COURSE: CONVERSATIONAL

ENGLISH I – LESSON 7
Professor: Ylmer Aranda
Contents
• The digital conversation • Video calls
• Social networks • Live hangouts
• Smartphone applications • Chat rooms
• Software • Forums
The digital conversation
• Unlike the written conversation,
the digital (or virtual) conversation
only implies computing devices.
Therefore, the information is non
physical.
• Digital conversations affect all
languages written in virtual
platforms, not only English.
• One of the main consequence of
virtualized conversations is the use
of acronyms, abbreviations and
emoticons.
Social networks
• Used by millions of people, social
networks connect everybody
through the world with real time
interactions.
• Most social networks use chats to
keep people connected.
• In English, there are lots of
abbreviations to express complete
sentences or ideas.
• The influence of English on other
languages can be seen in foreign
verbs, such as tuitear (Spanish).
Smartphone applications
• Several smartphone applications
(“apps”) have replaced
conversational texts for audio,
videos and photos.
• As a consequence, conversations
have become rare in the
traditional form, that is, they are
more iconographical.
• Some apps can send messages
through voice recordings.
Software
• Having a conversation can be
done through a software
installed in personal computers
and laptops.
• Nevertheless, virtual
conversations have become
more and more rare in this
platform, because smartphones
and tablets are better devices to
perform the same functions.
Video calls
• Although they can be done
through software, video calls are
often present through
smartphones and tablets.
• Modern mass media use this
technology to have interviews
and living conversations with
users.
• American developers have been
the pioneers on making
technology for video calls.
Live hangouts
• Google was the company that
made popular the concept of a
hangout.
• A hangout is, in fact, a type of
video call.
• This kind of American
technology has been able to
connect millions of users
worldwide, not just in the
United States.
Chat rooms
• In the same way as hangouts, video
calls and other technologic
gadgets, chat rooms have spread in
the world, in different languages.
• English became more popular
because chat rooms spread the use
of emoticons.
• Therefore, chat rooms were virtual
places in which English was more
powerful through globalization.
Forums
• Forums had a power compared
to chat rooms in terms of the
globalization of the English
language.
• There also a wide use of
emoticons and other multimedia
resources to express ideas in the
conversations.
• In forums, all conversations
occur in threads.
Thank you!