Andrew Moffatt explores the different contexts of online communication, taking a closer look at the complexities of ‘overlapping chat’, based on his recent research study. He includes a free lesson activity for you to download, to help incorporate the aspects of e-language into a lesson.
Online communication contexts
We are all, more and more, users of computer-mediated communication. The internet forms an increasingly important part of how we connect with other human beings, and the scale and variety of that communication grows every day. How this affects the language we use is a popular area of research that has given rise to the term ‘e-language’ to describe language used online.
Of course, this ‘e-language’ isn’t simply one single variety of English, just as there isn’t one single type of online communication. Our learners may interact with others in a wide variety of online situations: social media platforms, instant messaging apps, multiplayer game environments, online dating, chat rooms… the list goes on. A distinction is commonly made between ‘synchronous’ environments, like chat rooms, where everybody is online at the same time, and ‘asynchronous’ environments, like an email exchange, when a reply is not expected straight away.
The possible reasons for our learners’ online interactions are just as varied. They may be having a deep conversation about political issues, or they may be leaving a brief ‘lol’ in the comments of a particularly hilarious cat video on YouTube. They may be interacting for pleasure or for work. They may be intentionally trying to practice their English, or they may be trying to do something practical, like explain their accommodation needs in an Airbnb booking.
Features of e-language
All these different contexts have different features of language that go along with them. We can help our learners make the most of the possibilities of the internet to improve their English by drawing their attention to these features and helping them to understand how best to anticipate and make use of them in their everyday interactions in cyberspace.
One feature of e-language that is found most commonly in synchronous chat conversations between multiple people is overlapping chat. This occurs when, for example, somebody asks a question, but before the reply is posted somebody else jumps in with a different comment, or new question, or answer to a previous question. This could (and possibly should!) create a lot of confusion, but interestingly, we seem to be surprisingly good at dealing with it.
Here’s an example, modified from a research study I did recently:
1: Katy: Noelia, it’s nice to meet you! It’s just us four, yes?
2: Peter: No, Chris is here too.
3: Katy: Oh, sorry! Nice to meet you too, Chris!
4: Peter: Tell us about yourself, Katy
5: Katy: So, to introduce myself:
6: Noelia: Nice to meet you too!
7: Katy: I’m from Russia but I’m working in London at the moment.
8: Chris: Yes, great to meet you all!
9: Peter: I’m working in London, too!
You can see that while the second part of Katy’s comment on line 1 is answered in lines 2 and 3, the reply to the first part only comes (from Noelia) in line 6. The second part of line 3 is answered in line 8, and lines 4, 5, 7 and 9 all form a logical exchange. It is, in short, a bit of a mess! To sort it out it’s helpful to think about something called ‘adjacency pairs’ in conversation, pairs of sentences that perform a function together, like question/answer or greeting/response. When Katy tells Noelia it’s nice to meet her, we expect Noelia to reply just like she does in line 6. The same is true for lines 3 and 8. The second half of line 1 and line 2 are a good example of a question/answer pair. In this case the two parts are together, so there is no confusion. Later, though, this happens:
1: Katy: Chris, what does your husband do for a living?
2: Noelia: I definitely think English is more complicated than my language.
3: Katy: Peter, how long are we going to chat for?
4: Peter: As long as you want.
5: Chris: He’s a lawyer.
6: Katy: I’m happy to keep chatting for a bit longer.
7: Noelia: ☺
8: Katy: Chris – that’s awesome! Wow!!!
Here there’s a big gap between Katy’s question in line 1 and Chris’s reply in line 5. We have to understand that “he” = “your husband” and “a lawyer” = “do for a living”, in order to keep see that lines 1 and 5 are a pair. Katy follows up in line 8, but sensing that her enthusiastic “that’s awesome!” could apply to many things, she uses Chris’s name in order to address the comment clearly. Sometimes you just have to tell people you’re talking to them!
Lesson activity
Drawing our learners’ attention to this aspect of e-language helps them to develop their online communication skills, but at the same time shows them the importance of cohesion in their language use more generally, using pronouns and linking words to make their writing make sense, for example. And as with everything computer-related, the use of the technology itself can often be fun and motivational! Download the lesson activity document below for some ideas on how to incorporate this aspect of language into your lessons.
Overlapping chat – lesson activity PDF
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