Skip to main content

Language Socialization in Digital Contexts

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Language Socialization

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Language and Education ((ELE))

Abstract

Language socialization researchers investigate language use and learning in informal and formal or instructed digital contexts, demonstrating the importance of understanding digitally mediated creative expression and language use as tools for identity development and management. They employ a variety of approaches that draw from applied linguistics and sociolinguistics, communication studies, and educational and linguistic anthropology and employ commensurate longitudinal, ethnographic, and cross-cultural methodologies. Building on early studies illuminating the nature of socialization online through email, discussion boards, and websites, more recent work has examined language socialization in newer digital contexts and interest communities such as fan fiction, online multiplayer gaming, and social networking. To account for emergent and hybrid linguistic activity in new online transnational contexts, some researchers have found commensurate frameworks in recent research on the sociolinguistics of globalization.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Androutsopoulos, J., & Juffermans, K. (2014). Digital language practices in superdiversity: Introduction. Discourse Context and Media, 4–5, 1–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Black, R. (2008). Adolescents and online fan fiction. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blommaert, J. (2010). The sociolinguistics of globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Browell, D. (2007). World of studentcraft: An ethnographic study on the engagement of traditional students within an online world. Doctoral dissertation, Capella University. UMI Number: 3288705.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, H. (2013). Identity practices of multilingual writers in social networking spaces. Language Learning and Technology, 17(2), 143–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chik, A. (2014). Digital gaming and language learning: Autonomy and community. Language Learning and Technology, 18(2), 85–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crystal, D. (2001). Language and the internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Duff, P. (2007). Second language socialization as sociocultural theory: Insights and issues. Language Teaching, 40, 309–318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gao, X., & Tao, J. (2015). Ethical challenges in conducting text-based online applied linguistics research. In P. De Costa (Ed.), Ethics in applied linguistics research (pp. 181–194). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrett, P., & Baquedano-López, P. (2002). Language socialization: Reproduction and continuity, transformation and change. Annual Review of Anthropology, 31, 339–361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanna, B. E., & de Nooy, J. (2003). A funny thing happened on the way to the forum: Electronic discussion and foreign language learning. Language Learning & Technology, 7(1), 71–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herring, S. (1999). Interactional coherence in CMC. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 4, 0.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herring, S. (2004). Computer-mediated discourse analysis: An approach to researching online behavior. In S. A. Barab, R. Kling, & J. H. Gray (Eds.), Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning (pp. 338–376). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Herring, S. C. (2015). New frontiers in interactive multimodal communication. In A. Georgapoulou & T. Spilloti (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of language and digital communication (pp. 398–402). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jonsson, C., & Muhonen, A. (2014). Multilingual repertoires and the relocalization of manga in digital media. Discourse, Context and Media, 4–5, 87–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Juffermans, K., Blommaert, J., Kroon, S., & Li, J. (2014). Dutch-Chinese repertoires and language ausbau in superdiversity: A view from digital media. Discourse, Context and Media, 4–5, 48–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klimanova, L., & Dembovskaya, S. (2013). L2 identity, discourse, and social networking in Russian. Language Learning & Technology, 17(1), 69–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lam, W. (2004). Second language socialization in a bilingual chat room: Global and local considerations. Language Learning & Technology, 8(3), 44–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lam, W. (2008). Language socialization in online communities. In P. A. Duff & N. H. Hornberger (Eds.), Encyclopedia of language and education, Language socialization (Vol. 8, 2nd ed., pp. 301–311). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lam, W. (2009). Multiliteracies on instant messaging in negotiating local, translocal, and transnational affiliations: A case of an adolescent immigrant. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(4), 377–397.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, D., & Slater, D. (2000). The internet: An ethnographic approach. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills, N. (2011). Situated learning through social networking communities: The development of joint enterprise, mutual engagement and shared repertoire. CALICO Journal, 28(2), 345–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change. Harlow: Longman/Pearson Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortega, L., & Zyzik, E. (2008). Online interactions and L2 learning: Some ethical challenges for L2 researchers. In S. Magnan (Ed.), Mediating discourse online (pp. 331–355). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Pasfield-Neofitou, S. (2011). Second language learners’ experiences of virtual community and foreignness. Language Learning & Technology, 15(2), 92–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piiranen-Marsh, A., & Tainio, L. (2009). Other-repetition as a resource for participation in the activity of playing a video game. Modern Language Journal, 93(2), 153–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prensky, M. (2009). H. sapiens digital: From digital immigrants to digital natives to digital wisdom. Innovate: Journal of Online Education, 5(3). Retrieved from http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=705

  • Rama, P., Black, R., van Es, E., & Warschauer, M. (2012). Affordances for second language learning in World of Warcraft. ReCALL, 24(3), 322–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reinhardt, J., & Chen, H. (2013). An ecological analysis of social networking site-mediated identity development. In M.-N. Lamy & K. Zourou (Eds.), Social networking for language education (pp. 11–30). Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Reinhardt, J., & Zander, V. (2011). Social networking in an intensive English program classroom: A language socialization perspective. CALICO Journal, 28(2), 326–344.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rheingold, H. (1993). The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. Reading: Addison-Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Solmaz, O. (2015). Multilingual students’ management of transnational identities in online participatory sites. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. University of Arizona.

    Google Scholar 

  • Statista (2014). Number of videogame players worldwide in 2014, by region (in millions). Downloaded 17 Nov 2016, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/293304/number-video-gamers/

  • Steinkuehler, C. (2008). Massively multiplayer online games as an educational technology: An outline for research. Educational Technology, 48(1), 10–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorne, S. L. (2008). Transcultural communication in open internet environments and massively multiplayer online games. In S. Magnan (Ed.), Mediating discourse online (pp. 305–327). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Thorne, S. L., Fischer, I., & Lu, X. (2012). The semiotic ecology and linguistic complexity of an online game world. ReCALL Journal, 24(3), 279–301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thorne, S. L., Sauro, S., & Smith, B. (2015). Technologies, identities, and expressive activity. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 215–233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vertovec, S. (2007). Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30(6), 1024–1054.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warschauer, M. (1999). Electronic literacies: Language, culture, and power in online education. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Yi, Y. (2008). Relay writing in an adolescent online community. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 51(6), 670–680.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jonathon Reinhardt .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Reinhardt, J., Thorne, S.L. (2017). Language Socialization in Digital Contexts. In: Duff, P., May, S. (eds) Language Socialization. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02327-4_27-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02327-4_27-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-02327-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02327-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

Publish with us

Policies and ethics