Hi again,

It's been several months since I last posted a new message on my blog, but I've been avidly reading and reading, and I think that the following will interest you, especially those teachers of English who incluse as much novelty and up-to-date news in the EL classroom as they can.

I was surprised when I read a few weeks ago that the verb ‘unfriend’ was named ‘Word of the Year’ by the New Oxford American Dictionary (chosen from a tech-savvy list) since it best summed up 2009 and had real lexical appeal. This word was defined as removing someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site (Facebook) and it was also noted that it had both currency and potential longeveity. In fact, when I say 'surprised', I certainly don't mean it in its negative context, but rather I felt somewhat awkward as to how quickly the Internet has pervaded into the English vocabulary. I'll also give you the shortlisted finalists and their meanings:

- ‘hashtag’ - the hash sign (#) added to a word or a phrase that lets Twitter users search for tweets similarly tagged

- ‘intexticated’ - when people are distracted by texting while driving

- ‘sexting’ - the sending of sexually explicit text messages or pics by cell phone

- ‘freemium’ - a business model in which some basic services are provided for free

- ‘funemployed’ - people taking advantage of newly employed status to have fun or pursue other interests

- ‘birther’ - conspiracy theorists who challenge the U.S. President’s birth certificate

- ‘choice mom’ - a person who chooses to be a single mom

- ‘deleb’ - dead celebrity

- ‘tramp stamp’ (or ‘tart art’) - a tatoo on the lower back (particularly on a woman)

And I have also made up my version of a short paragraph that contains all these abovementioned words in the correct context:

- Example: Unfortunately, I will have to unfriend John’s choice mom on Facebook since she has a tramp stamp and lives in a brown state. Another reason for my doing this is just last night she had posted a comment on her wall that while driving to a green-state ecotown that day to attend a rally for the birther movement, she got intexticated while sexting on her cell phone and crashed into the side of a tree by the road. Is this her idea of being funemployed after losing her job at the zombie bank? I would personally think that she should become a soccer mom or even learn the basics of using her new netbook, then further move up to hacking paywalls of websites for delebs.

Now, how can we as teachers put to use this phenomenon of Internet English in the EL classroom? What I suggest is to make students (this applies to higher levels of students) aware of how the language changes,and that it is in no way static! Even discuss how the meaning of 'tag' (as a 'price tag') has been extended to the Facebook realm, and conclude by emphasising that the meaning of one word might be the same in its many other derived forms. They'll get the idea! Students like such examples because they too are frequent visitors of this e-world, yet now we expand their horizons on words and meanings of words!

All the best til next reading,

A.