OMG, Language is Changing

We know communication technology is changing how we talk to each other. Currently 340 million people worldwide have instant messaging accounts, 24 million are on Facebook, and more than 1 trillion text messages were sent globally in 2005. With those numbers come changes in the way we write, read, and even listen to language.

Teachers from grammar school on up are wondering how tech-savvy kids who communicate with smily and winky faces will learn to write. High school teachers complain that kids can’t compose essays anymore. And college professors worry about a sea of distracted faces hiding behind laptop computers.

Naomi S. Baron, professor of linguistics at American University, has spent a decade researching how technology has influenced our reading, speaking, writing and listening behaviors. She joins Word of Mouth to dicuss her new book, "Always On: Language In An Online and Mobile World," and what will become of written culture.

Also, we hear about a machine to teach toddlers foreign languages, invented by a group of researchers at the University of California-San Diego. Reporter Molly Bently visited Ruby the Robot and her students for the BBC program Science in Action.

(Photo by QwirkSilver/Kristine)