language change – Educational Sociolinguistics

This is Your Language on Stress

by Conner

One of the small surprises I’ve encountered this semester is the struggles I’ve had in find things to write about for this blog–and for every other assignment, too. My writing has felt stilted and strange, and everything takes significantly longer than it did in the past. I mean…am I just getting old? Or is something else going on?

It could be because I’m under a lot of long-term stress because of the pandemic. Studies have shown that the more stressed you are, the less complex your thoughts—it’s called the disruptive stress hypothesis (Suedfeld & Rank, 1976).

So when even thinking about things is harder than it used to be, you can imagine the impact this will have on our personal interactions, including our ability to express ourselves clearly to others in speech and writing. Researchers have found that the ability to deliver a coherent narrative demands good executive functioning, and executive function is taxed under stress (Arnsten, 2009).

**I’d be sweaty too if I tried to run Zoom on that old computer in the background**
*Image by andreas160578 from Pixabay*

A 2014 study found the more stress you’re experiencing, the less complex thoughts you’ll be able to form and express to others (Saslow, et. al.).

Okay, this is all fine, but it’s mostly about the brain. Why did I want to put it in a sociolinguistics blog? Let’s say that, as the above study also noted, long-term exposure to stress can also lead to long-term changes in your brain, “which concurrently leads to both lower complexity and…exaggerated reactivity under pressure.” Stress makes you have problems thinking complex thoughts, which means you have problems expressing and understanding these thoughts in speech and writing when you try to deal with other people.

Oh, also, the tools we use to communicate have changed. It seems like changes in society + changes in our brains + changes in the ways we communicate with each other could result in some pretty fundamental language change.

**At least you’re kind of close to someone when you use one of these old school jams**
Image by Michael Schwarzenberger from Pixabay

Researchers at the University of Michigan have already began to study language change over the course of the pandemic. They note that previous crises like World War II caused language change because it brought people together in novel ways, but the current pandemic has been keeping people apart (Popiolek, 2020).

As society changes and our brains change concurrently, so will the way we speak to each other. So if you’re struggling, take consolation! You might just be stressed. Or getting old. Possibly a combination of the two.

Have you noticed a difference in the way you express your ideas to others since the pandemic has started? Beyond simple vocabulary changes, do you think we will see long-term linguistic effects from the pandemic in the future?

Resources

Arnsten A. F. (2009). Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. Nat Rev Neurosci, 10(6), 410-22.

Popiolek, K. (2020). Researchers study how COVID pandemic is affecting language change. MSU Today. https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2020/researchers-study-how-covid-pandemic-is-affecting-language-change/

Saslow, L. R., McCoy, S., van der Löwe, I., Cosley, B., Vartan, A., Oveis, C., Keltner, D., Moskowitz, J. T., & Epel, E. S. (2014). Speaking under pressure: low linguistic complexity is linked to high physiological and emotional stress reactivity. Psychophysiology, 51(3), 257–266. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12171

Suedfeld P. & Rank A. D. (1976) Revolutionary leaders: Long-term success as a function of changes in conceptual complexity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34(2), 169.

Keeping up with language change and social media

Elizabeth M.

As I walked in a classroom as a teacher for the first time, I had preconceived ideas as to “how a teacher should talk.” To attain this speech goal, I made a priority of creating a distance between students and myself with the use of language. My relationship between class and speech shifted to a model that unconsciously, fit the idea of borrowed prestige. My language use was assessed by my teacher-mentor and my supervisor, which enhanced my linguistic insecurity. I was very self-conscious of how my accent, expressions, and vocabulary were perceived by students, teachers, and my supervisor. I wanted to live up to my expectations of the teaching profession; thus, used more “standard”, informal to formal language to reach this goal. Little did my students know, I not only understood their language use, but used similar slang terms with friends outside of the classroom. This allowed me to make meaningful connections and generally add to their discussions in class. That is until last year. For the first time, I was unintentionally eavesdropping on a conversation between students and could not understand nor relate to what they were saying. I am on most social media apps, so I was perplexed by the idea that I was possibly already out of the loop. I texted my colleagues to see if this was happening to them as well. Their reply was: It’s a TikTok thing!

As social media platforms gain more and more followers, the effects of media on language change may increase accordingly. There are 3.80 billion social media users in the world, and this number is only growing. The considerable growth of social media is an example of how rapidly social behaviours, and along similar lines, how language is changing. The average person will spend more than 100 days online this year. This sheds light on the significant amount of time that is spent online and how our use of language may shift, change, and develop on these platforms. On a daily basis, an average of 3 hours is spent on social networks and messaging. We communicate differently online than we do in face-to-face interactions; thus, creating new language forms and new ways of expressing meaning. All of these statistics and statements, overwhelming as they may be, indicate a strong growth in social media use and illustrate new avenues for development related to language change.

As we can see in the chart, younger generations use social media more than older generations. Gen Z is not in this chart, but one can only imagine their use of certain social media platforms, as they are the first group in history that has not known a world without internet. Gen Z spends significantly more time on apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok than other generations. Language references like hashtag, DMs, grammable, selfie, GIF, unfriend, and photobomb emerged from the internet. Why is this important in the field of education and language teaching and learning? Understanding students and their multiple realities is crucial for teachers to be able to connect and relate to students on a deeper, more significant level. It may be valuable to examine to which extent these online communication platforms influence language change. My feeling is, although language of the mass media doesn’t often generate significant language change, online language use and its rapid growth may have more long-lasting impacts on language. As social media is becoming increasingly widespread on a global scale, the impacts generated in and through these platforms may affect all spheres of life. Social media is changing the ways in which people communicate and, as a teacher, I am looking forward to seeing these changes in the classroom and asking my fellow colleagues: “Ok, which social media app do I have to download now?”

References

Kemp. S. (2020). Digital trends 2020: Every single stat you need to know about the internet. TNW. Retrieved from https://thenextweb.com/growth-quarters/2020/01/30/digital-trends-2020-every-single-stat-you-need-to-know-about-the-internet/

Mohsin, M. (2020). 10 Social Media Statistics you need to know in 2020. Oberlo. Retrieved from https://www.oberlo.com/blog/social-media-marketing-statistics

Van Herk, G.(2018). What is sociolinguistics? (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell.

How your ways of speaking change when you move around?

Yidan

When you talk to someone who speaks a different version of English than you do, do you keep talking the way you do otherwise or do you find yourself slightly edging towards the way they speak? What about if you travel and you’re surrounded by people with another accent or dialect?

This topic came to my mind because I’ve noticed that my Irish roommate, an exchange student from Dublin, Ireland, who used to have a very strong and distinctive Irish accent is now accommodating to American or Canadian accent and diction. I still clearly remember eight months ago on the first day when we met, greeted and introduced to each other. I couldn’t catch all of what she said because of her strong Irish accent and some of her word use. Basically I was listening to her while guessing, and nodding, pretending I got what she said, which made me feel embarrassed and awkward. Soon after, I told her I went to Ganadara, one of the best Korean restaurants in Montreal. She asked me, “was there a queue?” I was silent for a few seconds while searching the word of queue in my mind since I haven’t heard and used this word for a long time. Then I replied, “yes, there was a very long line” which is typically used in American English. I was impressed again by her Irish English choice of words.

Languages change faster than we might think!

Raheel

In the third chapter of the textbook, we read about physical isolation and language change. Van Herk shed some light on some types of linguistic isolation and he touched upon the idea that usually when immigrants revisit their home counties, they find that the spoken language has changed slightly – or even significantly – from how it was when they lived there. Reading that chapter made me think about my own experience. In fact, even though I have been away from my homeland for a relatively short period of time (2 years and a half), I cannot recognise some aspects of language now commonly used in my home country.

Continue reading “Languages change faster than we might think!”