Creation of a dictionary of children’s and youth’s internet language

Target group: secondary school
Group work: 3-4 people in a group
Why are we doing this? In training sessions for teachers, youth workers and parents, people often complain that they don’t understand at all what and how children and young people are talking online. We offer a solution! Together, we’ll create a glossary of online language for children and young people (valid for this time and among children in this area).

As part of this work, you will need to do some preliminary work by reading academic and pop-scientific sources, interviewing children and young people, and designing a short explanatory teaching material based on a given model.

Structure

1. Title page

2. Table of contents

3. Introduction

Why is this topicimportant at all? What is your aim? Define the key terms: child / young person, language, symbol, meaning, emoji, emoticon, communication, youth culture, etc. (you will have to pick out these words from your work). A brief overview of the structure of your work. Max 1 page.

4. Theoretical and empirical background

Read 5-7 academic sources in English or your local language that describe the online language of today’s children and young people. Why is it different from common slang? What impact does it have on language development? Why are children and young people so eager to innovate? What is local, what is global? etc. Max 4 pages.

5. Method and sample

All group member nterview 1-2 children or young people (agree on a more specific age range), asking them which words are used by today’s children and young people. Which emojis and in what sense? Record the interview and include transcripts (word-for-word transcripts from which details that might make it possible to identify the child/young person have been removed) in the appendices to the paper. In this chapter, describe who you interviewed, when, how long it took, why you interviewed them, how the interview went, what was difficult, what was surprising and what was fun.

Suggested interview schedule (you can add questions, adapt it, make it more suitable for your own group work):

• Which social media platforms are you active on? What are your favourite activities? Do you follow anyone in particular? Why?
• Who do you interact with online? On which platforms? What do you usually talk about?
• How do you express joy and positive emotions online?
• But how do you express anger and other negative emotions?
• How do you think online language differs from ‘normal’ language? Do people talk differently online?
• What are the words that almost all children know today, but adults don’t understand?
• Why do children and young people invent their own language?
• Is it a good or bad thing if adults also understand and know your language?
• What do these words mean, help me understand?
• Have you ever seen a situation where an adult has tried to use the language of a young person, but it was somehow particularly awkward and embarrassing?
• What are your top five emojis? (you can look at them together if it suits the child) In what situations do you use them, what do they mean?
• Which emojis do you NEVER use? Why?
• Is there anything else you’d like to add that I didn’t realise to ask about?

6. Results

Make a ‘dictionary’ – what words/emojis/audio clips are used for what. Try to come up with 7-10 words or emojis or some kind of significant meme.

Word/emoji	Possible equivalent in your local language	Meaning, example of usage	Additional sources

7. Reflection/summary

Write a summary of how the job was done and what worked and didn’t work. What surprised you, either positively or negatively? This is where you can share your personal and reflective thoughts on the work and its results.

8. References

9. Appendices – transcriptions

Author
Maria Murumaa-Mengel (maria.murumaa@ut.ee), Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Tartu