Semiotic Theory and Language Learning

Language changes. A linguist believes that change is the very nature of language, that language is in the throes of change all the time. The extent to which language has changed from Chaucer’s Middle English, or even Shakespeare’s Elizabethan English, can be clearly seen. And today advanced electronic computer technology is having a revolutionary effect upon what constitutes the language of our culture: that is, the language in which cultural affairs are carried on. The language of our culture is no longer verbal language alone, but the whole array of electronic multi-media, particularly television and computer. It is this new cultural language that must be the concern of language educators, which I believe includes all of us who are concerned with education.