Pickled peers;Talkback
Share
Pickled peers;Talkback
https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/pickled-peerstalkback
It was a strange dialect, with terms such as “booting”, “browsing”, “pickling”, “glazing”, “irritainment” and “softlifting”. There were also curious phrases such as “serendipity search” and “shoulder surfing”.
When the class took a break, the conversation turned to the plight of a sixth-former who had been overdoing the “byte bonding” during “vampire time” to the extent that he was about to be “uninstalled” from his A-level classes. Another had been forced to take part in a “blame-storming session” in the principal’s study.
I also overhead a few references to teachers. Their computer teacher was a “cybercop” because, presumably, she prevented her classes from accessing the more dubious sections of the Internet. Another teacher was a “cyber luddite” because she lacked an appreciation of modern learning technology.
These pupils were not only speaking a different language, they were inventing and developing it as they went along. Sometimes this involved giving existing words suffixes such as “ity” and “itis” to create new terms such as “functionality” and “single systemitis”.
Such imaginative use of language destroys the myth that our pupils are unable to master new languages. This class’s interest in IT meant they were keen to learn as much as possible. Where there is interest, there is definitely motivation to learn.
Calum Stewart teaches geography in Scotland Talkback
You've reached your limit of free articles this month. Subscribe for £1 per month for three months and get: