Literacy Practices in Computer-Mediated Communication in Hong Kong

This paper examines linguistic features of text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) in Hong Kong. The study is based on a 70,000-word corpus of electronic mail (email) and ICQ instant messaging texts, which was mainly collected from a group of youngsters in Hong Kong. A questionnaire survey was also carried o ut t o complement the textual findings. Some language-specific features are identified, which include Cantonese-based shortenings, common grammatical ‘errors’ such as inappropriate verb forms and lexical choice, subject omission, code-mixing, and creative orthographic representations of Cantonese. In addition, significant differences are found between email and ICQ texts in terms of the distribution o f linguistic features. It is s hown that t hese features are employed more frequently in synchronous communication via ICQ. The study suggests that these linguistic features may be seen as new ‘literacy practices’ i.e. how people use and think about t exts in different contexts, within the theoretical framework o f New Literacy Studies (NLS). The study further r eveals that CMC texts s hould be analyzed in different CMC systems, as well as in different li nguistic and cultural settings. It is concluded that language and literacy researchers and practitioners should recognize the novelty and the linguistic specificity of CMC texts.

[1]  David C. S. Li.  Cantonese‐English code‐switching research in Hong Kong: a Y2K review , 2000 .

[2]  S. Herring.  Computer-mediated communication : linguistic, social and cross-cultural perspectives , 1996 .

[3]  Boyd H. Davis,et al.  Electronic Discourse: Linguistic Individuals in Virtual Space , 1999 .

[4]  B. Street.  The Implications of the ‘New Literacy Studies' for Literacy Education , 1997 .

[5]  Naomi S. Baron.  Letters by Phone or Speech by Other Means: The Linguistics of Email. , 1998 .

[6]  Adams Bodomo,et al.  Changing forms of language and literacy in the information age , 2001 .

[7]  J. Gee.  Social Linguistics and Literacies , 1990 .

[8]  John C. Paolillo.  The Virtual Speech Community: Social Network and Language Variation on IRC , 1999, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[9]  Charles Moran,et al.  The rhetorics and languages of electronic mail , 1998 .

[10]  B. Street.  Literacy in Theory and Practice , 1984 .

[11]  John December,et al.  Units of Analysis for Internet Communication , 1996, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[12]  Erin Jansen.  Netlingo the Internet Dictionary: The Internet Dictionary , 2002 .

[13]  Michael Joyce,et al.  Page to Screen: Taking Literacy into the Electronic Age , 1998 .

[14]  David Barton,et al.  Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language , 1994 .

[15]  J. Walther.  Computer-Mediated Communication , 1996 .

[16]  M. Hamilton,et al.  Local Literacies: Reading and Writing in One Community , 1998 .

[17]  David Crystal,et al.  Language and the Internet , 2001 .