Drawing on past and current scholarship on digitally mediated communication in language learning, this review article examines the evolution of identity research in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) from the 1990s to the present day. The article offers an in-depth overview of critical issues and topics associated with language learner…

This article reports on fan practices, in English, among an international community of bronies--adult fans of the animated cartoon "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" (MLP). Originally directed at a target audience of young girls, MLP has become popular among men. These older male fans have been extremely active in producing multimodal…

Fan practices involving translation open up opportunities to explore language learning practices within the fandom (Sauro, 2017). We examine how three fans capitalize on fan translation and language learning. We consider the cases of Selo (an English-Spanish translator of games), Nino (a Japanese-Catalan fansubber of anime, and Alro (an…

The present study explores a linguistic mechanism in which the identity of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) learners can be influenced online. Analyzing the discourse of ESOL chat room participants and how they uptake positioning statements through online conversations, we present two vignettes that illustrate the kind of discourse…

Language Learning Social Network Sites (LLSNSs) have attracted millions of users around the world. However, little is known about how people participate in these sites and what they learn from them. This study investigated learners' attitudes, usage, and progress in a major LLSNS through a survey of 4,174 as well as 20 individual case studies. The…

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) once meant principally text-based communication mediated by computers, but rapid technological advances in recent years have heralded an era of multimodal communication with a growing emphasis on audio and video synchronous interaction. As CMC, in all its variants (text chats, video chats, forums, blogs, SMS,…

This study examines the literacy practices of two multilingual writers in social networking communities. The findings show that the multilingual writers explored and reappropriated symbolic resources afforded by the social networking site as they aligned themselves with particular collective and personal identities at local and global levels.…

This paper presents a case study of the multilingual writing practices of a Serbian university student on Facebook, examining how he uses multiple varieties of English and Serbian images and video to shape his online identity and establish membership in local and global communities. Drawing on data from stimulated-recall interviews, online…

As the integration of Internet-based social networking tools becomes increasingly popular in foreign language classrooms, the use of modern communication technologies is particularly critical in the context of less commonly taught languages (LCTLs), where student exposure to the target language and its speakers is usually minimal. This paper…

This qualitative study explores the impact of potential linguistic, technical and educational hegemonies on the learning outcomes for English language students in Hebron, Palestine, and Padova, Italy, who were involved in the Soliya Connect Program, a telecollaboration project developed to explore critical issues that divide the "West"…