MODULE 1:

Definitions and Basic

Concept of CMC

INTRODUCTION

Given the multi and interdisciplinary nature of Computer-mediated communication

in an era that is often referred to as the Information Age or even the Knowledge
Society, it is necessary to carefully delineate the key terms and concepts of this
complex area of study in this first module. In this age and society we constantly wit
ness a massive explosion of new types and styles of communications gadgets such
as computers of all types (including desktops and laptops), PDAs, mobile phones,
Blackberries, etc; and media like the internet, emails, ICQ, chat, text messaging and
others. We can expect that new ones will be invented. All these types and styles of
communication gadgets lead to new terms and concepts that can potentially have
differing interpretations from context to context.
MODULE 1 ELS 314: Computer-Mediated Communication

In this course, Computer-mediated Communication for Linguistics and

Literacy: Technology and Natural Language Education, I will discuss how these
different types and styles of information and communication technologies impact
the way we communicate. In particular, I will examine the nature and uses of
language in what may be described as a revolutionary environment for
information and communication. As these communication technologies bring us
closer together, we are forming a global village, and indeed, this era has also been
referred to as an era of globalization. We will find that in this global village our
everyday communications may involve not just one language, but several
languages. In fact, it is hardly ever sufficient to operate in only one language
anymore. Bilingualism/multilingualism is now an essential part of this
information communication revolution. I will ex amine how these combinations of
technologies and languages affect the nature and structure of each language and
whether this leads to changes in language structure and language use.
Not only are these technologies creating an environment of multiplicity of
languages, they also have an impact on the way we read, write, and process
information. I will examine the different ways in which we are called upon to
speak, read, and write in these different technological environments. We will notice
that we are called upon to juggle different ways of reading and writing in these
different environments. Literacy is no longer a mono-modal practice but very
much multimodal; various kinds of literacies are needed to function well in the
information society.
This ecology of languages, literacies, and technologies will be shown to be
very dynamic, and in this ever-changing ecology many issues about human nature
will be discussed. In particular, an examination of these interrelationships helps us
understand some important aspects of our culture and society. Throughout the
course I will examine some consequences for learning and knowledge acquisition
in this complex ecology, and attempt to show how we can harness these languages,
literacies, and technologies to improve education for our future generations.

Outline of the Module

Towards addressing all these issues, this introductory module is organized as

follows. The next part will outline the objectives of the course. Following from
this I will then address important foundational concepts such as language,
linguistics, literacy, and Computer-mediated communication before examining
their interrelations in the next part. The discussion concludes with an attempt to
put together all the ideas introduced in this module.

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ELS 314: Computer-Mediated Communication MODULE 1

OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE

A first objective of the course is to enable readers to analyze and reflect on the inter
relationships between languages, literacies, and technologies. Such analysis and
reflection are critical to understanding how human language, literacy as a knowledge
base, and information technology coalesce to constitute the building blocks of the
emerging field of Computer-mediated communication.
A second objective is to become acquainted with a variety of arguments sur
rounding language use, literacy practices, and general communication habits within
the context of ICTs. These various arguments and “debates” such as whether or
not we get new forms of language or whether or not language finds different uses
with the evolution of new technology, among others, will be taken up in different
modules.
A third objective is to consider questions on the extent to which these new
technologies and practices can be harnessed and incorporated into the school
curriculum for educational gains. The internet as a product of the age of IT, for
instance, was not invented with clear educational goals in mind. But it and allied
technologies have fast become important pedagogical tools. I will examine the
theories underlying learning and consider how to use these technologies to
develop adequate learning environments for language education, and indeed how
to evaluate these learning environments.
A fourth objective is to enable users of this course to get acquainted with
academic research and writing on new ways of communication in the information
age. Stu dents and other readers who use this course can start developing the skills
to write academic papers based on the discussions, arguments and theoretical
positions taken on various issues.
In sum, then, a major objective of this course is to explore the ways in which
language and linguistics, on the one hand, and information communications
technology, on the other are related. One would want to know if there are causal and
deterministic relations between these entities. Do they have a common subject
matter? Do changes in one influence the other? Can we use knowledge in one to
enhance understanding of the other? A basic analysis of each of these, especially
simple working definitions and explanations, should help us to tease out the
relationships.
With these stated objectives, I now look at the various foundational concepts
of the course.

Definitions and Basic Concept of CMC Page 3 of 8

MODULE 1 ELS 314: Computer-Mediated Communication

FOUNDATIONAL CONCEPTS
Language and Linguistics
Language, as is widely known among linguists and other language scientists, is a
system of codes for communication. In this respect we need to recognize that there
are various kinds of languages, including human or natural language, animal
language, artificial language and other systems of communication, and in this
course I would be more focused on the relationship between human language and
information communications technology.
Linguistics is the science that studies the nature, structure, and functions of
language. This science of language seeks to answer questions including how it is
that language is acquired, how it is processed in the brain, the structure of
language, in general, and individual languages, in particular, and how this
linguistic structure is used as a tool for human to human and human to machine
communication. Linguistics is sometimes referred to as the most scientific of the
humanities disciplines and the most artistic of the science disciplines, thus
testifying to its vast interdisciplinary area. Indeed, Linguistics, as a major area of
academic studies, has a vast scope, spanning the humanities, social sciences, and
natural science. Each of the modules in this course touches on some aspect of
the structure of language in general and particular human languages such as
English and Chinese, and how these structures are used in each of the socio-
technological environments that we will see, including the popular social
networking systems like MSN, YouTube, and Facebook. In this sense then this
covers linguistic phenomena that span entire areas of the humanities, social
science, and natural science.

Information Communications Technology

The turn of the century has witnessed a massive presence of computers in our
everyday life. Computers are now ubiquitous artifacts in homes and offices. The
historical evolution of CMC is in itself a topic worthy of a course length
publication and while it is not the focus in this course, it is important to note that
the events that have led to what is a massive presence of computers in this century
have engendered a number of terms to describe the disciplines that deal with
computers and cognate tools. Computer Science (CS) is the de facto term that
represents the traditional disciplines with computers – their architecture and their
functions as central concerns. Information Technology (IT) is an alternative term
for Computer Science, and is historically more recent than the term Computer
Science but it is much more than that since it actually lays emphasis on the
information processing aspects, rather than on just the raw technology per se. In

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ELS 314: Computer-Mediated Communication MODULE 1
recent times, the term Information Technology (IT) has been extended to include
‘communications’, with varying nomenclatures such as Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) or just simply Information Communications
Technology (ICT). This extension underscores the communicative aspects of
information processing; in other words, the discipline has grown, historically, from
just emphasis on the science and technology of computer architecture to the
information processing aspects, especially those that deal with meaningful
transfers of information between entities on different locations (Shortis, 2001). So
ICT is simply defined as the discipline which deals with the use of technologies to
communicate and to process information.
In this sense, the tools involved go beyond computers to include other digital
tools such as mobile phones, PDAs, and Blackberries. This emphasis on computers
in facilitating communication between entities, especially with a massive explosion
of the internet and allied tools like email, MSN, and blogs has led to newer terms
such as Computer-mediated Communication (CMC).

Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC)

The term Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been chosen as the title
of our course mainly to stress the point that this and allied terms underlie the
evolution over time and space of newer and interdisciplinary areas of study
involving how human languages and computers/IT intermingle to serve society’s
needs. These newer areas of study include Computational Linguistics, Human
Language Technology, and IT-based learning and teaching. There are even terms
like Internet linguistics or e-linguistics to express the fact that so much language
and linguistic analysis is facilitated by the internet and other electronic resources
both as tools and as repositories of these analyses.
The term, CMC itself has been used in various ways by various authors such as
Baron (1998), December (1996), and Thurlow, Lengel and Tomic (2004); it thus
necessarily has a varied number of definitions. Baron (1998) simply sees it as “a
domain of information exchange via computer”. (p142). December (1996)’s
definition of CMC, along with Baron’s, is one of the earliest and it is as follow:

Internet-based, Computer-mediated communication involves information exchange

that takes place on the global, cooperative collection of networks using the TCP/
IP protocol suite and the client-server model for data communication. Messages
may undergo a range of time and distribution manipulations and encode a variety
of media types. The resulting information content exchanged can involve a wide
range of symbols people use for communication. (p24)

Definitions and Basic Concept of CMC Page 5 of 8

MODULE 1

Our Own Definition of CMC

For us CMC is defined as the coding and decoding of linguistic and other symbolic
systems between sender and receiver for information processing in multiple formats
through the medium of the computer and allied technologies such as PDAs, mobile
phones, and blackberries; and through media like the internet, email, chat systems,
text messaging, YouTube, Skype, and many more to be invented. As is seen, the term
computer itself is no longer limited to desktop and laptop devices but generalizes
onto smaller but even more powerful gadgets like palmtops, mobile phones, and
PDAs, all with internet connectivity. We can therefore comfortably extend the term
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) to Internet-mediated communication
(IMC) which involves the processing of linguistic and other symbolic systems
through the internet and allied technologies by interaction between sender(s) and
receiver(s).
Of course, in the course, as seen from the stated objectives above, the focus on
CMC is to enable us analyze the use of natural languages on the internet and the
new forms of language that are being produced. I will also analyze the educational
implications and applications of natural language in the context of CMC.
Another aspect I highlight in my treatment of CMC that is not often distinguished
in earlier works is this: rather than focus on distinguishing between synchronous
(real-time communication) CMC and asynchronous CMC (delayed communication)
I instead concentrate on a distinction between text-based CMC and video-based
CMC. This is because the distinction between types of CMC based on synchrony
of communication is getting blurred by developments in technology. For instance,
email has often been listed as an asynchronous CMC but developments in broad
band and internet connectivity make it possible for email to be used by two people
separated by vast oceans to engage in a fairly reasonable real-time communication
with each other, just as is done with most other real-time chat systems such as MSN
chatting.
However, with regards to text-based and video-based CMC, even though one can
talk of “mixed mode CMC”, there is a fundamental distinction in the kind of activities
that accompany either. Text-based CMC involves communication partners transmit
ting information between each other mainly through the medium of the written word
along with other symbolic systems such as numbers and emotional icons. However,
video-based CMC involves primary communication through the medium of moving
images. Text communication may accompany the video communication process but
this is secondary and is meant to serve as talk around the image, so to speak.
Having outlined definitions and discussions about the foundational terms, it is
now time to discuss how they interrelate and are tied together into one whole theme
about communication.

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MODULE 1

INTERRELATING THE FOUNDATIONAL CONCEPTS

Communication
It can be deduced from the above that once we define language and process this
concept in terms of a system of communication, we immediately recognize a clear
relation, link and, possibly, common subject matter between language and
information communications technology. Communication, including mass
communication as discussed by authors such as McQuail (2005), is one major
feature that glues the concepts of Language, Linguistics, CS, IT, ICT and, finally,
CMC together. All are knowledge bases, disciplines and tools that are in one way
or the other concerned with the subject matter of facilitating communication
between entities. A possible methodology then in understanding the workings and
interrelationships is to em bark on a sustained examination of their architecture or
internal logic and how this internal logic facilitates communication.

Literacy

Another way in which we can find a relationship among the terms is to seek to
understand what is necessary to have a basic understanding of these tools, i.e. how
we can understand and help others to understand how to code and decode the
information or communicative messages processed by each of these tools? This
brings us into the realm of literacy, an area of study dealing with the ability to
code and decode linguistic and other symbolic systems for communication and
information processing (Bodomo 2000). Literacy, like communication, is a
subject matter of all these knowledge bases. To function well in a society
characterized by a heavy information overload, individuals must have basic ideas
about these knowledge bases. The area of study that can facilitate this has
commensurate terms relating these bodies of knowledge, such as basic literacy,
computer literacy, information literacy, IT-literacy, electronic literacy
(Warschauer 1998, 2006), etc. All these types of literacy involve, not just
general language study, but also the development of literacy for specific purposes
and for people with learning disabilities (Macia, Cervera and Ramos, 2006). It
would seem that a second methodological perspective towards a sustained study
of these knowledge bases and their interrelations is a sustained examination of
these concepts in the field of literacy studies.

Definitions and Basic Concept of CMC Page 7 of 8

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CONCLUSION
In the age of IT, at least, two kinds of knowledge would be crucial for individuals
to function optimally in society: linguistic and IT skills. Therefore a study of these
two kinds of knowledge and how they relate to each other and are used is a worth
while enterprise. Thus this course on Computer-mediated Communication dealing
with language, literacy, and IT, is very relevant for understanding developments in
the Information Age. There are many differing opinions about the cause and effect
relationships between language and technology as a whole, and I will look at this
issue more extensively in the next module. Indeed, in later sections of the course I
will discuss a particular model for capturing the dynamic relationships between
language and (information) technology.

REFERENCES:

Baron, N. S. (1998). Letters by phone or speech by other means: the

linguistics of email. Language & Communication , 18, 133–170.
doi:10.1016/S02715309(98)000056
Bodomo, A. B. (2000). Lecture notes on Language and Literacy. Computer literacy
and language educational technology. The University of Hong Kong. URL:
http:// ecourse.hku.hk:8900/public/LING2011
December, J. (1996). Units of analysis for internet communication. Journal of
Computer-mediated Communication , 46(1), 14–38.
Macia, E. A., Cervera, A. S., & Ramos, C. R. (Eds.). (2006). Information technology
in languages for specific purposes: Issues and prospects. New York:
Springer.
McQuail, D. (2005). Mcquail’s Mass Communication Theory. 5th ed. London: SAGE
Publications.
Shortis, T. (2001). The Language of ICT: Information and Communication Technol
ogy. London and New York: Routledge.
Thurlow, C., Lengel, L., & Tomic, A. (2004). Computer mediated communication:
Social interaction and the internet. London: SAGE Publications.
Warschauer, M. (1998). Electronic literacies: Language, culture and power in online
education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Warschauer, M. (2006). Laptops and literacy: learning in the wireless classroom:
Teacher’s College, Columbia University.

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