Forever, and also pronounced letter by letter as B-F-F
LOL- Laugh out loud, again pronounced L-0-L and even having it's on conjugation as
in LOLed for past tense.
Hybrids: terms formed by a combination of pronunciation and abbreviation
CUT -See (C) You (U) There/Tomorrow
NE 1 - n-e-one - Anyone
GR8- Great- gr-eight
Once you know where to begin in working on deciphering terms formed on this basis,
they can usually be worked out relatively quickly. These are likely the easiest to
understand for native speakers, but propose larger problems for ESL learners based on
their knowledge of vocabulary and pronunciation skills. These terms are made even
more difficult to completely understand for ESL or EFL users because even though their
definitions abound for the terms, the definitions are also not easily discernable.
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Take the following examples into consideration:
RBAY- Right Back At You
FBKS - Failure Between Keyboard and Seat
These terms are readily found on most of the online dictionaries for internet slang, and
yet are either difficult to understand if not impossible though the explanations seem
simple enough and contain no difficult or complex vocabulary. This means that for the
ESL or EFL user further explanation is necessary and most likely from a native English
speaker.
This means that the process for learning internet based vocabulary is similar in nature to
that of learning any second or foreign language and requires much more than a simple
dictionary definition. Internet vocabulary can be acquired in the strictest sense of the
pedagogical term, but placing the student in an environment where the student can meet
the terms in full context (Stevik, 1982) is precisely the issue with understanding internet
English. That is, the entire context is seldom presented. This makes acquisition nearly
impossible, even for native English speakers, yet the only way to actually understand
and retain the vocabulary. Therefore, learning, as defined by having a set goal, purpose
of study, drills, and repetition is not likely to be fruitful
A native speaker might better explain these previous examples in the following way:
"Right Back At You" is neither a positive or negative statement and means Speaker B is
repeating back to Speaker A whatever words or statement the previous speaker made.
EX:
A: You did a great job today!
B: Right back at you. (Meaning, you also did a great job today.)
-orA: That suit looks terrible on you.
B: Right back at you. (Meaning, your suit also looks terrible on you.)
Or in the case of FBKS, which loosely translates as human error in a situation that
involves using a computer. This is opposed to the idea that people often blame computer
errors for problems with their work.
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EX:
A: So, was the problem with my software after all?
B: Sorry, it was FBKS.
While dealing with and deciphering internet slang and abbreviations from English is
difficult enough, since English has borrowed from so many other languages is should be
no surprise to see the same case here as well. There are also a growing number of terms
and phrases that are being used by English speakers from the category we can call:
Foreign/borrowed words
GOMEN- From the Japanese expression for 'sorry'
012 - Forever, which is from Korean Od ~ "5"1 (young won he) with 'zero' being
pronounced in Korean as 'young', the number 1 being pronounced in English as 'one'
and the number 2 being pronounced in Korean as 'ee'.
881 - From the Chinese pronunciation of 88 as Ba Ba and 1 as 'ee' since it is the
phonetic pronunciation of the letter 'i'.
Solutions and Conclusions
Understand that not all new vocabulary is going to enter into regular usage, so there is
really no need to learn all of it. Even in the addition of new words to such prestigious
dictionaries of what is considered 'regular' English such as the Oxford English
Dictionary 100's of words are added each year. In the case of the OED in 2012, 255 new
words were added not including almost as many new subtext words (New Words List).
Among those are very few of the internet slang and technology related terminologies.
Furthermore, they do not always remain as they become dated, their source no longer
existing, or they fall from common usage. While this sometimes takes decades for
offline, real world, or what is deemed 'regular' vocabulary, this can take place in the
span of a year or less on the internet.
Remember the keys to deciphering start with:
•
Phonetics, pronunciation
•
Shapes of letters or numbers
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Abbreviations, acronyms
It is also necessary to include the following in your instructions:
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Teach from the approach of understanding the basic roots of internet vocabulary
and how to decipher it.
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Use the new vocabulary
•
•
Use new vocabulary in mock conversations or at least mini-exchanges.
Focus on the root vocabulary- understanding here, now, is much better as a long
•
term goal than memorizing isolated information.
Teach approaches for determining or locating the meanings of unknown terms
via online sources.
This can help instructors to overcome some problems which still remain for both the
instructor and student. Students' comprehension is slowed by their inability to
communicate effectively in what is considered Standard English, and remembering new
internet vocabulary is made more difficult by not knowing the root or understanding the
root meanings. Taking the approaches above will help, but it is also important to keep in
mind as it is neither necessary nor possible to learn all the vocabulary in use in any
given language, it is also not necessary nor possible to learn all of the internet slang in
use today, and it is much more feasible to learn vocabulary as it is met, needed, or
desired rather than from an attitude of set list acquisitions.
Works Cited
"Babson Survey Research Group.": Higher Education Reports. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan.
2013.
"Google Trends." Google Trends. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2013.
Graddol, David. (1997) The Future ofEnglish? A guide to forecasting the popularity of
the English language in the 2F1 Century. The British Council.
"Internet Word of the Day." NetLingo The Internet Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb.
2013.
"InternetSlang.com Internet Slang- Internet Dictionary." Internet Slang Words. N.p., n.d.
Web. 04 Feb. 2013.
"New Words List: June 2012." Oxford English Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2012.
Stevick, Earl W. (1982) Teaching and Learning Languages. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
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"Top Ten Internet Languages- World Internet Statistics." Top Ten Internet LanguagesWorld Internet Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2012.
"Types ofWeb Sites- a Categorization Based on Content." Types of Web Sites. N.p., n.d.
Web. 04 Feb. 2013.
"Usage of Content Languages for W ebsites." Usage Statistics of Content Languages for
Websites, February 2013. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Dec. 2011.
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