“Emoji” was chosen as Word of the Year by Oxford Dictionaries last year. The chosen emoji is the  face with tears of joy.

According to Oxford Dictionaries, they chose this emoji because it was the most used emoji globally in 2015. SwiftKey identified that the “Face with Tears of Joy” emoji made up 20 percent of all the emojis used in the UK in 2015, and 17% of those in the US. Emojis have been found in English since 1997 but in 2015, people used emojis more than 1997 by three times.

They also chose “vape” as word of the year in 2014, “selfie” as word of the year in 2013 and “omnishambles” as word of the year in 2012.

Social studies teacher Nitake Robi said, “Emojis are a fun way to communicate with others and to better express your feelings. I use them to get my point across and make the conversation more interesting. Emoji is a word because people today use it on a daily basis. My favorite emojis are the dancing girl, taco, burrito and all other foods of course.”

Science physical teacher Choy Rendall said, “I use emojis so that the person I am communicating with will have a better idea of the tone of my message. I like the option of adding an emoji to my texts. Creating a word or term for this was needed. My favorite emoji is the smiling face.”
Math teacher Takao Sherry said, “I use emojis when I have time to write a long text message. I think emojis should not be used as often to replace words. People should speak to people in person or over the phone. Text messages and emojis should not replace people communication.”