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International Journal of English
Literature and Culture
Vol. 1(2), pp. 33–40,
November, 2013
ISSN: 2360-7831
DOI: 10.14662/IJELC2013.017
Review
EMERGENT TRENDS IN ENGLISH USAGE:
LANGUAGE AND THE INTERNET
Taye Awoyemi
Department of English
Redeemer’s University, Mowe, Nigeria.
Author’s E-mail:
ayomideinde@gmail.com
Accepted 20 October, 2013
As the world gradually moves towards an age of
absolute dependence on technology and speed, a new genre of
communication has appeared on the horizon. This genre seems to see
already established conventions of grammatical structure and rules
from a different perspective. The paper examines this genre in the
light of conventional writing strategies, and assesses its
implication on the English usage of selected Nigerian undergraduates
who use English language as a second language for academic purposes.
It recognizes the position of the English language and the
challenges this language poses to literacy in the 21st century. It
views the emergence of this genre as useful to further insight into
the teaching of English as a second language. It opines that
interest in the study of the language of the Internet might lead to
the discovery of further strategies that can aid both student and
teacher in the process of second language learning and teaching. It
concludes that since this form of communication has come to stay,
further codification and standardization of this genre be
encouraged.
Keywords: Emergent, trends, Language, internet, globalisation,
L2
INTRODUCTION
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any, and
all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations and
context on the way language is used, and the effects of language use
on society. It focuses on the effect of the society on language and
how languages vary between groups separated by certain social
variables like ethnicity, religion, status gender, education and the
likes (Wikipedia, 2013).
In any social interaction between groups of people, language is
essential. It is not only functional, but also, if used rightly,
helps to forge a solid relationship between peoples and societies.
Language therefore cannot be divorced from communication. Language
is a very complex thing and can be seen as part of human psychology
(Corder, 1979), simply put, it is a system of rules in which sounds,
structure, and meaning are integrated for communication purposes; it
is a system of communication within a community or a particular
social group (Ayoola, 2007). Language is orderly, meaningful, and
creative. One can say it is orderly in the sense that it follows
general principles known as rules of grammar; meaningful because a
combination of words converts complex meaning according to the
ordering of such words. Language’s ultimate aim is to communicate;
communication uses language as its vehicle to get ideas and messages
via the encoder, through a channel to the decoder. Language’s
ultimate aim is to communicate; communication on the other hand uses
language as its vehicle to get ideas and messages via the encoder,
through a channel to the decoder. Not stopping there, the system
also ensures that the communication process is complete by ensuring
that a feedback is given to the encoder by the decoder.
The Internet also is a means of communication that employs language
to achieve its aims. It is one of the most significant technological
developments of the late 20th century; it is a 'live', constantly
'moving', theoretically borderless, potentially infinite space for
the production and circulation of information (Jagboro, 2003 ).
Indeed, the Internet’s primary mission is communication – of ideas,
work, and even play (Thomas, 1997).
It was Vinton Cerf that created the Internet technology in early
1973 as part of a project headed by Robert Kahn and conducted by the
Advanced Research Projects Agency, part of the United States
Department of Defence. Thereafter, Cerf led many efforts to build,
scale, and standardize the Internet. In 1984 the technology and the
network were turned over to the private sector and to government
scientific agencies for further development. In 1999 alone, 205
countries and territories in the world had at least one connection
to the Internet. By early 2000, access was available in over 200
countries and encompassed around 100 million users. This growth has
continued exponentially.
As a matter of fact, the Internet and its technology has continued
to have a profound effect in promoting the sharing of information,
making possible rapid transactions among businesses, and supporting
global collaboration among individuals and organizations. It goes
without saying that the development of the World Wide Web is
fuelling the rapid introduction of new business tools and activities
that have led to annual business transactions on the Internet
acclaimed to be worth hundreds of billions of pounds. The potential
of web-based commerce is immense. Techniques that allow safe
transactions over the Net (for payment and funds transfers), the
construction of faster, more secure networks and the development of
efficient search techniques make the Internet not only an instrument
for communication, but also an ideal trading medium (Encarta© 2004).
Its popularity and relevance in this new millennium cannot be
overlooked. Indeed, research has identified this genre of writing as
being popular among youths, as well as a viable instrument for
research.
This paper will therefore focus on writing skills as a means of
communication in the English language using the Internet medium of
E-mailing and chatting; furthermore, dwelling on language usage on
this medium, strategies used to evolve this language type will be
discussed, as well as its relevance to second language teaching and
learning. Finally, the paper identifies the challenges this new
trend poses to ‘orthodox’ modern English usage, and its implication
in the furtherance of evolving language policies in Nigeria.
LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION
Language is a very complex thing and can be seen as part of the
human psychology (Corder, 1979); simply put, it is a system of rules
in which sounds structure and meaning are integrated for
communication purposes. (Ako, 1999). Language is orderly,
meaningful, and creative. It is considered orderly because it
follows general principles known as the rules of grammar,
meaningful, because combinations of words convert complex meanings
according to the ordering of such words. Finally, it is creative
because even though it is standardized, yet it is very flexible (Tunde-Arayela,
1999).
Communication also is language; indeed it is language whose
principal function is communication. All behaviour is in some
measure communicative and based on set conventions. Indeed,
behaviour could serve as an attitudinal function to express a state
of mind and emotions, to establish rapport with our hearers or to
promote feelings of solidarity, confidence, and goodwill. In
addition, it could also serve as a cognitive function to express
perceptions, imaginations, and beliefs about the “states of affairs”
(Corder, 1979). Human communication can be verbal or non-verbal. All
animals communicate, but man’s ability to communicate via language
differentiates him from other living things. Doubtless to state that
there is no communication without a system of signs; the
communication characteristic of human beings is interaction by means
of language (Longe and Ofuani, 1996). However, as earlier stated, it
would be wrong to assume that speech is at the centre of
communication because the medium of communication may vary, however,
the message does not (O’Connor, 1977).
The act of communication starts in the brain of the sender/speaker:
indeed, this brain has a creative and a forwarding function. The
creative function is central; through it the message is conceived
and formed. Furthermore, stored into the brain is a profound
knowledge of the way in which the language operates - the rules of
the game, as it were - derived from earlier experiences of operating
the language both as a speaker and a listener to this language from
earliest childhood (O’Conner, 1977).
For this function, one can identify three phases in the
communicative process:
A need to communicate arises. This could be in form of response to
some outside event or some inner thought process. Whatever it is,
there is a need to initiate a message.
Having initiated a message, the next phase is the decision as to
what medium to use.
Finally, there is the need to decide on the form the message will
take.
All these decisions are done so rapidly that one is not consciously
aware of doing them. When this process is complete, the forwarding
function of the brain begins. The part of the brain, which is
concerned with controlling muscular movement, sends patterned
instructions in form of nervous impulses along the nervous pathways
connecting the brain to the muscles of the organ responsible for the
communication.
From the on-going, communication can be seen as a process: a process
can be defined as a series of actions carried out in order to
achieve a particular result, means or end. Thus communication
consists of the following elements:
A source
An encoder
A message
A channel
A decoder
A receiver
A feed-back
It is obvious that language and communication are related.
Language’s ultimate aim is to communicate; communication on the
other hand uses language as its vehicle to get ideas and messages
via the encoder, through a channel to the decoder. Not stopping
there, the system also ensures that the communication process is
complete by ensuring that a feedback is given to the encoder by the
decoder. Language and communication are people-oriented and do not
take place in a vacuum, but at a particular time and place, in a
physical or temporal setting. Seen in this light, language is the
primary and most sophisticated means of communication between
peoples. Language expresses the culture of a people and is part of
the world cultural heritage; therefore the loss of a language is the
loss of human intellectual heritage (Taiwo, 2004). If communication
is to be truly close and meaningful, if complex ideas are to be
communicated with clarity and understood without any ambiguity, then
it follows that the users of any language must be skilled in its
use.
NIGERIA AND THE LANGUAGE PROBLEM
Nigeria’s population, which is currently rated at an estimated 88
million people, or more, is rated among the top fifteen most
populous countries in the world. In the past, it had been argued
that Nigeria is not a nation but a mere geographical expression (Awolowo,
1947). Considering the historical past of Nigeria, ethnolinguistic
pluralism has been the scourge of Nigerian political life long
before her independence in 1960. The colonial policy gave
recognition to this by demarcating the country along this
ethnolinguistic pluralism: it has therefore been the source of
instability in the Nigerian political economy.
Language in itself is not harmful, but when it is dressed in other
abusive symbolism, then it promotes ethnicity. When this ethnicity
is permitted to pervade the foundation of the society, it presents a
negative relationship among different groups. This is detrimental to
the development both of the nation as well as of others outside this
language group: what follows this is a gradual blockage of social
mobility because of membership in a given language group.
The origin of the use of English in Nigeria dates back to the
nineteenth century when freed slaves of Nigerian origin returned to
Nigeria in the wake of the abolition of slavery and slave trade (Ayoola
2007). Linguists have recorded that Nigeria has no fewer than 400
languages (Elugbe, 1992) and many scholars have attributed this fact
to the concept of ethnicity. Nigeria has been searching for a
national language policy relevant to her needs. In such a nation
that strives for unity in diversity, her citizens can find this
unity in a national language. Linguists, backed by theories, agree
that the language we speak influence our thinking and consciousness.
If this is so, then the answer to the question of persistent and
unending conflicts, which have characterized Nigeria since
independence, can be traced to language.
One is aware of the move towards seeking an indigenous language as
the lingua franca in Nigeria, one such postulate is that of WAZOBIA.
Arguments have been made in support of this citing countries like
Italy, Germany, USSR and others, who do not use English Languages as
a lingua franca. Some authorities have even observed that countries
that use their national language for the purpose of teaching pupils
seem to do better than those who impose a foreign language on the
learners. One such evidence is cited from the Second International
Science Study which showed that Japanese Primary School children
came first in primary science among the countries of the world while
Nigeria[n Primary School children ] came last (Iwuagwu, 1997); this
is all in a bid to support the value of education in the indigenous
language.
Some Nigerian critics have postulated that such an experiment or
adoption could prove very expensive. Their argument has been that
some concepts already expressed in text-books have no Nigerian
equivalent in the indigenous language, thus, they claim, translation
could distort meaning and concept. Secondly they feel that the
process of training staff in this dimension could prove laborious
and a huge amount of financial commitment to translate any, and all,
blue-prints into reality (Iwuagwu, 1997) would be needed. Finally,
they suggest an unwillingness of the groups to give up their
language in place of any other indigenous language in the spirit of
national language (Awobuluyi, 1992).
Of a truth, development requires a wide communication to articulate
and enhance its process; hence linguistic unity will enable the
federating units of political entity to aspire towards a
consciousness necessary for development. It is national
consciousness and unity of purpose that propel citizens to
development. It has been observed that countries that have a single
speech community, whose language is the sole official
language, and national language of state, perform better
economically than countries with diverse speech communities (Odumosu,
1991).
At the moment, the Nigerian National Policy on Education and
Language (1981) encourages each citizen in the school system to
learn, in addition to his own language, another major or minor
language apart from the compulsory study of the English Language. By
this English remains the common denominator in all issues of
national integration and development: indeed, it is the only
language that unifies the different ethnic groups in Nigeria and
thus qualifies as a language of wider communication. English, has
over the years, lost the property of being the exclusive right of
the Englishman, indeed, some have tagged it as “a no man’s
language”. Not minding this, as a single language for wider
communication in Nigeria, it implies a single conceptual and
cognitive framework for all Nigerians; also consequently it marks
out a level of greater understanding, unity, integration and
stability.
COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Ever since the first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast was made
in 25th July, 1920, there has been so many landmarks in the the
history of telecommunications. (Wikipedia, Internet source). Indeed,
technology is the technical means people use to improve their
surroundings. It is also the knowledge of using tools and machines
to do tasks efficiently, as well as the ability to control the world
in which we live. Furthermore, technology is the use of knowledge,
tools, and systems to make life, and living, easier and better.
Technology can be used to improve ones ability to work and
communicate better; in a nutshell, technology can be understood to
embrace the knowledge embodied in human action to achieve practical
results. However, the importance of technology would be overshadowed
if the means of communicating or gaining access to these discoveries
and breakthrough was not available.
This is where the Internet, an international community connected by
computers, plays an important role. The Internet continues to create
more awareness in new ways of using and thinking about language.
Communication through the cyberspace provides users with a new kind
of context for language use and conversation. It allows people to
speak about themselves and their organization to millions of people
around the world. This new technology has led to the reduction in
the gap between spoken and the written text (Taiwo, 2004).
Bearing in mind the fact that the primary aim of the Internet is
communication (Thomas, 1997), this is not far-fetched; more so, when
one notes that the Internet evolved out of the need to communicate
research breakthroughs to a wider audience. It must be emphasized
that the web was originally developed at the European Organization
for Nuclear Research – CERN – the world’s largest Particle Physics
Laboratory, located between France and Switzerland. Tim Berners-Lee
initiated this project in 1980 and the first website went on-line in
1991. The purpose of this was to provide a common (simple) protocol
for requesting human readable information stored at a remote system,
using networks. The overlying objective was to give scientists a way
to exchange many kinds of data (text, graphics, figures database)
using a concept known as hypertext for the purpose of advancing
their research. The first website went on-line in 1991, while the
first free World Wide Web – WWW – became operative on April 30,
1993. One agrees that the original purpose has exploded into one of
the most promising method to access information worldwide.
Today, this form of communication has made access to information not
only available at all times, but also has bridged the distance
between continents and nations. Certainly, in many ways the Internet
is a classless society (Thomas, 1997); in this millennium, this
means of communication is not limited to a particular class, race,
or nation: neither is it the exclusive preserve of any continent nor
individual. As a matter of fact, the Internet has made the
communication of technological advancement so easy, that it is
almost magical in nature. A breakthrough in science can be
transmitted to relevant quarters in a twinkle of an eye. Without
leaving their shores, a group of interns in Asia can watch a live
transmission of a surgical operation performed by specialist in
American. This is technology and communication at work,
collaborating together to ensure that life gets better by the
seconds. The language of access of this recent ‘eighth wonder’ of
the world, as of now, is English; it stands to reason then that
knowledge of the English language will enhance a thorough
utilization of the Internet.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ON THE INTERNET
Even though English has become widely accepted as the language of
communication for many nations, yet the standard English, the
variety that is cultivated in England and other places where English
is used as a mother tongue, cannot remain ‘undefiled’ as English
daily comes in contact with different people and cultures (Omodiaogbe,
2010). Thus, as earlier mentioned, a new genre of language appeared
with the internet; this appearance evolved out of a need to maximize
cost of 'browsing time' as well as the ability for the encoder of
the message to communicate effectively with the decoder. Coupled
with this is the fact that a text message is 160 characters in
length, therefore text users have to adopted a means of
communication that will condense words and make the most out of
their message. As can be seen from the samples of portions of text
obtained from a chat-group on the Internet, the encoders have
adopted several ways to achieve the objective of being concise while
ensuring that their messages are decoded rightly:
Sample A
barkat_900: hi [ = informal form of ‘Good day’ ]
ejiowuro2004: hi
ejiowuro2004: asl [ = age, sex, language i.e How old are you? Are
you male or female? What nationality? ]
barkat_900: m/17/eg [= I am male, 17 years old and an Egyptian. i.e
I am a 17 year old male from Egypt ]
barkat_900: u? [ = What about you? i.e. what is your own biodata? ]
barkat_900: are you there? [= response after a short period of
silence]
ejiowuro2004: watz eg? [= What is eg? i.e. What do you mean by the
word ‘eg’? ]
barkat_900: egypt [= Egypt (notice the violation of the rule of
capitalization in the proper noun ‘Egypt’) ]
barkat_900: and u? [ = and you i.e. so how about your own biodata]
barkat_900: hi [ = Hello? i.e. Are you still on-line? ]
ejiowuro2004: o. [ meaning unsure ]
ejiowuro2004: 30/nig/f [ = 30 years old, Nigerian and female i.e. I
am a 30 year old female from Nigeria ]
barkat_900: cool [ = slang for “that’s nice” ]
ejiowuro2004: how kool/ [ = How cool? i.e. What do you mean by
‘cool’? (notice the symbol used in place of the question mark. This
‘typographical error is common in the mad rush to maximise time)]
barkat_900: never mind [= do not worry]
ejiowuro2004: how/ [= why?]
barkat_900: are you there [ note the omission of the question mark]
ejiowuro2004: sure [ = yes I am there ]
barkat_900: k [ = ok i.e. That is okay (alright) ]
barkat_900: can i add u [ = can I include you i.e can I include you
in my address book ? ]
ejiowuro2004: sure [ = yes i.e of course you can ]
barkat_900: k [ = that’s ok i.e that is alright by me ]
ejiowuro2004: where's k? [where is the location of ‘k’? i.e
apparently misunderstanding the message]
ejiowuro2004: u dere? [ = are u still there? i.e. Are you still
on-line? ]
BUZZ!!! [ = the person on-line uses this to draw the attention of
the person he is chatting with, especially when he believes that the
person’s attention has been detracted from the conversation ]
barkat_900: yea [ = yes i.e. I’m still on-line. ]
ejiowuro2004: is k kansass [ = is ‘k’ for Kansas? i.e. Does the ‘K’
you mentioned above mean Kansas City USA? Notice the flaunting of
the rule of capitalisation in ‘kansas’
barkat_900: ok [ = okay ] barkat_900: k=ok [ ‘k’ means okay i.e. ‘k’
means ‘alright’]
ejiowuro2004: where u from plz [ =where are you from please i.e.
Please which country are you
from ? ]
barkat_900: Egypt [ = from Egypt i.e. I am from Egypt ]
ejiowuro2004: dats nice….. [ = that’s nice i.e. That is wonderful! ]
Sample B
usman_badit: hello
usman_badit: r u there
usman_badit: ok
usman_badit: talk
usman_badit: about ur like
usman_badit: as u like
usman_badit: any topic
usman_badit: : any topic
ejiowuro2004: what food du u like?
oluwatayemise: hi
april4aries2000: a/s/l
oluwatayemise: f
oluwatayemise: u ?
april4aries2000: m
oluwatayemise: a?
april4aries2000: i am male
april4aries2000: do u mind
oluwatayemise: mind what?
april4aries2000: talking to me
oluwatayemise: ok
april4aries2000: where re u now
april4aries2000: am in lag
oluwatayemise: akure
april4aries2000: in school
oluwatayemise: yeah
oluwatayemise: u 2?
april4aries2000: business
oluwatayemise: wot biz?
april4aries2000: computer accessories
april4aries2000: can i ve ur number
oluwatayemise: not yet
april4aries2000: bye
oluwatayemise: bye
usman_badit: ur country?
ejiowuro2004: nigeria
usman_badit: u r gender?
ejiowuro2004: f
usman_badit: ok
usman_badit: so?
oluwatayemise: hi
april4aries2000: m/f
oluwatayemise: f
oluwatayemise: u ?
april4aries2000: m
oluwatayemise: a?
april4aries2000: i am male
april4aries2000: do u mind
oluwatayemise: mind what?
april4aries2000: talking to me
oluwatayemise: ok
april4aries2000: where re u now
april4aries2000: am in lag
oluwatayemise: akure
april4aries2000: in school
oluwatayemise: yeah
oluwatayemise: u 2?
april4aries2000: business
oluwatayemise: wot biz?
april4aries2000: computer accessories
april4aries2000: can i ve ur num?
oluwatayemise: not yet
april4aries2000: bye
oluwatayemise: bye
From the Sample B above the following devices can be observed:
i) Shortened forms: Such shortened forms as ‘wot biz’ for ‘What
business do you do?’ ‘can i ve yr num’ for ‘Can I have your number?’
are used to make communication concise.
ii) Transcription of sounds: phonetic transcriptions also are used
as a strategy for communication e.g. ‘wot’ = ‘what’ ‘u’ = ‘you’ ‘du’
= ‘do’
iii) The use of initial letters to represent the major idea
intended. Also in this device only the first letters of the nouns in
the sentence are written e.g. m = male, a/s/l = age/sex/location
this simply means ‘How old are you, are you male or female and where
are you from?’
iv) The use of numbers to represent words intended e.g. 2 = too
v) The way words are actually pronounced to replace a word. However
in this particular case one suspects a morphological process as in u
+ r =‘ur’ for the word ‘your’ i.e. you + r.
In addition to those mentioned above, symbols such as $ (dollar or
more generally money), € or & are perfect for use in Internet
messaging. Other symbols such as @ (arobas or a commercial) are
commonly used to replace the letter 'a' as in '@ +' (à plus. Also
used are smileys, emoticons and other devices. Other methods to make
messages more expressive or to reinforcing ones point include using
capital letters (which usually means that the writer is shouting) or
repeating final letters of words (eg AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! instead of
Ah!).
IMPLICATION OF INTERNET GRAMMER ON LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
As observed from the ongoing, users of the internet seem to have a
foreknowledge of the codes they use to communicate their ideas to
their decoder; these are signals that one is a member of that
particular language community that has the ability to code switch as
the situation demands. From the above one observes that brevity is
not the only priority of text messages: self-expression is equally
important. Also one suspects that there are specific strategies and
rules applied to the evolution of Internet languages. Indeed, one
notices a similarity between speech produced by L2 learners, which
Little wood (1991) describes as showing marked resemblance to both
early speech of children and pidgins. She further calls these
‘reduced systems’ or ‘simple codes’ that share the following
features;
i) Many of the linguistic characteristics are the same e.g.
redundant inflections and function words such as prepositions etc,
which tend to be omitted, and thus meaning is signalled by word
order. Also complex grammatical structures are avoided and
vocabulary is reduced.
ii) In each case the reduced system satisfies a correspondingly
reduced range of communication needs. These are mainly functional
needs, since the system lacks the fine distinction that would
transmit subtle concepts and subtle meanings.
iii) As the speakers’ needs become more complex or subtle, the
system becomes more elaborate, moving through developmental
sequences.
Apart from feature iii) above, one notices a similar strategy in the
emergence of the language of the Internet. Probably with time,
feature iii) will emerge; however, from the experience of the
Internet one can identify the following process:
Internet natural temporary
Language processing representation utterance
strategies of the system
This inference can be drawn from the final utterance of the language
user. However, more materials need to be garnered, and indeed more
research needs to be undertaken, to further cinch these facts. By so
doing, such findings will go a long way to help teachers guide
learners in evolving meaningful and better language learning
strategies. These strategies will further enable students of
tertiary institution to actualize effectively their primary goal of
seeking knowledge in their various disciplines.
CONCLUSION
From the ongoing, it is obvious that access to Internet, and other
IT facilities, requires a mastery of the language of access, namely
English. As a matter of fact, exchanging e-mail messages or even
chatting using Yahoo Messenger, or other such chat-room devises, can
be a bonding activity. In that respect, writing these types of
messages involves recreating a degree of intimacy and friendliness
similar to that of face-to-face or phone conversations. All these,
and a lot more, prove beyond reasonable doubt that language and
communication must not only be advanced enough to meet the standards
of world technological advancement, but must also be developed in
order to meet with the prevailing needs and demands of the times.
It is from this perspective that the following recommendations are
made:
Bearing in mind the role of the Nigerian government in facing the
challenges of evolving a national language, it is necessary that a
study of the emergence of the language of the Internet might provide
more insight into how this can be achieved. This suggestion is based
on the fact that users of the Internet come from various countries.
Like in the chat-group accessed by the researcher, there were people
from Asian countries as well as from African countries who
effectively dialogued together using writing as a communicative
skill. Needless to say there was no formalised medium of learning
the code of the language used for Internet communication, yet
communication was effective.
Literacy can only be achieved if the people are adequately
empowered, therefore the Federal government and other affiliates who
are engaged in the workaday activities of educational institutes
should be education-friendly and ensure that every level of
education is adequately funded and supported.
The people must be motivated and challenged to be literate, thus
adequate facilities such as cybercafés, books, and the likes should
be made accessible to would-be learners. Advertisements on
television, as well as interlude to films could go along way to
sensitise the masses on the need to be literate.
Cost of living should be made affordable for all, so that the
learning populace can live decently, thus when poverty is truly
eradicated, literacy would have the right of way.
Education should be made affordable and accessible to all and
sundry.
It is obvious that literacy in the 21st century has gone beyond the
selected few. Of a truth, being educated is no longer a status
symbol; more and more people have been sensitised to the importance
of being literate. Indeed, the saying that knowledge is power is
more relevant to this century. Nevertheless, for knowledge to be
truly relevant for all it can only be channelled through language.
In this century this language of power is English – it is without
doubt the language of communication in the 21st century. True other
languages are trying to make their appearance on the Internet, the
latest being the Yoruba Language; however, the language of formal
education in so many places is English. This is not to say that
literacy is synonymous with English language. However, in countries
like Nigeria it seems that English is the norm; anything outside it
spells illiteracy.
It is obvious that only a minute percent of the world is literate.
Thus, many more grounds must be covered to achieve total literacy.
Without a doubt access to Internet facilities can narrow this gap.
With the coming to age of the Open Universities, what better way to
teach languages than with the instrumentality of the Internet.
Indeed, the world is fast becoming a global village; cybercafés
abound where individuals can not only communicate through writing
within the twinkle of an eye, they can even view one another on
video devices known as webcams (web cameras). No longer do citizens
of this nation have to wait for months to be able to communicate
with loved ones, or even receive valuable information that can make
or mar their destinies, or affect their contributions to knowledge
through research – this is indeed one of the gains of literacy.
Knowledge and information is power: however, literacy and effective
communication can make this power a reality. But this reality needs
to be handed over to others who will efficiently use this power to
ensure that there is technological advancement and continual
development within the nation; such beneficiaries need the tool of
language to ensure its reality: they also need professional and
proficient language teachers who, through a learner-friendly
strategy, can help them achieve their dreams of being literate and
useful to their country particularly in the 21st century. It is a
welcomed development then that the dynamism of language is vibrant
in the 21st century as observed through the emergence of new
Englishes on the Internet; the question however is how far can the
accepted rules of the structure of the English language be stretched
to accommodate these emerging structures. In addition, one is
curious to know whether these varieties will stand the test of time;
surely, only time has the answers to these nagging questions.
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