How Has the Pandemic Changed Our Language?

April 2020, the whole world is affected by a new pandemic. We are all affected, our lives will be changed forever, our behaviors too. But what about our communication? Will a planetary phenomenon have erected an invisible architecture to the point of changing the very essence of our language?

In a society where rules of social distancing and protective measures are the new notions of manners, has the act of speaking also been affected? Has living almost exclusively from a distance for over a year changed the rules of the game? Keep your six feet away, don't take off your nose mask, and see how COVID has affected our language...

Physical and Verbal Isolation

After more than 12 nearly uninterrupted months of confinement and distancing, our relationship to society and to others has undeniably changed. The fact that we no longer go to the office and work remotely is the first distancing, but to this is added that of not seeing, as before, family and friends. The flow of communication, be it professional, family or friends, has therefore changed. Not to mention the general social aspect, such as the different interlocutors one can have when going to the store to do one's shopping, when moving around on public transport, when using the various public services...

For more than a year, each of us had to deal with ourselves and with our exclusive residential cocoon. The only rare exchanges that reminded us that we were not alone in the world were the passage of delivery men when ordering from home and that was, I am sure for you too, a small victory! Of course, we can't go so far as to say that confinement equaled muteness, because this isolation has given good days to another phenomenon, that of social networks and video conferencing programs like FaceTime, Skype, Zoom or Teams, not to mention all the other media that have appeared in the past year.

"Video appetizers" and online meetings have never been so popular as in 2020! That said, it's all still at a distance and the fact that there is an interposed screen between our speakers and us still displayed a certain barrier.

The Case of Children

While adults were affected by the lockdown, children seem to have been more so, especially toddlers, those who would normally have started school in the fall of 2020. Why? According to a survey of schools and parents conducted by the Education Endowment Foundation, 96% of them said they were "very concerned" about communication and language development in young learners.

Personal, social and emotional development, as well as literacy, are the other major educational concerns. Indeed, the acquisition of the aforementioned skills is essentially based on a good foundation in communication, elocution and language, which would be sorely lacking in these children due to this unplanned distancing.

In effect, keeping, admittedly safely, the children at home greatly diminished their scope for interaction: no extended family, no school, no teachers, no other children, no outside activities, no socialization...

In this sense, it is certain that the acquisition of new vocabulary was hindered. Usually, it is by simply visiting grandparents that children can develop their vocabulary, as the latter often use a different lexicon, or simply by a visit to the farm, the zoo, a park... but it is now impossible. So, this vocabulary restriction is likely to have a long term effect on children's education.

Never Without My Nose Mask

The imposition of the nose mask showed how crucial lip-reading could be, especially for language teachers.

In fact, when learning new sounds, learners are used to watching the teachers' mouth and lip movements and here, it's mission impossible! It's hard to learn a language without being able to understand the mechanism of its pronunciation.

That said, even in learning the mother tongue, young children are affected by this problem, as simply distinguishing the sounds "p", "b" and "t" is also a challenge! In addition, despite the indispensable protection offered by the nose mask, it also hides the facial expressions, which are very useful for expressing certain feelings or sensations! There too, we lose another important landmark in communication and language...

Finally, it can be said that the pandemic will have strongly influenced our way of being and living and that even at the level of our communication, language and speech. We have all been affected, especially the children through learning and discovering language.

Let's hope that the coming exit from these meanders will give us all back the opportunity to regain lost time, cross this architecture of public health constraints and get our tongues out of our pockets!

Sources and illustrations

Comment le confinement affecte le langage des enfants, Yvonne Wren, Le Soleil, juin 2021
https://www.lesoleil.com/news/covid-19/how-containment-affects-children's-language-7bef83f7cc9cbce8b0cc39f2773efb7e

Barrière invisible, Pixabay, https://pixabay.com/images/id-4031973/

Le masque du silence, Pixabay, https://pixabay.com/images/id-5584680/

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