How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Impacts of Communication Technologies on Language and Literacy Skills <s> Preface to the Classic Edition. Foreword. 1. From Sound to Meaning: A Framework for Analysing Comprehension. 2. Specific Language Impairment. 3. Speech Perception. 4. Understanding Word Meaning. 5. Grammatical Knowledge in Sentence Comprehension. 6. Understanding Sentences in Real Time. 7. Understanding Discourse: Integrating Language and Context. 8. Understanding Intended Meaning: Social Aspects of Comprehension. 9. Modularity and Interaction in Language Development and Disorders. <s> BIB001 </s> How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Impacts of Communication Technologies on Language and Literacy Skills <s> In recent years, electronic games, home computers, and the Internet have assumed an important place in our lives. This paper presents a review of the research on the impact of home computer use on the development of children and adolescents. Time use data are presented along with a discussion of factors such as age, gender, and ethnicity, which impact the time spent on computers as well as the activities engaged in. Research on the impact of computer use on cognitive skill and academic development, social development and relationships, and perceptions of reality and violent behavior is reviewed. The special role of the Internet in the lives of adolescents is brought out using data from the HomeNet study. The paper concludes with recommendations for future study in order to better understand the growing impact of computers on our youth. D 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. <s> BIB002 </s> How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Impacts of Communication Technologies on Language and Literacy Skills <s> Preface 1. A linguistic perspective 2. The medium of Netspeak 3. Finding an identity 4. The language of e-mail 5. The language of chatgroups 6. The language of virtual worlds 7. The language of the Web 8. The future of the Internet Index. <s> BIB003 </s> How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Impacts of Communication Technologies on Language and Literacy Skills <s> Using our theoretical framework of multimodal processing, we developed and evaluated a computer-animated tutor, Baldi, to teach vocabulary and grammar for children with autism. Baldi was implemented in a Language Wizard/Player, which allows easy creation and presentation of a language lesson involving the association of pictures and spoken words. The lesson plan includes both the identification of pictures and the production of spoken words. In Experiment 1, eight children were given initial assessment tests, tutorials, and reassessment tests 30 days following mastery of the vocabulary items. All of the students learned a significant number of new words and grammar. A second within-subject design with six children followed a multiple baseline design and documented that the program was responsible for the learning and generalization of new words. The research indicates that children with autism are capable of learning new language within an automated program centered around a computer-animated agent, multimedia, and active participation and can transfer and use the language in a natural, untrained environment. <s> BIB004 </s> How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Impacts of Communication Technologies on Language and Literacy Skills <s> The number of children and adolescents accessing the Internet as well as the amount of time online are steadily increasing. The most common online activities include playing video games, accessing web sites, and communicating via chat rooms, email, and instant messaging. A theoretical framework for understanding the effects of Internet use on cognitive development is presented. The proposed framework, based on the cognitive information processing model, the sociocultural perspective, the PASS cognitive processing model, and the neurological orientation, organises previous research in terms of the cognitive consequences of common online activities. From a cognitive-developmental perspective, the Internet is a cultural tool that influences cognitive processes and an environmental stimulus that contributes to the formation of specific cognitive architecture. <s> BIB005 </s> How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Impacts of Communication Technologies on Language and Literacy Skills <s> Because technology in the home is becoming ever more available, understanding the role of technology in early childhood development is increasingly an opportunity and a concern for educators. This report examines data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99, to provide an overview of the role of technology in the home and its impact on reading and math achievement in the early grades. The results show that access and use of technology influence children's academic achievement. Although the results show that having access to technology can contribute significantly to the achievement of young children, mere access is unlikely to be sufficient for all young children to benefit from technology in the home. Adults will need to mediate the use of these potential learning tools for children. Based on the findings of this report, policymakers should support increasing the availability of computers for low-income families and continue to discourage extensive viewing of TV, and re... <s> BIB006 </s> How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Impacts of Communication Technologies on Language and Literacy Skills <s> Increasingly, young children are being exposed to computers at home and at school despite disagreement regarding the appropriateness and potential impact of technology on young children’s development. Many views that predominant the debates lack empirical support and are too broad in their scope. This study examines the existing empirical studies from 1985-2004 on the impact of computer use on preschooler’s social, cognitive, language development, and motivation. Findings are discussed within the framework of social and cognitive theories by Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky. <s> BIB007 </s> How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Impacts of Communication Technologies on Language and Literacy Skills <s> The hyperpersonal model of computer-mediated communication (CMC) posits that users exploit the technological aspects of CMC in order to enhance the messages they construct to manage impressions and facilitate desired relationships. This research examined how CMC users managed message composing time, editing behaviors, personal language, sentence complexity, and relational tone in their initial messages to different presumed targets, and the cognitive awareness related to these processes. Effects on several of these processes and outcomes were obtained in response to different targets, partially supporting the hyperpersonal perspective of CMC, with unanticipated gender and status interaction effects suggesting behavioral compensation through CMC, or overcompensation when addressing presumably undesirable partners. <s> BIB008 </s> How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Impacts of Communication Technologies on Language and Literacy Skills <s> Gestures are a significant part of communication and carry particular weight when using artefacts such as computers. This study investigates how gestures and utterances are used as resources in the interaction between children and preschool teachers when creating stories with the computer. The data consists of observations of 17 preschool teachers and 34 children who are engaged in making stories. The interaction between the child, the preschool teacher, and the computer has been documented on videotape and analysed by Interaction Analysis. The results show the preschool teachers' decisive significance as an interplay partner for the child's appropriation of a linguistic capacity outside of a here-and-now situation. <s> BIB009 </s> How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Impacts of Communication Technologies on Language and Literacy Skills <s> Patterns of typical Internet use provide the basis for defining functional Internet literacy. Internet use commonly includes communication, information, recreation, and commercial activities. Technical competence with connectivity, security, and downloads is a prerequisite for using the Internet for such activities. Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive skills consists of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Such a hierarchy provides a structure by which to organize the intellectual requirements for effective online communication, information, recreation, and commercial activities, and the technical skills necessary to operate the equipment that mediates Internet use. Functional Internet literacy, conceptualized as a range of cognitive skills applied to common online activities, is best achieved in formal learning environments. The assessment of cognitive skill deficits associated with specific online activities targets instruction. Functional Internet literacy is not the ability to use a set of technical tools; rather, it is the ability to use a set of cognitive tools. <s> BIB010 </s> How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Impacts of Communication Technologies on Language and Literacy Skills <s> The first generation of digital natives children who were born into and raised in the digital world are coming of age, and soon our world will be reshaped in their image. Our economy, our cultural life, even the shape of our family life will be forever transformed.But who are these digital natives? How are they different from older generations or digital immigrants and what is the world theyre creating going to look like? In Born Digital, leading internet and technology experts John Palfrey and Urs Gasser offer a sociological portrait of this exotic tribe of young people who can seem, even to those merely a generation older, both extraordinarily sophisticated and strangely narrow.Based on original research, Born Digital explores a broad range of issues, from the highly philosophical to the purely practical: What does identity mean for young people who have dozens of online profiles and avatars? Should we worry about privacy issues or is privacy even a relevant concern for digital natives? How does the concept of safety translate into an increasingly virtual world? Is stranger-danger a real problem, or a red herring? What lies ahead socially, professionally, and psychologically for this generation?A smart, practical guide to a brave new world and its complex inhabitants, Born Digital will be essential reading for parents, teachers, and the myriad of confused adults who want to understand the digital present and shape the digital future. <s> BIB011 </s> How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Impacts of Communication Technologies on Language and Literacy Skills <s> As online communication is more and more integrated in everyday life to support and maintain existing social ties, this study examined the factors associated with preference of face to face, phone or online conversations. A contextual framework that emphasizes the role of relationship origin, relationship intensity and content of communication on communication channel choice among adolescents was empirically tested. Based on a nationwide survey in Israel, it was found that communication content, relationship origin and place of residence affect the preference of face to face and online communication. Phone communication appears to be a more non specific channel to conduct personal and non personal conversations and relationship origin did not affect its use. These findings suggest that relationship origin is important, and face to face communication is preferred for ties that were initiated face to face and online communication for ties that were initiated online. For this sample of regular population, there is no indication that online communication tends to be personal or hyper personal. The use of all the communication channels is preferred to the maintenance of existing ties and is less used for the creation of new ties. <s> BIB012 </s> How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Impacts of Communication Technologies on Language and Literacy Skills <s> This paper presents a study of 88 British 10–12-year-old children's knowledge of text message (SMS) abbreviations (‘textisms’) and how it relates to their school literacy attainment. As a measure of textism knowledge, the children were asked to compose text messages they might write if they were in each of a set of scenarios. Their text messages were coded for types of text abbreviations (textisms) used, and the ratio of textisms to total words was calculated to indicate density of textism use. The children also completed a short questionnaire about their mobile phone use. The ratio of textisms to total words used was positively associated with word reading, vocabulary, and phonological awareness measures. Moreover, the children's textism use predicted word reading ability after controlling for individual differences in age, short-term memory, vocabulary, phonological awareness and how long they had owned a mobile phone. The nature of the contribution that textism knowledge makes to children's word reading attainment is discussed in terms of the notion of increased exposure to print, and Crystal's (2006a) notion of ludic language use. <s> BIB013
We can now consider the possible effects that communication technology may have on a child's language and literacy skills. A key assumption of many concerns is that the time spent using technology may be displacing other activities of greater developmental value BIB005 , such as sports and social activities. It is therefore important to consider whether evidence-based research findings show that there is developmental value in computer-mediated communication. Proposed effects on language. Models of language acquisition stress the importance of human interactions in developing language skills. Children raised in very deprived language environments can struggle, particularly with the development of social communication BIB001 . A major concern regarding communication technology is that it potentially encourages social isolation and that this may have a negative impact on language skills, particularly on social communication skills in that children spend less time interacting face-to-face with their family and peers BIB007 . The lack of face-to-face interaction means that many contextual and nonverbal language cues may be lost, and it is questionable whether conversational maxims such as turn-taking, response, appropriateness, relevance, formality level, and continuation are still adhered to in electronic communication. Families do report that in households with many media devices, there is a reduction in the number of social interactions that take place BIB011 . There is also an increasing trend for children to use technology without adult supervision and often in their own room  . Children ages between 8 and 11 years have an average of four media devices (e.g., television, stereo, mobile phone, computer games console) in their bedroom, and children ages 12 to 15 years have an average of six  . Many family members perceive that they are spending less time together and more time independently using technology than was the case a decade ago BIB011 . Some research has linked the presence of a computer at home with a decline in children's social relationships, but in the short term, this was found to be due to the novelty effect of having a computer  . The evidence from studies of electronic discourse is that conversational language rules are still adhered to  BIB003  ). There appears to be no research to date that has found conversational language skills to be adversely affected by using communication technology. If anything, the limited research in this area would suggest that electronic communication encourages users to be more aware of the need to provide contextual information, and may in fact enhance pragmatic language skills. In a study by  , teenage chat room users were found to adapt to features of the chat room environment by developing new communication strategies and creating a new communicative register. There is evidence that computer-mediated communication has encouraged new microcommunication behaviors BIB008 and modified communication strategies  . Users appear to be highly aware of social context BIB012 and adapt their relational tone, personal language, sentence complexity, and message composition time depending on their target recipient BIB008 ), which suggests a high level of cognitive awareness in terms of pragmatic skills. There is also evidence that chat groups and online forums develop dialects BIB003 . Users accommodate their own language to take into account the language environment; this again suggests that language and social communication skills are promoted by using communication technology and are not adversely affected. Despite concerns that technology reduces human interactions, the use of computer technology for communication purposes has in fact been found to promote social interactions, albeit electronically mediated ones. Children and young people are still communicating as much as ever, but simply via their electronic devices. The overall influence on social interaction depends on whether the social uses of the computer supplement or substitute other sources of social contact that young people have  . Research on very young children has investigated another common concern, whether a lack of adult-child interaction while children use the computer alone affects early learning by inhibiting early spoken language use BIB009 BIB007 BIB011 . BIB007 found that computer use with preschool children did not significantly inhibit or encourage language use, and that computers provided an equally rich environment for language development. However, adult presence with small children has been found to have significant effects on the way the computer is perceived BIB009 . Some researchers have stressed that the computer should be seen as a tool and that adult mediation is vital to promote learning through interactive discussions BIB006 . Use of nonverbal communication such as gesture has also been highlighted to promote quality interactions between an adult and child using a computer together; this in turn has shown positive effects on learning in literacy BIB009 . Computers are increasingly being used to promote early language learning BIB007 . Programs are available that develop pragmatic language skills in children with impaired language and autism BIB004 . Computer-mediated communication is also widely encouraged for second-language learning. Computeraided language learning programs have shown positive effects on disadvantaged children's language development and are now widely used in preschool Head Start centers across America BIB007 BIB002 ). The BIB009 and McCarrick and Xiaoming (2007) studies took place in school settings, but the concerns over adult supervision are perhaps even more important when children use computers at home. There is evidence that children are much less able than adults to assess the credibility and appropriateness of the content and language they are able to access via computer technology BIB011 . There is a wealth of information accessible via the Internet, but to be able to judge the credibility of information obtained requires a high level of cognitive skill as well as prior knowledge on which to base judgments. From the point of view of social communication, there have also been concerns regarding children's ability to judge what information is appropriate to share when communicating via the Internet and with whom to share this information BIB011 . Children have the low-level skills to access information but lack the higher order skills to evaluate it BIB010 . Research suggests that when using computer-mediated communication, many people are selective in their self-presentation BIB008 . In electronic discourse, the recipient of messages may be known or unknown  . The lack of nonverbal cues available when communicating with this technology makes it much more difficult to make judgements about what is conversationally appropriate for known or unknown recipients. It would seem that computer-mediated communication does not appear to have negative effects on specific language skills and may indeed have beneficial effects, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds or second-language learners. However, it would seem that there are valid concerns over the language content accessible to children via computers and their ability to make judgments about what is conversationally appropriate on such an open forum. There is a need for parents and caregivers to safeguard their children's interests in ensuring they are accessing developmentally appropriate language. Much of the research that has been mentioned has referred to language skills. We will now consider literacy skills and some of the more general cognitive skills that support literacy development. Proposed effects on literacy. There is research that shows that computer use may encourage the development of general cognitive skills that, in turn, should support the development of higher order language and literacy skills. Comparisons have been made between computer use and television viewing BIB002 . Research from the national "HomeNet" study carried out in America found that parents perceive the use of communication technology to be preferable and more beneficial than time spent watching television BIB002 . Evidence does support this view, although it is the content of media, and not the media itself, that has been found to have a positive or negative influence  .  reported that both computer and television use for educational purposes have positive effects on children's cognitive skills and school achievement. This study also investigated a common concern that computer use may be linked to attention problems in children and adolescents, which in turn may have a negative impact on learning BIB006 . The same study reported a small link between mild attention problems and heavy use of electronic media (although this study included television use), but there were no significant links between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnosis and media use. Similar concerns have arisen over the impact of media multitasking, which computer use promotes, whereby children use the computer to carry out several tasks simultaneously while also using other media, such as listening to music or watching television  . There is some limited evidence that this multitasking approach has negative effects on learning, as children engage with tasks at a more superficial level BIB011 . Although these would appear to be valid concerns, they are somewhat outweighed by the numerous studies that have found computer use to have positive effects on cognitive and metacognitive skills  BIB005 BIB010 BIB007  BIB002 . In particular, positive effects on visual intelligence and cognition have been reported  BIB002 , and these form the precursors to computer literacy development. Availability of computer technology at home has been linked to positive academic achievements in reading and math BIB006 , with households from lower socioeconomic status groups deriving the greatest benefit. There is a need for more research in this area to tease apart the benefits of computer-mediated communication relative to more passive information gathering, such as Internet browsing or game playing, because much research simply refers to nonspecific "computer use." Similarly, there is a need to define the point at which electronic media use is considered "heavy," and benefits to cognitive skills become outweighed by increased likelihood of attention difficulties. There is relatively little research that details specific literacy skills and the direct effects of communication technology on these. Most concerns refer to the unique nature of electronic communication as netspeak or written speech BIB003 . A widely publicized concern has been that children are using this language register of net speak or shortened "text speak" (i.e., abbreviations as used in mobile phone communication, such as b4 = before) in inappropriate contexts, such as written examinations. John  , an eminent and recently retired professor of English from University College, London, has spoken out in the media about the damage that this communication style is having on children's literacy skills and attainment. In actual fact, the limited research that has been carried out in this area has found a beneficial effect of text speak on literacy skills, where children who used abbreviated text speak were shown to have better phonological processing skills BIB013 . A similar concern is that computer spell-checking devices are de-skilling for children, and that the speed of some electronic communication encourages spelling and typing mistakes to be overlooked BIB003 . The informal language register of net speak has also been proposed to encourage poor written English. For example, the text of many Web pages is considerably shorter than printed text, using short sentences and paragraphs for ease of reading due to the constraints of screen size BIB003 . Punctuation is often used in net speak to convey meanings that cannot be provided by nonverbal cues, as would be used in face-to-face discourse (e.g., the use of "emoticons" such as :o) to indicate smiling). There has also been concern that this may transfer to children's written English and encourage grammatical and syntactic rules to be overlooked BIB003 . Despite the apparent validity of these concerns, there is no evidence as yet to support them, and no research exists that has linked net speak with poor language and literacy skills in these areas. Several large-scale research studies have highlighted the positive effects of computer use on literacy learning in general, and in particular for young children from disadvantaged backgrounds BIB007 . Computers have been shown to have positive effects on learning by improving self-esteem and motivation, as well as encouraging more effective thinking and problem-solving skills BIB007 