Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies Teaching English Language and Literature for Secondary Schools Bc. Kristýna Guricová Internet Slang in Relation to ELT Master‘s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: James Edward Thomas, M.A. 2013 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author‘s signature Acknowledgement First and foremost, I would like to like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, James Edward Thomas, M. A., for his guidance, kind help and valuable advice throughout the process of writing this thesis. I would also like to thank all the teachers and students of English who took part in my research and in my e-learning course. Finally, I would like to thank Petra Erbanová for her invaluable support and help. Table of Contents 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 6 2 Internet slang - the linguistic perspective ............................................................................................. 8 2.1 Defining slang ............................................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Internet language as a variety of language ................................................................................ 17 2.2.1 Speech or writing? ............................................................................................................... 22 2.2.2 Pragmatic aspects of Internet language ........................................................................... 27 2.2.3 Research challenges of Internet linguistics ..................................................................... 33 2.3 Internet slang ................................................................................................................................ 34 2.3.1 Abbreviations, acronyms and initialisms ......................................................................... 36 2.3.2 Pictograms and logograms ................................................................................................. 45 2.3.3 Non-standard language ...................................................................................................... 47 2.3.4 Slang words and phrases .................................................................................................... 51 2.4 The codification of Internet slang ............................................................................................. 57 2.5 Internet slang…a bad language? ................................................................................................ 59 3 Internet slang in relation to ELT ........................................................................................................ 65 3.1 The research into Internet slang in relation to ELT ............................................................... 67 3.1.1 What learners know versus what teachers know ........................................................... 69 3.1.2 Attitudes towards incorporating Internet slang into ELT ............................................ 77 3.2 Internet slang e-learning course ................................................................................................. 81 3.2.1 The aim of the e-course ..................................................................................................... 82 3.2.2 Designing the e-course ....................................................................................................... 83 3.2.3 The administration of the e-course .................................................................................. 89 4 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 95 5 References ............................................................................................................................................... 98 6 Appendices ........................................................................................................................................... 103 6.1 Appendix 1: Student questionnaire ......................................................................................... 103 6.2 Appendix 2: Teacher questionnaire ......................................................................................... 110 6.3 Appendix 3: E-course screenshots .......................................................................................... 117 6.3.1 E-learning environment ................................................................................................... 117 6.3.2 Getting started ................................................................................................................... 118 6.3.3 Week 1: Abbreviations I .................................................................................................. 119 6.3.4 Week 1: Chatting on Facebook exercise ....................................................................... 120 6.3.5 Week 1: Quiz ..................................................................................................................... 121 6.3.6 Week 2: Abbreviations II ................................................................................................. 122 6.3.7 Week 3: Txting................................................................................................................... 123 6.3.8 Week 4: Slang words and phrases ................................................................................... 124 6.3.9 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 126 7 Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 127 8 Resumé .................................................................................................................................................. 128 1 INTRODUCTION The Internet is a phenomenon of the modern era. As a new form of communication, the Internet has become a new dynamic linguistic medium. No wonder it has developed its own specific kind of language. While Internet slang is an area of language quite different from real-life communication and also different from what is usually taught in English lessons, English language learners are highly likely to encounter this language variety, since it is widely spread in the online world, such as in chat rooms, on social networking sites, in online games and online communities. Because the Internet has become an important part of our everyday communication such as telephoning, someone might actually wonder: If we teach students how to make a phone call in English, why not teach them how to chat or text in English? Does Internet slang have its place in English language teaching? Is it even a legitimate area of language, or is it only a kind of gibberish used by teenagers? These are some of the questions that this thesis will try to answer. This diploma thesis is devoted to the analysis of Internet slang as a language variety and to the discussion of its place in English language teaching (ELT). One of the objectives of the thesis is to provide a linguistic analysis of Internet slang. Furthermore, the theoretical findings will be applied in the form of designing an Internet slang e-learning course for English language learners which will be administered. The course results will be evaluated and the benefit of the course will be discussed. The thesis is divided into two main chapters. The first chapter is focused on Internet slang from a linguistic perspective. First section of the chapter deals with slang in general and discusses what constitutes slang. Then, the thesis examines Internet language as a special form of communication, since it possesses the characteristics of both speech and writing. In addition to that, the maxims of Internet language are analyzed 6 in comparison to the maxims of traditional forms of communication. The specific forms of violation of these maxims, such as trolling, spamming etc., are mentioned briefly. Pragmatic principles that apply to online communication are presented as well, including new pragmatic principles which came into existence with this type of communication, i.e. the principle of economy, the principle of tolerance and the principle of humor. Subsequently, pragmatic devices typical of online communication are featured. In the next section, the thesis focuses on the definition of Internet slang and its forms, namely abbreviations, pictograms and logograms, non-standard language, and also slang words and phrases. Each of these forms is described in detail and illustrated by a variety of examples. The phenomena of Internet memes as a way of spreading slang expressions over the Internet is mentioned as well. Finally, the question of codification of Internet slang expressions is discussed, focusing on the new phenomena of collaborative online dictionaries, the Urban Dictionary in particular. The second chapter deals with Internet slang in relation to English language teaching. The first part of the chapter discusses the place of Internet slang in language teaching, mainly focusing on the question whether it is appropriate, and eventually outlining a few guidelines for introducing