Contemporary English at LABCI ’09

I have to say I’ve been lucky enough to present a talk at LABCI ’09 in Buenos Aires last week to a very interested and high level audience. The subject of the talk is something that interests me particularly as both a teacher and a journalist. The recent changes in the language, some of which come from the non-native speakers influence, are really interesting and get us thinking about the future of the English Language.

Some coursebooks and even grammar books, like Grammar Scan, are already catering for this growing reality and explaining on their pages some now accepted misuses of language. But in spite of those innovative authors, most of those changes in the language, are still highlighted in most coursebooks as areas of common errors, or pitfalls.

The talk, which was a summary of the Oxford Seminar for Teachers held in Exeter College – Oxford, in 2008, also gets us thinking about some of the interferences of the web in the Language. This is what researchers call internet English, texting or cyber English.

The view and feedback of teachers at LABCI, from all over South America, about this theme made me feel I’m on the right track when I say we have to teach our students both the formal English and the one used on the web or for texting showing them both types of English can, and will, coexist for a long time to come.