Abstract

This paper reports on pilot studies conducted in the Czech Republic and Italy on the influence that cyberlanguage may be exerting on linguistic communities of adolescents using virtual social networks, such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. These studies focus on the use of cyberlanguage and how this is developing in response to new technologies and channels of communication. Data was gathered through the administration of a voluntary written survey. The analysis of these data reveals a framework of linguistic strategies that adolescents use for on-line as well as off-line communications. This framework is used for a cross-cultural comparisons on Czech adolescents studying English as a second language (L2) with Italian (L2) adolescents. The adolescent speech varieties discovered in these studies reflect the types of observations suggested in the literature by other researchers in Europe and North America. These researchers highlight the existence of a specific speech code developed by adolescents for use in communications with their peers. The paper suggests that cyberlanguage appears to be exerting an increasing influence on adolescent communications. The paper concludes that, to make the curriculum relevant and of interest to the adolescent L2 learner, cyberlanguage should be introduced under the rubric of cultural material.