Spring is just around the corner and with it a raft of meeting opportunities for language professionals eager to learn and exchange the latest developments. Finally, I want to take this opportunity to remind our readers and the visitors to the Agora Language Marketplace that your names are never distributed to marketing firms or recycled in any way to the junk email industry. Small classes, all instructors degreed in Spanish Philology, communicative teaching approach, professional and teachers' programs available. While there seems to be a difference of opinion on how language has been shaped thus far, there seems to be no doubt that the Internet is propelling current language evolution. The Internet is a giant context that invites informal communication, and there is lots of experimentation going on.
People neglect to use capital letters, sign their email and use other formalities.
Linguists are also studying the impact of casual spelling and punctuation and the frequent use of parentheses in email. Sven Birkerts, an English professor at Bennington College is less positive noting that the speed at which email can be created and delivered leads to the impoverishment of language. Some journals even refuse to accept submissions by email for fear that the articles written will be less than first draft quality. However, Larry Freidlander, an English professor at Stanford University where an introductory humanities course has been revamped to include web site design and email, believes that students' writing skills are qualitatively different than before. They are learning to quickly formulate their ideas into written language and create an argument.