Abstract

This paper discusses some new forms of language and literacies that emerge as a consequence of the information age in which a diverse set of new media and tools are available for language and literacy practices. Based on an analysis of the relationship between language, literacy, and information communications technologies (ICTs), we adopt a model called Technology-conditioned approach to Language Change and Use (TeLCU), which specifies the causal relationship between the introduction of new ICTs and new forms of language and literacy. We show how TeLCU fits into the paradigm of New Literacy Studies (Street 1984, Barton 1994, Gee 1996). We outline some new forms of language like technobabble (e.g. e-terminologies, acronymy, and emoticonymy). We then introduce the distinctive ways in which language is used through mobile phone communication, with specific reference to 'mobile phone Chinese' in Hong Kong. A typology of new literacies in the information age, which focuses on the concept of 'digital literacy', is also presented. The paper concludes with a discussion of the significance of TeLCU to linguists and literacy practitioners in the information age.

Bionote

Adams Bodomo is Assistant Professor at the Department of Linguistics, University of Hong Kong. He specializes in theoretical linguistics, Language and Literacy, and Language and Information Technology. His research projects include The Use of Information Technology in Teaching Language and Linguistics Courses, and Closing the Digital Divide: Computer Literacy for Educational Development in Ghana and China.

Ms Carmen Lee is an M.Phil. student at the Department of Linguistics, University of Hong Kong. She is writing a thesis in the area of Chinese and English Computer-mediated communications in the context of Literacy Events.

Presentation Type
30 min. Paper

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Country
Hong Kong