When typing in a language other than their mother tongue, participants in a study used emoticons more often than they would normally, says research.Emoticons have become increasingly used – and increasingly accepted – in written correspondence and could have a real application when trying to set the tone despite language barriers and cultural differences.
"As with any language, we're seeing a proliferation of new vocabulary across languages," says Dr Cecilia Aragon, associate professor of human centred design and engineering at the University of Washington. "Some of the face-to-face patterns we see in bilinguals are being echoed online."
Heavy emoticon use when speaking a second language reflects previous research indicating that people rely on facial expressions, gestures and body language more when speaking face-to-face in their second language.
In the study, the research team worked with AOL Instant Messenger chat logs among 30 astrophysicists, and saw that native French speakers used more emoticons when communicating with their American colleagues in English.
Aragon presented her paper at the symposium Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Bases of Communication: New Analytic Approaches in San Jose, California.She is now exploring the use of emoticons in casual chat and social media sites such as Twitter and online forums.
The emergence of heavy emoticon use in written correspondence is controversial for researchers in Los Angeles, California, who say they over-simplify communication and hinder the process of learning to distinguish emotions on real faces for young people.
Last summer, they released a study in which teens cut off from their screens for five days made progress in learning to communicate face-to-face and to read non-verbal cues.Yet emoticons have already found a practical application in mental health therapy, for in the wake of an influx of mood-tracking apps, one emerged recently called Emojiary.
A spin-off on the popular Emoji app that lets users pepper up text messages with an array of hundreds of colourful cartoon faces and symbols, Emojiary lets users track their moods by finding an emoticon that represents how they're feeling.
Mood tracking is normally done in the interest of relieving depression, anxiety and other troubles and apps such as Emojiary replace the act of keeping a journal that therapists are well known to recommend. – AFP Relaxnews
"As with any language, we're seeing a proliferation of new vocabulary across languages," says Dr Cecilia Aragon, associate professor of human centred design and engineering at the University of Washington. "Some of the face-to-face patterns we see in bilinguals are being echoed online."
Heavy emoticon use when speaking a second language reflects previous research indicating that people rely on facial expressions, gestures and body language more when speaking face-to-face in their second language.
In the study, the research team worked with AOL Instant Messenger chat logs among 30 astrophysicists, and saw that native French speakers used more emoticons when communicating with their American colleagues in English.
Aragon presented her paper at the symposium Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Bases of Communication: New Analytic Approaches in San Jose, California.She is now exploring the use of emoticons in casual chat and social media sites such as Twitter and online forums.
The emergence of heavy emoticon use in written correspondence is controversial for researchers in Los Angeles, California, who say they over-simplify communication and hinder the process of learning to distinguish emotions on real faces for young people.
Last summer, they released a study in which teens cut off from their screens for five days made progress in learning to communicate face-to-face and to read non-verbal cues.Yet emoticons have already found a practical application in mental health therapy, for in the wake of an influx of mood-tracking apps, one emerged recently called Emojiary.
A spin-off on the popular Emoji app that lets users pepper up text messages with an array of hundreds of colourful cartoon faces and symbols, Emojiary lets users track their moods by finding an emoticon that represents how they're feeling.
Mood tracking is normally done in the interest of relieving depression, anxiety and other troubles and apps such as Emojiary replace the act of keeping a journal that therapists are well known to recommend. – AFP Relaxnews
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