An Interpenetration of Discourses: Adolescents Negotiating the Tensions between Instant Messaging Pr

1
An Interpenetration of Discourses Adolescents
Negotiating the Tensions between Instant
Messaging Practices and In-School Writing

• Gloria E. Jacobs
• Warner Graduate School of Education Human
  Development
• University of Rochester
• AERA April, 2004
  San Diego, CA

2
Claim

• I argue that the tensions between in-school and
  out of school literacies are socially situated
  and context specific as such it is reductive to
  make generalizations about the affect of instant
  messaging on student writing.

3
Theoretical Analytic Framework

• New Literacy Studies
• Literacy as a social practice (Street, 1995)
• Literacy is locally situated (Barton, et al,
  2000)
• Literacy is ideological (Street, 1995 Lankshear
  Knobel, 2003)
• Text as multi-modal, including speech writing
  (Fairclough, 1995 Kress,2003 Neilsen, 1998 New
  London Group, 1996)
• Discourses and Discourse Communities (Gee, 1999)
• Discourse Analysis
• Functional grammar (Halliday, 1994)
• Linguistic anthropology (Goffman, 1974
  Duranti,1997 Ochs, 1988)
• Register a way of using language that is
  associated with particular people and particular
  social practices (Halliday, 1978 Ochs, 1988).
• Keying a set of conventions by which a given
  activity, one already meaningful in terms of some
  primary framework, is transformed into something
  patterned on this activity but seen by the
  participants to be something quite else (Goffman,
  1974, pp. 43-44)

4
Context of Study

• School district considered to be one of the most
  impoverished in New York State
• CSD 63.3 Black, 19.1 Hispanic, 15.4 White,
  2.2 Other
• Free lunch rate 68.8 (measure of poverty)
• Arts High 47.1 Black, 17 Hispanic, 33.3 White,
  2.5 Other
• Research took place in the den of the
  participants home

5
Data Collection

• 5 hours videotaping and participant observation
  over a four month period using two cameras
• 2 audiotaped face-to-face interviews
• 1 60 minute interview
• 1 80 minute interview
• 4 online interviews using instant messaging
• Random collection of away messages and profiles

6
Consistent Inconsistency

• Functional Grammar
• Conjunction Use
• Pronouns/Deictics
• Identifying Nonstandard Forms
• Apostrophe/No Apostrophe
• Abbreviations/Letters Strings
• u/you
• Nonstandard spellings
• Misspellings Typographical Errors

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you versus u

• Text 1
• Jenny I cant believe you let go of the sarane
  rap! I mean friends dont knock friends off their
  beds! (Lisas 01-04-03 Profile)
• Text 2
• And I miss him sooooo muchyou cant even believe
  how much I want it to be Saturday so he will be
  home again! (Lisas 01-04-03 Away Message)
• Text 3
• Jenny do you hear that buzzing?
• By now you should have somehow realized what you
  had to do, I don't believe that anybody feels the
  way I do about you now....
• And there are many things that I, would like to
  say to you but I don't know how.
• You are everything I wanted... when are you
  going to realize that? (Lisas 01-07-03 Profile)
• Text 4
• Kewlkatt because like the priest called him
  danny and i was like ahhhhh u never said you name
  was danny!!!! (IM conversation 12/02/02)

8
Inconsistent Apostrophe Use

• Text 5
• mc95 (Max) itll be hard but I think ill be
  able to live without IM (11-18-02 IM session)
• Text 6
• well im in the shower thinking about all the
  stupid things ive done, its only 1 and today
  already sucks! (Lisas 1-04-03 away message)
• Text 7
• kewlcatt (Lisa) he was being all jerky and i
  was all like i dont know whats going on her
  here (12-02-04 IM session)

9
Individual Inconsistency

• Text 8
• Spicee arnt you prode proud of me! (12-02-03
  IM Session)
• Text 9
• Spicee hahhah are you seriouse
• Mallgurrl omg why not??? Have you seen him at
  school???
• Text 10
• Mallgurrl yeah well, my bf doesnt relaly call
  me ( unreadable on video )
• Mallgurrl so maybe when hes calling YOU
  tonight you could say yo eddy why dont you go
  call your gf?

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Interpenetration of Discourses

• 17Kewlkatt because like the priest called him
  danny and i was like ahhhhh u never said you name
  was danny!!!!
• 18posts text (91241 PM)
• 19Mallgurrl (91242)i just think it so ironic
  that every teacher in that school is connected to
  the same situation as one of the kids
• 20Kewlkatt i know hahaha
• 21posts text (91248 PM)
• 22Mallgurrl (91354 PM) i know
• 23Mallgurrl (91319 PM)and personally i dont
  know any teachers that owuld be like let me ride
  in the ambulance with you
• 24Kewlkatt haha i know but he felt all extra
  responcible cuz he knew what was going on and
  stuff i think
• 25posts text (91353 PM)
• 26Kewlkatt but i dont know thats why its TV
  right?
• 27posts text (91447 PM)

• Text 11 12/02/02 IM Session
• 1Kewlkattwhy is boston public amazing?
• 2posts text (91142 PM)
• 3Kewlkattoh tapeing by the way
• 4Posts text (91147 PM)
• 5Mallgurrl (91155 PM)i was just thinking the
  same thing!!!!!!
• 6Mallgurrl (91158 PM)hahaha!
• 7Mallgurrl (91205 PM)that epsiode was teh
  bestest!!
• 8Kewlkatti know
• 9posts text (91210 PM)
• 10Kewlkatt and then oooo po
• 11Mallgurrl (91213 PM)totally hardcore!
• 12Kewlkatt or danny
• 13posts text (91216PM)
• 14Kewlkatt hahahaha
• 15posts text (91219 PM)
• 16Mallgurrl (91219 PM)i know

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Conclusions and Implications

• Inconsistent use of conventions varied
• between friends
• within individual use
• between conversations
• The language and literacy practices of the
  participants when using instant messaging is
  inconsistent due to the situated nature of those
  language and literacy practices.
• The interpenetration of instant messaging and
  school-based writing conventions may have more to
  do with the local context of use rather than
  anything inherent within instant messaging.
• We need to resist the temptation to see computer
  mediated communication conventions as being
  universal or static and as such beware of
  sweeping statements and folk theory about the
  impact of instant messaging on student writing.