LINGUIST List 21.2448 Thu Jun 03 2010 FYI: New Deadline: Computer Mediated Communication in Africa Editor for this issue: Rachelle Felzien <rachellelinguistlist.org> To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm. Directory         1.    Rotimi Taiwo, New Deadline: Computer Mediated Communication in Africa Message 1: New Deadline: Computer Mediated Communication in Africa Date: 31-May-2010 From: Rotimi Taiwo <ferotaiyahoo.com> Subject: New Deadline: Computer Mediated Communication in Africa E-mail this message to a friend The Internet is the modern means of connecting billions of people spread all over the world, providing opportunities for exchange of information and interpersonal communication. Since their introduction to the continent, Internet and mobile telecommunications have radically changed the communication culture in the continent. Unlike the rest of the world, the penetration of Internet in Africa is very limited, the continent has experienced tremendous growth in the mobile services market, Africa being the world's fastest growing mobile market with an annual rate of 65%, which is twice the global average. Internet World Stats as at March 2009 gave the total number of Internet users in Africa as 54,171,500. This represents 5.6% of world's 1,596,270,108 Internet users. Africa being the most linguistically diversified continent in the world faces some challenges in the use of the various modes of computer-mediated communication (CMC). Most studies on CMC up-to-date focus mainly on Europe, America, Australia and Asia. This publication has a primary objective of bringing together perspectives of scholars based on in-depth basic, foundational, macro as well as micro-linguistic research on the use of CMC in Africa. Papers to be submitted may be based on qualitative, quantitative, descriptive, and historical research on the specific linguistic and sociolinguistic features of CMC and the socio-cultural adaptation of the technologies of CMC for communication in the African setting. The prospective subject areas to be covered include but are not limited to the following: - Electronic mailing - Instant messaging - Social networking - Text messaging - Blogging - Discussion forum - Virtual community - Online behavior (spamming, scamming, flaming, cyber-bullying, etc) - CMC in language teaching and learning contexts - CMC and literacy - Language mixing in CMC - Indigenous languages in CMC - Stylistic devices in CMC - Chat rooms, Internet Relay Chats (IRCs) - Paralinguistic features of CMC (emoticons, pragmatic rules) - Video conferencing - Bulletin Boards - Discourse features (turn-taking, coherence, conversational structure, etc) - Multimodality in CMC - Online communities - Multi-user Dungeons (MUDs) - Media Sharing Sites (MSSs) - Face and Politeness in CMC - Multilingual Internet - Gender in CMC Submission Procedure: Researchers, scholars and professionals who are working on CMC in Africa are invited to submit on or before July 30, 2010, a chapter proposal of not more than 2 pages, clearly stating the purpose of the chapter and its contents, as well as how the proposed chapter relates to the overall objectives of the handbook. A proposal should contain the following information: (a) Title of chapter (b) Name of author(s), (c) E-mail address and affiliation (d) Specific details on area to be covered Submissions should be in Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by August 15, 2010. Upon acceptance of their proposals, authors will have until October 30, 2010 to prepare their chapters of 5,000-7,000 words. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Guidelines for preparing chapters will be sent upon acceptance of proposals. Authors will be notified about acceptance/rejection of chapters on December 30, 2010. The editors have contacted book is tentatively scheduled to be published in 2011 by one of Germany's top language series publishers. Please e-mail all inquiries and proposal submissions to: ferotaiyahoo.com Author's full contact: Dr Rotimi Taiwo Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, 220005, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. +234 803 9746, +234 805 460 2681 Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 03-Jun-2010       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.