I feel kinda blah! Investigating language use in blogs

As social media users, English language students are likely to be faced with non-standard forms which are increasingly widespread in computer-mediated communication (CMC), where the distinction between spoken and written English seems to be blurred (Crystal 2011, 20). Indeed the language used in CMC has come to be considered as a new literacy (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011), and this is a variety which – as recently argued – needs to be taught explicitly to TESOL students (Bekar and Sidury Christiansen 2018). It seems therefore appropriate to provide them with access to resources and tools for the investigation of this specific variety. While certainly familiar with language use on the web through everyday practice with communication in social networks, students of English as a foreign language could greatly benefit from self-conscious reflection on specific aspects of CMC. In particular, awareness of the specific lexico-grammar patterns in which some non-standard forms most frequently occur, and of the function they perform at a pragmatic level, can fruitfully be explored and discussed on the basis of authentic data. This should enhance students’ awareness of Internet language use in context and foster their capability to critically evaluate new non-standard forms as they emerge. The proposed task explores the lexico-grammar profile of a common phrase in Internet English (i.e. kinda) using the Birmingham Blog Corpus (2010), a corpus consisting of nearly 630,000,000 words from blog texts. The Birmingham Blog Corpus is accessed for free through the WebCorp Linguist’s Search Engine website.