Multiliteracies in ELA Classrooms

Communication (CMC) and the future of language
Sarah Moir and Brendan Sangster

This summary serves the purpose of defining Computer Mediated Communication, summarizing the articles, our activities, and to post our resources.

“CMC is an umbrella term which refers to human communication via computers. Temporally, a distinction can be made between synchronous CMC, where interaction takes place in real time, and asynchronous CMC, where participants are not necessarily online simultaneously. Synchronous CMC includes various types of text-based online chat, computer, audio, and video conferencing; asynchronous CMC encompasses email, discussion forums, and mailing lists. CMC can take place over local area networks (LANs) or over the Internet. Internet CMC, as well as allowing for global communication, also provides for the added dimension of hypertext links to sites on the www, and to email addresses. “ -James Simpson

Some examples of CMC that you may use, and your students certainly are using in their every day life are social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare), IM or Instant Message (MSN Messenger, Skype, GChat, Facebook Messenger), video messengers (Skype), and the list goes on. Many CMC formats offer a variety of these communications. Facebook offers a personal profile page, social media news, photo sharing, messenger, and Facebook uses Skype with its own messenger to allow video chat through Facebook profiles. Since the birth of the Internet CMC and these above-mentioned formats have become synthesized into our everyday life.

In Naomi Baron’s article, Instant Messaging and the Future of Language, Baron identifies “the problem with viewing CMC as linguistically either good or bad [as] twofold” (Instant Messaging and the Future of Language, 29). The online world and language of txting may allow for a users experience with the selected medium as their advantage, while “the communiqué” will quickly discern users; “a well-crafted email message applying for a job vs. a hasty blitzmail note arranging to meet at the library at 10)” (Instant Messaging, 29). As we have discussed in other classes there is an unavoidable difference between formal classroom language and student’s casual language. Their ability to switch intermittently between should not be criticized but praised (in some ways). Language has been ever-changing since it began to be written down. Baron reminds us of how language is not the same as it was with the publication of Beowulf and today Old English is a foreign language to us, how is txt not the same? Perhaps txt language will one day be the formal style, today, it’s not.

Tweaking language may also be seen as a form of true creativity, “even Shakespeare spelled his own name at least six different ways” (Instant Messaging, 29). In James Frey’s novel A Million Little Pieces Frey breaks rules of punctuation in order to bring readers into a narration of consciousness and dark, empty emotions. The language of “txt” may not be the most aesthetically pleasing to the generation which does not already embrace single letter words and acronym sayings, but it CAN be a creative form of expression. Baron goes on to say,

Teens often use spoken language to express small-group identity. It is hardly surprising to find many of them experimenting with a new linguistic medium (such as IM) to complement the identity construction they achieve through speech, clothing, or hair style. IMs laced with, say, brb [be right back], pos [parent over shoulder], and U [you] are not so different from the profusion of “like” or “totally” common in the speech of American adolescents. (Instant Messaging, 30) [So] “unless society is willing to accept people spelling their names six different ways or using commas, semicolons, and periods according to whim, we owe it to our children and to our students to make certain they understand the difference between creativity and normative language use. (Instant Messaging, 31)

Even in the 50s great thinkers such as George Orwell feared the abolition of formal structures. In 1984 Orwell’s protagonist Winston Smith makes a living working on recreating language into “doublespeak”. Does “Txt” language parallel doublespeak? Moving forward as educators we have to acknowledge the ever-changing modern times and that language goes along with that.

In Victoria Carrington’s article “Txting: the end of civilization (again)?” she makes the comparison of literary language that is spoken within the classroom, and compares it to the txting language that is taking over young peoples minds.
This article is a reflection and statement on a BBC article about txting and literary language that Carrington took part in. She makes many references to txting language and if it is ruining youth’s literary language. She states, ““I am arguing that ‘literacy’ must be understood to extend beyond the ability to encode and decode print.” (Carrington, 172) There is the opportunity to share other languages within the classroom and that includes txting languages, along with other dilects such as French, Cantonese, and Mandarin etc. Language, as defined by Dictionary.com is “a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural tradition” Therefore youth are using a language within their community that is creating unity between them, even if we all don’t understand it. Am I saying that school should always accept this as writing? No, I am not, however I am asking people to open their minds a little, as is Carrington and look beyond what we call academic language.

Carrington makes many comparisons, and within her article shows an example:
“My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kids FTF. ILNY, it’s a gr8 plc.
Translation:
My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York. It’s a great place. “ (BBC News Online, 2003a) (161, Carrington)
The BBC took this example of this girls writing and has blow it up in to an epidemic. They are convinced that she did not know how to write correctly when in fact she may have just been experimenting with language as we all do growing up, in on way or another. She took the bounds of he social skills and brought them into the classroom. As wrong as she may have been in her pursuit of language
“the worst that could be said about that 13-year-old schoolgirl was that, unaware of the high stakes surrounding institutional literacy practices, she chose an inappropriate genre in which to respond to a class assignment. I doubt very much that her actions signal the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it and suspect that ‘standards’ will survive for some time. Her use of txting was, in fact, quite sophisticated and she was clearly experimenting with how far into other discursive spaces her mastery of txting could reach.” (Carrington, 173)
This girl wrote the easiest way that she knew how. Carrington even credits her for her language and how advanced it is. Realizing that this was written in an academic setting, the girl has received sufficient punishment, but this may also have just been a mistake on her part, now knowing exactly what was expected of her, and therefore she wrote in the most basic way that she could think of. Creating environments where youth can use a language that they find the easiest, and then requiring them to write in academic language for handing things in for marks I believe will not hurt them. If a class can brainstorm their writing in txt language, and write their papers in full academic language, may encourage them to write more. Knowing that they will not be judged for their thoughts, but graded for only the final projects promotes their creativity in a positive way. Obviously this will not work will all classes. For example a grade 8 English class, most of whom don’t know how to write a paragraph are going to need more direction, but for a grade 12 class, most of whom use txting language everywhere but the classroom, there is the ability to challenge them into writing how they like, as long as your feel comfortable, the curriculum is covered, and the class can handle it.

Our activities varied in ages. We chose the Facebook activity more for around a Grade 9 level, yet wanted to make it more challenging by adding the other two elements of the chat and the text to txt activity of translating therefore it became a grade 12 activity.

Reference:

Baron, N.S. (2005). Instant messaging and the future of language. Communications of the ACM, 46(7), 30-31.

Carrington, V. (2005). Txting: the end of civilization (again)? Cambridge Journal of Education, 35(2), 161-175.
Coffeen, Daniel. On Language, Texting, & Being. Thought Catalogue. Web Accessed November 12, 2012. Retrieved from http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/on-language-texting-being/

Lytle, R. (2011, June 13). How slang affects students in the classroom. Web Accessed November 10, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2011/06/13/how-slang-affects-students-in-the-classroom

Miller, Samantha. 50 ways to use twitter in the classroom. Teacher Hub. Web Accessed November 14, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.teachhub.com/50-ways-use-twitter-classroom

Some additional resources and articles that consider CMC:

How Slang Affects Students in the Classroom
An article from US News by Ryan Lytle
50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom
Twitter resource from TeachHub.com
On Language, Texting, & Being
A Thought Catalog Article by Daniel Coffeen

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/language

https://www.zoho.com/

English Language Arts, pg. 57, 81

Activity:
http://ncasdtech.wikispaces.com/Facebook+Templates
Extra links fb/twit/wiki

Facebook Template

Facebook Info Template

Txt Presentation(2)

368lessonplanpost