L2DL Symposium: Critical Transnational Dialogue and Virtual Exchange

L2 Identity and Equitable Participation in Digital Social Spaces

L2 users often self-identify as foreigners, non-native speakers, or L2 learners in digital social spaces. SLA research in this area, which is largely focused on repair sequences and the face threat associated with it, shows that this orientation to the proficiency differential and concomitant interactional roles serves to minimize the face-threatening act by sanctioning, mitigating and/or redressing (e.g., Pasfield-Neofitou, 2011; Hosoda, 2006; Tudini, 2010). Beyond instructional settings, sociolinguistic research on naturalistic digital spaces points in the same direction, suggesting that self-deprecating metalanguage can promote the “metadiscursive construction of a supportive social space” (Barton & Lee, 2012, p. 121). Yet self-identifying as an L2 learner can be risky especially in naturalistic settings because open access does not mean equitable participation. With a few notable exceptions (e.g., Hanna & de Nooy, 2003) there has been little empirical research on the ways in which digital practices often constrain opportunities for L2 participants.

Using Herring’s (2007) computer-mediated discourse analysis and Bucholtz and Hall’s 2005 framework for analyzing the discursive construction of identity, I consider the following research questions:

1. How do L2 users position themselves as L2 users?
2. How are L2 users positioned by L1 users in ways that either grant or reject claims to L2 resources?
3. How do L2 users ratify other-positioning, how do they challenge or contest it, and how do they develop or extend identity attributes?

In my presentation, I highlight a critical incident, captured in the form of a Reddit post entitled “No, i’m not sorry for my bad english”. Based on my findings, I argue that a better understanding of discursive practices in online spaces is critical as multilingual users will be challenged to use their L2 resources to gain access to, understand, challenge, and transform spaces that sustain hegemonic practices.

Digital arrangements: the appropriation of information, communication, and design technologies in a marginalized community in Mexico City

Much of what we know about digital technologies, how they are distributed and used, and some of its benefits is based on research from large businesses, academic institutions, and the high-tec entertainment industry, what Barendregt calls the “privileged centers, cutting-edge technology or the hip informational avant-garde”. However, for most marginal communities, optimal conditions such as dependable electricity, connectivity, working equipment, and social and cultural capital for appropriating and learning to use technology, is not the norm.  On the contrary, participating in digital events implies figuring out how to negotiate the precariousness of their context and creating situated solutions for accessing devices and equipment, getting on-line, navigating, and learning how to use software and hardware. In this presentation, I will discuss some preliminary findings of an ongoing research project that seeks to identify how tec-users in a poor urban neighborhood in Mexico City articulate language and literacy practices, devices, institutional norms, affordances, and social/power relationships to configure the digital arrangements they need to be able to participate in a variety of cultural events. The study aims to respond to questions concerning how young people and adults use technology in a variety of domains and everyday activities and the knowledge and know-how that circulates in their community.

Ideology, Power, and Social Differences in Computer-Mediated Communication: A Gender Retrospective

Active, naturalistic practice is essential for successful second language (L2) learning. Today, digitally-mediated contexts such as social media platforms are common sites for naturalistic, multimedia language use, as well as sites where speakers of many different languages come into contact. However, the norms of communication in public online contexts are based historically on libertarian ideologies that reify and often exacerbate social inequalities, resulting in limited access to linguistic resources for members of non-dominant groups (Herring, 1995, 2003). In this talk I discuss the situation of women in computer-mediated communication (CMC) on the internet, and how it has evolved from the 1980s to the present. On one hand, this history includes sexual harassment and overt silencing techniques such as rape and death threats. On the other hand, it also includes the creation of women-friendly spaces and the rise in popularity among female users of social media platforms such as Facebook that allow users to delimit their audiences. For female learners, this can be a double bind – the former curtail L2 learning and use, and the latter spaces limit contact with persons unknown to the user, including speakers of the L2. At the same time, active participation in open, mixed-gender environments entails accommodation to dominant, typically masculine, norms of communication, as well as, potentially, to the different gender norms of L2 cultures (Pavlenko et al., 2001). I discuss how in these and other respects, gendered social and discursive practices play a role in the production and reproduction of identities and inequalities in CMC. I conclude by identifying strategies employed by women and other non-dominant groups for navigating contemporary multimodal CMC.

Crossing Linguistic Borders and Gendered Binaries: Stories of In(Equity) and Inclusion in Bilingual, Queer Communities

Carol Brochin grew up crossing linguistic, gendered, and physical borders. Her commitment to preparing teachers is motivated by a deep concern for the need to provide equitable classrooms that expand beyond access to digital tools to include language practices that are inclusive of LGBTQ students especially in communities where these discussions are censored. Though an intersectional approach, Brochin argues that we do not simply need schools to become more inclusive of L2 learners, but that instead we need to critically analyze all historical oppressions and social formations based on language, race, class, gender, and sexuality that shape the current (in)equities in our schools, our students, and their families.

This presentation centers on stories that emerge from queer, bilingual communities and classrooms along the US/Mexico borderlands.  These are sites of rich digital, linguistic, and cultural production yet they are often imagined and depicted as poor, uneducated, homophobic and impoverished communities. Through multimodal and digital narratives, Dr. Brochin’s students provide insights into the ways that the physical US/Mexico border shaped their linguistic, literate, and gendered identities. She concludes this presentation with a call to action to expand the ways we use language to disrupt notions of gendered binaries as we consider the ways to make participation in digital spaces more equitable for all learners.

Under Construction: A Roadmap to Participation, Equity and Inclusion in L2DL

The road to greater participation, equity, and inclusion is rarely straightforward or smooth. This presentation aims to highlight recent gains made in teaching, learning, and researching second language digital literacies. Based on the L2DL virtual presentations this year and the current research in the field, the presentation further illustrates the importance of participation, intercultural competence, communities, and corpus-building. Next, it explores how challenges like representation and access have been (or remain to be) addressed in second language digital teaching, learning, and research. Finally, the presentation illuminates how the presenters’ research on critical digital literacy and digital activism contributes to greater participation, equity, and inclusion.