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The similarities and differences between written and spoken forms of language have been a focus of interest of many scholars. There is agreement that instead of being a dichotomy or one single continuum, the differences between spoken and written forms can be measured along several dimensions. The coming into existence of computermediated communication (CMC) has made the line of distinction even less obvious. It is technically a writing (key-pressing) behaviour but may be used to carry out spontaneous communication. This study is intended to investigate the special linguistic features of CMC versus non-CMC texts. The study adopts a corpus linguistic approach to analyse a host of 67 linguistic features in synchronous and asynchronous CMC genres and finds interesting differences in the use of these features when used in different temporalities of CMC contexts. A comparison of these features in CMC genres with those in non-CMC texts also reveals some special characteristics of language developed through the use of CMC. The study suggests that, within the general development of CMC, there are emerging genres reflecting particular contexts. As CMC may soon become a major means of communication, and corpus linguistics is an innovative linguistic approach, awareness of CMC is likely to be of increasing importance for language learning. Some pedagogical suggestions are proposed from the experience and findings that have been gained.

Communication has become one of the most popular applications of information technology. A considerable body of work addresses both theoretical and applied aspects of computer-mediated communication. However, much of this work has not been able to capture the complexity and significance of everyday communication activities and the mutual shaping of technologies and their use. This study uses a qualitative methodology based on interviews with undergraduates to explore how the properties of communication technologies, user motivations and social contexts interact to influence use and experience. The three specific technologies addressed are email, instant messaging and text messaging. Factors identified as relevant during interviews are presented, and their interactions explored. Findings suggest that use and experience of communication technologies are shaped by a variety of factors and their interactions, and that study of information and communication technologies cannot validly be removed from the personal and social contexts in which they are used.

This article looks into accounts of the computer mediated discourse medium of instant messaging programs. Previous accounts have compared communication within this medium either to solely written or to solely spoken language, thus neglecting its relationship to both or to the constraints generated specifically by the medium. Such accounts have therefore, often come to erroneously alarming conclusions. This article lays out an argument for the treatment of computer mediated communication through instant messaging programs as the beginnings of a set of new registers. / text

This study concerns the relationship between social and technological change. It asks whether the introduction of a new technology, computer mediated communication, enables scientists to engage in an altogether new and potentially more effective research activity, the online hunt for microbes. It shows that such technology, in the form of the Microbial Strain Data Network (MSDN), boosts significantly the overall speed, flexibility and extent of possible communication between microbe hunters and microbe suppliers. As a result, the global hunt for microbes in existing research and service oriented culture collections can transcend historiC geographic and institutional barriers that diminish its timeliness and comprehensiveness and, as a result, its potential utility. Therefore, the study hypothesises, microbe hunters will use extensively the MSDN's electronic mail and, especially, its online microbial strain databases. However, contrary to expectations, the mere availability of the MSDN is evidently insufficient to assure its widespread use. The MSDN was, in fact, little used during an extensive six month evaluation period in 1990191. Moreover, despite lowering its prices and increasing its strain database offerings, as well as improving its ease of use, the MSDN remains liltle used today. The study concludes that the MSDN's non-use reflects its general incompatibility with the context in which it was applied. The prevailing sociotechnological structure of microbiology diminishes significantly the accessibility, comparability, and reliability of shared strain data. In doing so, it reduces the potential benefits of CMC technology generally, and the MSDN in particular, in facilitating the online hunt for microbes. Success in the online hunt for microbes therefore requires changing the socio-technological context in which the hunt occurs. The discussion recommends possible changes to the socio-technological structure of microbiology to improve the online hunt's viability. It also points to the need for further research about the viability of the online hunt for microbes, as well as about the effective application of computer mediated communication technology to science generally.

Thesis (D.Tech.: Language Practice) - Dept. of Language and Translation, Durban University of Technology, 2007 / An in-depth investigation into the nature of composing was carried out to provide the theoretical basis for a computer mediated learning application, an interactive writing tutor computer program which might be customised by users to fit different educational contexts. The investigation was carried out within a critical realist perspective, from which viewpoint composing can be seen to have an external reality in common with other social phenomena. The intended outcome was to arrive at a description of writing which more closely approximated the reality so as to design more effective learning interactions, in particular, the writing tutor program itself

The recent advances in digital communication technologies have altered the way in which people socialize on a day-to-day basis. A question that has arisen in relation to this is what being somewhere together actually means at a time when our interactions are no longer confined to shared physical places. The phenomenon of being somewhere together (also: togetherness) has previously been studied within the fields of social presence theory (which focuses on digitally mediated ‘togetherness’ and primarily departs from a psychological perspective) and microsociology (which takes an arguably more interactional approach to the idea of being together but primarily focuses on face-to-face interaction). Therefore, what is missing is a conceptualization of togetherness that can account both for togetherness in contexts other than those mediated face- to-face and for the ways in which togetherness is potentially ‘created’ in social interaction. The purpose of this thesis is to address this shortcoming by examining the underlying problem of being together and the conceptualizations of being together in the two aforementioned discourses. For the theoretical analyses, the example of online chat conversation is used as the primary focus of study. The thesis comprises three main parts. In the first part, the question of why being together has become difficult to conceptualize since the introduction of electronic and digital communication technologies is explored. The second part of the thesis is a review of what being together stands for in social presence theory and microsociology, respectively. In the third part, the two reviewed understandings of being together are examined. Here, it is observed that social presence theory portrays being together as something that occurs in informational environments, while microsociology portrays it instead as something pertaining to framed (or specified) social situations. Thereafter follows a critical examination of being together in informational situations and being together in framed social situations in which the notions are analysed in relation to online chat. It is concluded that the second view of being together (as a framed activity) is more promising for the future study of togetherness in online chat environments, and potentially also for togetherness in digitally mediated environments more generally.