Words on the Web

New communication technologies - video conferencing, email and the
World Wide Web - have provided new ways to interact with others, and
students can now observe the emergence and rapid development of
linguistic and social conventions for using these media.
The studies in this volume consider what people say when interacting
with others via new technologies, and the ways in which we mould and
combine the written, the spoken and the non-verbal in order to
express ourselves effectively within the confines of the new media
available to us. The breadth of activities covered here is extensive,
including:
• informal activities such as email and chat-room use
• educational uses of CMC, for collaborative learning and
language practice
• integration of CMC into formal work practice &endash; for
instance, in an ambulance dispatch centre.
The scope of the book ranges from Conversation Analysis to Genre
Theory and from Social Psychology to Politeness Theory. There is much
to contemplate for both designers of new communication as well as
those commissioning and buying these technologies for our homes,
schools and workplaces.
The collection of work here has been edited to recognise the range of
disciplines looking to this field and is of direct interest to any
linguist, psychologist or other social scientist working in the study
of human communication.

Editors

Dr Lyn Pemberton is Principal Lecturer in the School of
Information Management at the University of Brighton, with research
interests in Computer-supported collaborative design, multimedia for
language learning, and interaction design patterns.
Dr Simon Shurville is Educational Technologist at the
Technology-Assisted Lifelong Learning Unit of Oxford University's
Department for Continuing Education, where he designs and develops
Web-based learning materials.