A lingua franca, as Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams say (2002), is a language that is spoken between people who speak diverse languages and choose one of them by common agreement in order to communicate for social reasons or for commercial reasons.
Given the fact that English is one of the most popular spoken language worldwide, we are going to talk about this language as a Lingua Franca. Seidlhofer (2005), explains that we refer to English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) when people with different mother tongues choose this language to communicate, which confirms what Fromkin, Rodman & Hyams state.
Wimmer (2011) explains that English is actually used in a wide range of contexts: science, education, technology, sports, music and so on. Also, she adds two
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According to Seilhofer (2005), native speakers of English tend to be careful abou what is acceptable usage in the language. On the other hand, non-native speakers use this ‘International English’, which does not have the same cultural background as the English used between native-native speakers (Wimmer, 2011).
1.2 Differences between Style, Slang, and Jargon
Style, Slang and Jargon are different ways that speaker use language. We shall see each one of these three.
Firstly, Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams (2002) tell us that Style or Registry is the way we speak according to the situation or person which we are talking to. For example, we have Informal style, where we use contractions more often, we change sometimes the rules of grammar and syntax, and we use or do not use specific words in our vocabulary according to the context. On the contrary, Formal Style follows the rules in every way: grammatically, syntactically, phonologically, etc. There might be some other different styles, and these may depend on the language that is
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However, they give us some characteristics about it: they say that “the use of slang […] introduces many new words into the language by recombining old words into new meanings” (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2002, p.473). They also state that slang introduces new words to the vocabulary of a language.
Slang may change according to the region or the generation. Some words may be considered as slang in the northside of the country, but not for the southside. And for the generations, some words that are not slang anymore, they used to be some years ago. (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2002)
Finally we have Jargon, which is a term that may be defined as words that are exclusivelly used in a specific science, profession, trade or occupation. These words are technical mostly, and sometimes they are understood by people who works in these specific fields.
1.3 Descriptive Linguistics vs. Prescriptive Linguistics
In the use of the language, there are basically two positions which differ a lot from each other. The first position is the descriptive linguistics, and it “explains how it is possible for you to speak and understand” (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2002, p. 14). In other words, descriptive linguistics notes that the most importan for us is to communicate, no matter how we use grammar, sounds, vocabulary,
The author notes that technology would affect the way people use their language in a matter of using abbreviations when texting. He also noted that messaging causes poor spelling and laziness when typing simple words on the phone. Teenagers have been creating abbreviated words since texting became popular; but abbreviated words have been around way before mobile phones were released. Crystal states, “people have been initializing common phrases for ages” (902), and
“Our Native Tongue” is a short article written by Nelson W. Aldrich. Jr, in February 2000. To begin the article Aldrich describes how privileged and grateful he is to know the English language. Aldrich says “I’d been born with a silver tongue in my mouth.” From this statement, readers can assume how amazing the English language is. Silver is an item most people value, Aldrich values English the way some would value silver. Aldrich also says because he knows the English language he has access to many opportunities, that others would have to pay for because they do not know the English language. The article also discusses the first global lingua franca. Lingua franca is “the language of science, business, political, and finical power, and English”. Lingua franca is also a diammoniate language that is accepted between speakers whose languages are different.
Unlike Mr. Gopnik, I would be lying if I referred to myself as “smartphone-loving” or claimed I have a Twitter account—I’m afraid merely checking my email and reading the news online are the upper limits of my internet capabilities. But what I do have is grandchildren, and as I have observed, Twitter and online chatting in general is simply destroying the beauty of the English language and replacing it with a multitude of abbreviations and slang. On the internet, a fast reply which makes you sound cool is more important than a well-written one with correct spelling and grammar. The issue has deteriorated so much that ‘textspeak’ has transferred from online to real life, and to my horror you may often hear young people today say “LOL” instead of actually laughing, or “hashtag YOLO” instead of something which sounds remotely
It has been many of times I have had to respond to a text asking what do certain abbreviations mean. Our younger generations have, and still are, growing up in a world where technology is developing alongside humanity. Even though technology is growing at a rapid speed it is still if is vital to the youth to learn "proper" grammar and spelling. We cannot fill out job applications,
In your company, a position that pays a higher salary and has more regular work hours opens up so you decide to apply for the job. Your supervisor tells you that you cannot be considered for the position because although you are fully fluent in English, you have a Vietnamese accent. Instead, another employee who speaks with a British accent is interviewed for the position. In Myriam Marquez’s article “Why and When We Speak Spanish in Public” and Amy Tan’s article “Mother Tongue” we get a taste of what it feels like to be linguistically impaired and discriminated against. Through exploring Tan’s and Marquez’s articles, one can see the importance of learning a certain amount of English so one can get far in life and not be taken advantage of,
Several decades ago, “Ain’t ain’t a word” was a favorite litany of English teachers everywhere, and they sang it whenever that offending word cropped up in a student’s speech or writing. Today, however, ain’t is a word firmly entrenched in dictionaries, nonstandard, but a word nonetheless. Now, looming on the horizon is something which may make language arts teachers long for the days of ain’t – text talk. Text talk, or text speak, is the language of abbreviations, acronyms, and emoticons people use when communicating through short message service (SMS) on their cell phones, or when instant messaging and emailing each other, and it is beginning to creep into students’ formal writing. Teachers, not just language arts teachers, hate seeing this, and many claim SMS communication is responsible for a decline in overall student writing, so they are trying to come up with ways to fight this disturbing trend. However, with the typical teen sending 80 text messages a day (Hafner, 2009), the problem is not just going to go away, so rather than fighting an uphill, and perhaps unwinnable, battle, teachers can use their students’ language to teach them formal English.
The use inventive spelling, abbreviations. As high school students start to use short texting, some of their grades dropped due to the spelling errors they make. So many teens get used to wing abbreviating that they just begin to write that that way. Some teenagers writing skills have turned into sentence fragments, because of the limited space they put into text sentence. In my research how does texting affect teen literacy the percentage was 64 percent of students who say they incorporated text language in their writing, 25 percent said they did so to convey have used text shortcuts a lot of students, vocabulary and grammar is also affecting their literacy. The outlook of the teachers is that. Text plus recently released results of its own survey of 1,214 teens that use their services. 43 percent of which have texted in class, they seem to pay more attention to their phone than what the teacher is teaching. They seem to have the phones that will spell the word for them so they have to worry about spelling. In the age of text message, where words are reduce to no stand abbreviating, symbols, But in my research I pointed out that technology has put new emphasis on reading and
Instead, they’ve become part of not only our language but our social life. Young kids and young adults use slang to provide simpler context to what they want to say. They abbreviate long words and expression in order to describe certain situations. There are a lot, but some of the commonly used abbreviations are “brb” (be right back), “lol” (laugh out loud), “cya” (see you later), and “omg” (oh my god). In relation to all this, is the adult perspective and their views on the impact of slang on young minds. Many adults and the older generations don’t like the idea of words turning into nonsense jargon because they want especially young kids to be taught proper English and the correct form of grammar. What many have tried to do was to allow certain music that the children could listen to or certain stories they were allowed to read. Dalzell says otherwise that “the most vigilant and repressive attempts by adult authority cannot completely eradicate slang and music…”, briefly explaining that even though adults try extremely hard to limit slang from children and kids, it won’t be enough to stop them from expressing themselves and what they want to
We often hear news stories report on the possible negative effects texting has on students’ formal writing. These stories usually flash a picture of some student’s formal essay or class assignment containing a text-speak abbreviation in place of a formal word. For example, “u” in place of “you”. Stories like this cause educators and parents to worry that the use of texting is impairing students’ ability to write in a formal setting and is thus becoming detrimental to literacy altogether. However, do these news stories actually hold any merit or are they simply media hype? How often does textspeak actually appear in students’ writing? According to literary scholar David Crystal, “all the evidence suggests that belief in an impending linguistic disaster is a conseq...
Parents have recently discovered that their children have been talking differently at home, with friends, at grandparents' or family gatherings (Kennedy). These changes noticed, are not what they would like to see in particular, most parents do not like the "slang" words they are using, most parents have told their kids they would like to talk and act respectfully to their grandparents. Teachers are also saying that texting is negatively affecting their students' writing skills. There are ways to say certain things without always using an abbreviation. One easy way is just to continue writing out the words and saying before, by the way, or complete waste of time, instead of b4, btw, cwof (Vosloo).
Language has been around for thousands of years, used to communicate with each other everyday in some sort of form. It has changed dramatically over the years and is used differently around the world. In the United States, we speak in the English language, while in China, they speak Chinese, it’s various from place to place. It is estimated that there is a total of 6000 languages around the world according to linguists, but that number is still uncertain. (Language, 2016).
In today’s culture, one of the fastest ways to communicate with others is through text messages. Text messages are a form of electronic messages sent from one cell phone to another minimizing the wait time for it to be sent and received. Through time text messages have transformed into its own writing system. From the use of spelling, grammar to the unregulated space in the orthographic regime, text messages have created a distinctive linguistic identity. This texting speech also known as “SMS Langauge” has gotten linguists eager at observing what they are considering “the biggest ever language revolution” (Kumar, "A Linguistic Study Of Abbreviations In SMS"). Text messages have a lot of underlying meaning composed in its language from being its own written form to being an expression of text users. Because of the rapid popularity and addictions texting has caused, linguists are researching whether texting language affects student’s literacy when it comes to language skills.
It has been adopted by different sectors making it one of the most used languages in the globe. This has been attributed to its effective nature, easy learning and rich history. However, conservative groups exist who argues that there should be global language since it may cause the emergence of superior cultures. Nevertheless, it is evident that different cultures ranging from the early polish immigrants, the African American community, the advertising and media will greatly benefit from the globalization of the English language. This will prove in the end that English is indeed a global
English is an international language of communication (Nunan, 2003). So that English is a necessary basic skill for human. For instance, we meet lots of people who came from different countries in our daily life. Since our mother language is different, we can use English to be a lingua franca to communicate with them and try to understand their culture easily.
Over the years English inarguably has reached a status of a global language and commonly is characterized as a lingua franca. It has become the language that is spoken by millions of people all over the world; as the mother tongue, as the language used for international communication and as the language learned in the millions of schools.