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Abstract

Online communication is how people communicate, connect, transact to send, retrieve or receive information of any kind via the internet using digital media. The past two decades have seen a massive development in the methods and means of online communication. From texting a friendon social media to attending an online video conference for work to shopping online from the comfort of your home, online communication has revolutionized our lives in innumerable ways. The coronavirus pandemic of the year 2020 has brought online communication to the foreground. Online communication has undoubtedly become an indispensable part of our lifestyle today. The knowledge of the English language being a prerequisite for online communication, has inevitably led to the increase in outreach of the English language as a by- product of the progress of online communication. Although several modes of online communication are available in multiple languages today, this is not true for all and despite that,a basic knowledge of the English language remains compulsory. The pandemic transformed online communication from a choice to an unignorable necessity since it was the only means of communication in the time of crisis, hence forcing increasing number of individuals to learn the English language to successfully communicate online. Even though online communication has been a boosting factor for the English language, one can also not ignore its ill effects on the language. Social media has changed the way we speak and write English including the advent of an alphabet soup of acronyms, abbreviations and neologisms which has grown up around technologically mediated communication. This paper explains how online communication has aided the spread of the English language besides exploring the many ways in which the English language has been adversely affected by online communication

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