Home, School, and City: Cultivating language in a digital world.

Abstract

This paper aims to show the importance of language and the challenges it faces in the digital revolution by considering the possibilities for cultivating it during adolescence in three fundamental spaces: Homes, Schools, and Cities. It starts by analysing the dual function of language as a means of both communication and representation, as how one receives one’s heritage and imagines and projects one’s future. It then considers the false dichotomy between digital competency and reading skills in light of the latest results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Reading can no longer be understood just as the ability to enjoy dusty volumes of old classics languishing on library bookshelves. Rather, it can be defined as a set of strategies that enable personal development and participation in society. This extension of the concept inexorably involves the competence of acting creatively in digital environments. Unfortunately, these environments go largely unheeded at School, where they are relegated to the mundane world of play. At Home, however, digital discourse can be experienced as unfathomable, where the digital divide makes it a world apart. Therefore, collaboration between School and Home becomes vital for ensuring that adolescents’ immersion in the digital world leads to critical, responsible participation in citizenship.