- Applied Linguistics, Ethnography of Communication, Second Language Writing, Bilingualism, Sociolinguisitics, Genre, and 28 moreAcademic Writing, Teaching English as a Second Language, Second and foreign language teacher education x, Language Ideologies, Transnational Communities, English in mexico, Discourse Analysis, Qualitative methodology, Michel Foucault, Identity (Culture), Self and Identity, English language, Culture, Ethnography, Academia Research, Code-Switching, Languages and Linguistics, Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Linguistic Anthropology, Diaspora and transnationalism, teaching academic writing to ESL or L2 students, L2 writing, Digital Communication, Transnationalism, Facebook Studies, National Identity, and Language in Societyedit
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Writing research has generally focused on teachers’ diverse notions of writing that justify their teaching and assessing practices. Following Leki’s 1996 article Good writing: I know it when I see it, the purpose of this naturalistic... more
Writing research has generally focused on teachers’ diverse notions of writing that justify their teaching and assessing practices. Following Leki’s 1996 article Good writing: I know it when I see it, the purpose of this naturalistic research was to understand three newly arrived international students’ conceptions of argumentative writing in order to attempt to unpack the complex factors leading to those conceptions. The findings of this study provide an idea of the struggle and complexity of the writing process, especially as it relates to academic argumentative writing. Additionally, the findings support a model of researching literacy (Lea & Street, 2006) that goes beyond skills and socialization, but that allows the analysis of negotiation of agency, identity, and authority in an integrative view of writing. Exploring students’ notions of writing can better inform second language theory on how students learn, what aspects are relevant to them, what elements from one class are t...
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As a type of blended learning, the flipped classroom model is an instructional strategy in which direct instruction activities and homework are done in reverse order or “flipped.” In this model, the traditional learning experience is... more
As a type of blended learning, the flipped classroom model is an instructional strategy in which direct instruction activities and homework are done in reverse order or “flipped.” In this model, the traditional learning experience is inverted in which instructors assign lectures to be completed outside of class time for individual review as homework, and reserve classroom time for guided and independent practice. This paper explores the ways in which English as a foreign language teachers can utilize the flipped classroom instructional strategy to maximize student engagement and learning. By addressing three questions: what is it, how it works, and how it is done; this paper examines the current trends in research that will help English as foreign language teachers promote an active learning environment, engage learners at their own pace, and create individualized learning experiences for each student.
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As a type of blended learning, the flipped classroom model is an instructional strategy in which direct instruction activities and homework are done in reverse order or “flipped.” In this model, the traditional learning experience is... more
As a type of blended learning, the flipped classroom model is an instructional strategy in which direct instruction activities and homework are done in reverse order or “flipped.” In this model, the traditional learning experience is inverted in which instructors assign lectures to be completed outside of class time for individual review as homework, and reserve classroom time for guided and independent practice. This paper explores the ways in which English as a foreign language teachers can utilize the flipped classroom instructional strategy to maximize student engagement and learning. By addressing three questions: what is it, how it works, and how it is done; this paper examines the current trends in research that will help English as foreign language teachers promote an active learning environment, engage learners at their own pace, and create individualized learning experiences for each student.
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By framing this discussion in a literature review and through the lens of multiliteracies, this pedagogical presentation offers several ideas to encourage ELT professionals to harness the popularity of texting and to promote critical... more
By framing this discussion in a literature review and through the lens of multiliteracies, this pedagogical presentation offers several ideas to encourage ELT professionals to harness the popularity of texting and to promote critical awareness of language use among digital platforms through integration of textese and situated academic and social collaboration via SMS into their curriculum. The latter behaviors will become integral to student persistence in higher academic arenas. This presentation explains ways that texting helps develop English language skills in authentic, modern ways.
This study examines why young Mexican bilinguals use vernacular language traits in online social media. Using an ethnolinguistic approach, I conducted interviews and employed discourse analysis of the Facebook feeds of members of a... more
This study examines why young Mexican bilinguals use vernacular language traits in online social media. Using an ethnolinguistic approach, I conducted interviews and employed discourse analysis of the Facebook feeds of members of a bilingual network, in which they make use of vernacular language varieties typically attributed to African American speakers. Findings show that at least one young woman uses these vernacular English features to support feminism and present herself as equal to men. This rhetorically motivated use forges a sense of belonging outside a particularly entrenched category of woman (e.g., old fashioned) and challenges the hierarchy and language ideologies imposed by men and older women. I argue that Mexican bilinguals (male or female) who use such vernacular features are not identifying as African American or as part of any specific ethnic group. Rather, they are constructing pan-ethnic identities in opposition to whites.
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This study explores students’ reflections on a digital project in an advanced ESL composition class in the US using a framework of multimodality. The goal of this study is to examine the role that including a multimodal digital literacy... more
This study explores students’ reflections on a digital project in an advanced ESL composition class in the US using a framework of multimodality. The goal of this study is to examine the role that including a multimodal digital literacy project in a composition class had in complementing and facilitating an argumentative research assignment. Findings demonstrate that including a multimodal digital project before assigning an argumentative research paper both facilitates an understanding of the writing process as well as develops a sense of multimodality in student writing by prompting them to see new ways to add modes of communication into their text-based projects. The paper argues that, as writing becomes increasingly multimodal and digitally mediated, the field of second language composition needs to incorporate digital literacies into its repertoire for higher levels of writing to foster advanced academic writing skills with authentic tasks that prepare students to become competent writers in a digitally mediated society.
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This chapter examines parents’ changing language ideologies in a mid-sized town in the sierra between Veracruz and Puebla in eastern Mexico. New language ideologies have emerged here along with the increasingly transnational atmosphere of... more
This chapter examines parents’ changing language ideologies in a mid-sized town in the sierra between Veracruz and Puebla in eastern Mexico. New language ideologies have emerged here along with the increasingly transnational atmosphere of the town. This orientation to transnationalism is linked to increased numbers of not only migrants to the U.S., but also of returnees from the U.S. Parents now place great importance on the acquisition of both oral skills and literacy in English, although at varying levels of intensity. They want schools to emphasize spoken English because they believe that doing so will bring their children employment opportunities at home and abroad. They also, however, want their children to learn to read, and especially to write, English. This desired English literacy is more pragmatic and utilitarian for the workforce, both at home and abroad, than one that conforms to traditional norms for grammar, spelling, and other prescribed rules.
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Communication technologies aid transnational communities in maintaining their relationships and strengthening their identities across borders. For example, by using digital media, communities can transcend both place and time to enter... more
Communication technologies aid transnational communities in maintaining their relationships and strengthening their identities across borders. For example, by using digital media, communities can transcend both place and time to enter social spaces where they co-create shared experiences. This article explores how transnationals who do not belong to one single social network employ language and online participation in the micro-blogging site, Twitter, to co-create a chronotope, an imagined space that transcends geography and temporality, and in doing so, signal their belonging to a Mexican community. Using an online-discourse approach, I examine the participation of Mexican immigrants and children of Mexicans living in the US in an online viral cultural event: XV de Rubi, a celebration that marks the fifteenth birthday of a girl coming of age. I show that individuals use Twitter to co-construct an imagined experience in which they perform, negotiate and police ‘Mexicanness’. This article argues for more inclusive understandings of transnationalism that account for the ways in which people use the affordances of social media to enact cultural practices, keep in touch, forge ethnic identities, and display their sense of belonging to a wider Mexican culture.
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Abstract Since the 1980s, when the field of second language writing (SLW) began to establish itself as a discipline in its own right, much has been learned about SL writers and their writing. However, there has been relatively little... more
Abstract Since the 1980s, when the field of second language writing (SLW) began to establish itself as a discipline in its own right, much has been learned about SL writers and their writing. However, there has been relatively little focus on teachers of SLW, including their experiences with teacher agency. In the study reported here, we focus on a group that is even less examined: graduate teaching assistants assigned to teach writing courses in English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. More specifically, we look at three international graduate teaching assistants and their teacher agency, which we explored through their participation in a small professional learning community and in relationship to their quest to develop expertise as SLW teachers. Our findings illustrate how understanding of teacher agency can be enhanced by making connections between expertise and agency, particularly adaptive expertise.
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ABSTRACT Return migration from the United States to Mexico has been increasing in the last decade. Research reports that many returnees, who are English dominant, drop out of school to look for work in call centers and transnational... more
ABSTRACT Return migration from the United States to Mexico has been increasing in the last decade. Research reports that many returnees, who are English dominant, drop out of school to look for work in call centers and transnational companies (Anderson, 2015). Others pursue higher education in English-based programs such as those for becoming English language teachers (Rivas Rivas, 2013). This article explores what role language ideologies have in the decision making of three returnees to pursue a degree in English language teaching (ELT) and how such language ideologies inform the participants’ bilingual identities and teaching practices. Findings suggest that while some ideologies held by participants and hiring entities in Mexico, such as linguistic imperialism and linguistic purism, give students an advantage in the workforce, they also generate a sense of otherness that can create barriers to social integration and implicit effects on how they view their language teaching capacities and practices.
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This study describes how members of a transnational social network of Mexican bilinguals living in Chicago manipulate their language on online social media to facilitate and maintain close connections across borders. Using a... more
This study describes how members of a transnational social network of Mexican bilinguals living in Chicago manipulate their language on online social media to facilitate and maintain close connections across borders. Using a discourse-centered online ethnographic approach, I examine conversations posted on members’ Facebook walls and the contexts in which the discourses are formed. I argue that members of this transnational social network engage in the use of deterritorialized discourse to create chronotopes; that is, through discourse, members connect temporal and spatial relationships and form them into a single constructed context. These chronotopes help members recontextualize Facebook as a unique transnational social place that connects families and allows for the continuation of cultural practices that maintain their transnationalism. This study sheds light on the use of linguistic resources and modes of communication to examine how individuals construct imagined experiences within a real intimate community in the deterritorialized space of online social media.
Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Ethnography, Multilingualism, Transnationalism, and 13 moreImmigration, Ethnography of Communication, Facebook, Linguistics, Online social networks, Digital Ethnography, Cultural Anthropology, Mexico, Bilingualism, Written Communication, Chronotope, Communication and media Studies, and MEXICO
This article explores how younger members of a multigenerational social network of transnational Mexicans of ranchero background construct their ethnic identity both in offline and online contexts. By using traditional ethnography and... more
This article explores how younger members of a multigenerational social network of transnational Mexicans of ranchero background construct their ethnic identity both in offline and online contexts. By using traditional ethnography and discourse-centered online ethnography (DCOE), this study found that members of this network use four emic criteria (language, color, transnationality, and display of culture) to construct their ethnic identity as Mexican. In the online context, members use these criteria to challenge each other’s degree of Mexicanness. By challenging other members’ degree of Mexicanness, members are indirectly re-constructing their social order, not based on age and gender but based on a hierarchy that conforms to a place of influence in the network grounded in centrality, which correlates to their perceived degrees of Mexicanness. Facebook serves as a catalyst for change, as it allows members to interact in more direct ways, slowly influencing interactions carried out...
Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Psychology, Cognitive Science, Transnationalism, Digital Media, and 5 moreIdentity (Culture), National Identity, Digital Communication, Facebook Studies, and Internet Linguistics and How Facebook Users Manipulate Language in Order to Establish and Maintain Social Relations in Search of a Social Identity
This study describes how transnational second-generation Mexican bilinguals use a stigmatized variety of Mexican Spanish to communicate on Facebook and construct an identity. The stereotyped features of this variety index a ranchero... more
This study describes how transnational second-generation Mexican bilinguals use a stigmatized variety of Mexican Spanish to communicate on Facebook and construct an identity. The stereotyped features of this variety index a ranchero identity. Historically, ranchero is an ambivalent identity for Mexican society in general. On the one hand, ranchero culture is a positive reminiscence of Mexico's agrarian past, while on the other, rancheros, along with indigenous Mexicans, are at the bottom of the hierarchy in Mexican society. A discourse-centered, ethnographic analysis of digitally mediated conversations demonstrates how language use allows participants to reminisce about their collective past, maintain Mexican identities tied to their ancestors, fit their identities to contemporary U.S. Mexican culture, and distance themselves from the stigma associated with the ranchero background. Este estudio describe la forma en la que mexicanos bilingues transnacionales de segunda generacion utilizan una variedad del espanol mexicano estigmatizada para comunicarse via Facebook y construir una identidad. Las caracteristicas estereotipicas de esta variedad denotan una identidad de rancheros. Historicamente, ranchero es una identidad que es ambivalente para la sociedad mexicana en general. Por una parte, la cultura ranchera es una reminiscencia del Mexico agrario pasado. Por otra parte, los rancheros se encuentran al fondo de la jerarquia en la sociedad mexicana, junto con los indigenas mexicanos. Mediante el analisis etnografico cualitativo de conversaciones digitales en linea, los resultados de esta investigacion demuestran como el utilizar este espanol vernaculo les permitio conservar reminiscencias del pasado colectivo agrario, manteniendo las identidades mexicanas atadas a sus ancestros, pero amoldadas a la cultura de origen mexicano en los Estados Unidos, distanciandose del estigma asociado a un antecedente ranchero.
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ABSTRACT This article examines Facebook conversations between members of a transnational social network of US- and Mexico-born English/Spanish bilinguals. Extending Bourdieu’s theory of language and symbolic power, the article uses the... more
ABSTRACT This article examines Facebook conversations between members of a transnational social network of US- and Mexico-born English/Spanish bilinguals. Extending Bourdieu’s theory of language and symbolic power, the article uses the framework of language ideologies to explore how members establish identity and membership differently depending on whether they communicate primarily in Spanish or English. I argue that they use commonly held ideologies of language as tools to contest identities and establish membership. For example, US-born English-dominant members use Spanish to index language ideologies of standardization, correctness, and separation with other English-dominant members to bolster Mexicanness. However, when faced with Spanish-dominant and Mexico-born members, English-dominant members use an ideology of language elitism to position their English-Spanish bilingualism as more highly valued within their transnational network. The findings of this study also reveal that Facebook is an empowering space where bilingualism is the linguistic capital necessary for full membership in their transnational community.
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This chapter examines an ESL writing class at a U.S. university that employed a re-mediation assignment to complement and facilitate the understanding of rhetoric. A re-mediation assignment asks students to transform text-based material... more
This chapter examines an ESL writing class at a U.S. university that employed a re-mediation assignment to complement and facilitate the understanding of rhetoric. A re-mediation assignment asks students to transform text-based material into a multimodal form by combining linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial modalities. Students are to make use of the affordances and audiences of the new form without losing the core components of the original text. Findings suggest that students demonstrated motivation and engagement with the assignment and writing process, in part, because they were allowed to infuse other abilities (drawing, computer programming, video editing, and storytelling), languages, and cultures into their projects. As multimodal and multimedia digital literacies continue to evolve, digitally mediated projects such as re-mediation are necessary to prepare students to be competent writers in a digitally mediated society.
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With the rise of technology, the way we perceive language and literacy has become inherently digital and multimodal. Therefore, it is important for educators to teach language and literacy skills that stretch beyond the use of a paper and... more
With the rise of technology, the way we perceive language and literacy has become inherently digital and multimodal. Therefore, it is important for educators to teach language and literacy skills that stretch beyond the use of a paper and pencil. In this article, we will present a digital storytelling (DST) project that EFL educators can implement to help beginning and intermediate learners to improve their conversational skills in formal and informal contexts, but also to provide students with practice of other language and literacy skills through multimodal and digital forms of communication. Finally, we will describe the major implications and drawbacks of DST in the EFL setting.
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Información del artículo Practical Classroom English.
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The debate over the efficacy of written teacher comments has raised a variety of questions for consideration by both researchers and practitioners. Teachers can use written comments, in Vygotsky’s (1978) framework, to scaffold the... more
The debate over the efficacy of written teacher comments has raised a variety of questions for consideration by both researchers and practitioners. Teachers can use written comments, in Vygotsky’s (1978) framework, to scaffold the development of student writing. By reflecting on their own commenting process, a teacher can assess and modify their comments as well as the method by which the comments are delivered. This study examines how four second language (L2) students responded to a series of comments to three papers. The results show that students overwhelmingly followed the strategy training on how to respond to teacher’s comments given during class; however, these changes did not always result in a positive revision. While students believed to have followed the teacher’s suggestions, they did not always pay attention to the paper as a whole, which resulted in problems with coherence or grammar, and even instances of plagiarism. Results indicate that strategy training does not g...
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A majority of research on mobile-assisted language learning focuses on traditional English language learners: thus, little attention has been paid to older adult learners. The purpose of the study is to explore the learning experiences of... more
A majority of research on mobile-assisted language learning focuses on traditional English language learners: thus, little attention has been paid to older adult learners. The purpose of the study is to explore the learning experiences of Chinese older adults using the free and popular English learning mobile apps, Duolingo/Hello English, Baicizhan, and Liulishuo, in a self-directed learning (SDL) context. A 17-week sequential mixed-methods study was designed. 55 older adults from age 45 to 85 participated. The informed grounded theory was used and Saldana's coding techniques for qualitative analysis. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired sample t-tests. Findings demonstrate that older adults persisted in learning using mobile apps for 17 weeks and increased their vocabulary significantly. Finally, a transformational learning model called MISAPP was created based on the empirical data and the SDL theory.
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This is an unrevised proof. For the final version of the article, please see book directly.
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This study examines why young Mexican bilinguals use vernacular language traits in online social media. Using an ethnolinguistic approach, I conducted interviews and employed discourse analysis of the Facebook feeds of members of a... more
This study examines why young Mexican bilinguals use vernacular language traits in online social media. Using an ethnolinguistic approach, I conducted interviews and employed discourse analysis of the Facebook feeds of members of a bilingual network, in which they make use of vernacular language varieties typically attributed to African American speakers. Findings show that at least one young woman uses these vernacular English features to support feminism and present herself as equal to men. This rhetorically motivated use forges a sense of belonging outside a particularly entrenched category of woman (e.g., old fashioned) and challenges the hierarchy and language ideologies imposed by men and older women. I argue that Mexican bilinguals (male or female) who use such vernacular features are not identifying as African American or as part of any specific ethnic group. Rather, they are constructing pan-ethnic identities in opposition to whites.
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Free access and download link the next 45 days:https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1Z8do5YrUnEBf Abstract: Communication technologies aid transnational communities in maintaining their relationships and strengthening their identities across... more
Free access and download link the next 45 days:https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1Z8do5YrUnEBf
Abstract:
Communication technologies aid transnational communities in maintaining their relationships and strengthening their identities across borders. For example, by using digital media, communities can transcend both place and time to enter social spaces where they co-create shared experiences. This article explores how transnationals who do not belong to one single social network employ language and online participation in the micro-blogging site, Twitter, to co-create a chronotope, an imagined space that transcends geography and temporality, and in doing so, signal their belonging to a Mexican community. Using an online-discourse approach, I examine the participation of Mexican immigrants and children of Mexicans living in the US in an online viral cultural event: XV de Rubí, a celebration that marks the fifteenth birthday of a girl coming of age. I show that individuals use Twitter to co-construct an imagined experience in which they perform, negotiate and police ‘Mexicanness’. This article argues for more inclusive understandings of transnationalism that account for the ways in which people use the affordances of social media to enact cultural practices, keep in touch, forge ethnic identities, and display their sense of belonging to a wider Mexican culture.
Abstract:
Communication technologies aid transnational communities in maintaining their relationships and strengthening their identities across borders. For example, by using digital media, communities can transcend both place and time to enter social spaces where they co-create shared experiences. This article explores how transnationals who do not belong to one single social network employ language and online participation in the micro-blogging site, Twitter, to co-create a chronotope, an imagined space that transcends geography and temporality, and in doing so, signal their belonging to a Mexican community. Using an online-discourse approach, I examine the participation of Mexican immigrants and children of Mexicans living in the US in an online viral cultural event: XV de Rubí, a celebration that marks the fifteenth birthday of a girl coming of age. I show that individuals use Twitter to co-construct an imagined experience in which they perform, negotiate and police ‘Mexicanness’. This article argues for more inclusive understandings of transnationalism that account for the ways in which people use the affordances of social media to enact cultural practices, keep in touch, forge ethnic identities, and display their sense of belonging to a wider Mexican culture.
Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Social Networks, Mexican Studies, Transnationalism, Race and Ethnicity, and 8 moreNational Identity, Twitter, Online social networks, Deterritorialization, New Media, Social Network Analysis, e-research, Link analysis, Social Network Sites, Twitter, Facebook, Political Communication, Chronotope, Ethnicity and National Identity, and Translanguaging
Since the 1980s, when the field of second language writing (SLW) began to establish itself as a discipline in its own right, much has been learned about SL writers and their writing. However, there has been relatively little focus on... more
Since the 1980s, when the field of second language writing (SLW) began to establish itself as a discipline in its own right, much has been learned about SL writers and their writing. However, there has been relatively little focus on teachers of SLW, including their experiences with teacher agency. In the study reported here, we focus on a group that is even less examined: graduate teaching assistants assigned to teach writing courses in English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. More specifically, we look at three international graduate teaching assistants and their teacher agency, which we explored through their participation in a small professional learning community and in relationship to their quest to develop expertise as SLW teachers. Our findings illustrate how understanding of teacher agency can be enhanced by making connections between expertise and agency, particularly adaptive expertise.
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Texting has revolutionized the way we communicate with each other and the way we interact with the world. In other words, texting has influenced our cultures. This entry is about the ways in which culture has influenced texting practices,... more
Texting has revolutionized the way we communicate with each other and the way we interact with the world. In other words, texting has influenced our cultures. This entry is about the ways in which culture has influenced texting practices, and how English language teachers can leverage students' texting knowledge to advance their language-learning experience.Keywords:CALL;culture;ESL/EFL;SMS;grammar;texting;writingCALL;culture;ESL/EFL;SMS;grammar;texting;writing
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As the use of mobile devices has become normalised, texting practices continue to gain popularity and acceptance among users. Texting itself has claimed territory in communicative domains that were once solely occupied by face-to-face... more
As the use of mobile devices has become normalised, texting practices continue to gain popularity and acceptance among users. Texting itself has claimed territory in communicative domains that were once solely occupied by face-to-face (f2f), phone, or e-mail communication. As texting and messaging functions are expanding, and the complex multimodality of those messages increases, it becomes clearer that mobile communicative patterns and intercultural semiotic conversion practices need to be explicitly addressed in the classroom. Students’ abilities to successfully participate in informal communicative language play are relevant to short term language acquisition and long term academic socialization and persistence. By framing this discussion in a literature review through the lens of multiliteracies, this pedagogical article offers several ideas to encourage ELT professionals to harness the popularity of texting and to promote critical awareness of language use among digital platforms through integration of texting and situated academic and social collaboration (e.g., negotiating and producing assignments) via SMS into their curriculum. The latter behaviours will become integral to student persistence in higher academic arenas. This paper foregrounds the ways that texting helps develop English language skills in authentic, modern ways; it also addresses explicitly how teacher-broached critical awareness of communicative norms in digital spaces is a tool of academic and social agency for L2 learners
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This study describes how members of a transnational social network of Mexican bilinguals living in Chicago manipulate their language on online social media to facilitate and maintain close connections across borders. Using a... more
This study describes how members of a transnational social network of Mexican bilinguals living in Chicago manipulate their language on online social media to facilitate and maintain close connections across borders. Using a discourse-centered online ethnographic approach, I examine conversations posted on members’ Facebook walls and the contexts in which the discourses are formed. I argue that members of this transnational social network engage in the use of deterritorialized discourse to create chronotopes; that is, through discourse, members connect temporal and spatial relationships and form them into a single constructed context. These chronotopes help members recontextualize Facebook as a unique transnational social place that connects families and allows for the continuation of cultural practices that maintain their transnationalism. This study sheds light on the use of linguistic resources and modes of communication to examine how individuals construct imagined experiences within a real intimate community in the deterritorialized space of online social media.
Research Interests:
This study explores students’ reflections on a digital project in an advanced ESL composition class in the US using a framework of multimodality. The goal of this study is to examine the role that including a multimodal digital literacy... more
This study explores students’ reflections on a digital project in an advanced ESL composition class in the US using a framework of multimodality. The goal of this study is to examine the role that including a multimodal digital literacy project in a composition class had in complementing and facilitating an argumentative research assignment. Findings demonstrate that including a multimodal digital project before assigning an argumentative research paper both facilitates an understanding of the writing process as well as develops a sense of multimodality in student writing by prompting them to see new ways to add modes of communication into their text-based projects. The paper argues that, as writing becomes increasingly multimodal and digitally mediated, the field of second language composition needs to incorporate digital literacies into its repertoire for higher levels of writing to foster advanced academic writing skills with authentic tasks that prepare students to become competent writers in a digitally mediated society.
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In this paper, I argue that transnationalism must now be considered in light of the more-than-ever ubiquitous use of digital communication, especially through online social network sites (SNS) which have become increasingly relevant... more
In this paper, I argue that transnationalism must now be considered in light of the more-than-ever ubiquitous use of digital communication, especially through online social network sites (SNS) which have become increasingly relevant (Smith, 2006). The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how online social network sites (SNS) such as Facebook facilitate transnational networks and thus bolster their transnationalism. I analyze the communication patterns of one bilingual Mexican transnational network who lives in Michoacán and Chicago and has transnationals of all varieties and degrees. Some members of this focal transnational social network travel frequently and stay for long periods of time (from a month to entire years at a time), and communicate with their relatives living on the other side of the border (either Mexico or the U.S.). Others seldom or never travel to the other country. The goal is to demonstrate how digital communication practices have changed the way individuals “do” transnationalism. Thus, I argue for a paradigm shift for how transnationalism is construed and understood because digital communication has made it possible for all members of the network to maintain their engagement with each other without ever being in the same room.
Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Social Networking, Transnationalism, Computer-Mediated Communication, Facebook, and 8 moreDigital Media And New Literacies, Online social networks, Social Networking Sites (SNS), Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis, Digital Communication, Bilingualism, Online ethnography, and Social Networking & Social Media
This article examines Facebook conversations between members of a transnational social network of US- and Mexico-born English/Spanish bilinguals. Extending Bourdieu’s theory of language and symbolic power, the article uses the framework... more
This article examines Facebook conversations between members of a transnational social network of US- and Mexico-born English/Spanish bilinguals. Extending Bourdieu’s theory of language and symbolic power, the article uses the framework of language ideologies to explore how members establish identity and membership differently depending on whether they communicate primarily in Spanish or English. I argue that they use commonly held ideologies of language as tools to contest identities and establish membership. For example, US-born English-dominant members use Spanish to index language ideologies of standardization, correctness, and separation with other English-dominant members to bolster Mexicanness. However, when faced with Spanish-dominant and Mexico-born members, English-dominant members use an ideology of language elitism to position their English-Spanish bilingualism as more highly valued within their transnational network. The findings of this study also reveal that Facebook is an empowering space where bilingualism is the linguistic capital necessary for full membership in their transnational community.
Research Interests:
The debate over the efficacy of written teacher comments has raised a variety of questions for consideration by both researchers and practitioners. Teachers can use written comments, in Vygotsky’s (1978) framework, to scaffold the... more
The debate over the efficacy of written teacher comments has raised a variety of questions for consideration by both researchers and practitioners. Teachers can use written comments, in Vygotsky’s (1978) framework, to scaffold the development of student writing. By reflecting on their own commenting process, a teacher can assess and modify their comments as well as the method by which the comments are delivered. This study examines how four second language (L2) students responded to a series of comments to three papers. The results show that students overwhelmingly followed the strategy training on how to respond to teacher’s comments given during class; however, these changes did not always result in a positive revision. While students believed to have followed the teacher’s suggestions, they did not always pay attention to the paper as a whole, which resulted in problems with coherence or grammar, and even instances of plagiarism. Results indicate that strategy training does not guarantee an outcome of successful revision. This suggests that revision will be more effective for paper development if understood as part of the creative process of writing than mere correction of errors. Based on these results, several proposals are made for modifying the comment process.
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This study describes how transnational second-generation Mexican bilinguals use a stigmatized variety of Mexican Spanish to communicate on Facebook and construct an identity. The stereotyped features of this variety index a ranchero... more
This study describes how transnational second-generation Mexican bilinguals use a stigmatized variety of Mexican Spanish to communicate on Facebook and construct an identity. The stereotyped features of this variety index a ranchero identity. Historically, ranchero is an ambivalent identity for Mexican society in general. On the one hand, ranchero culture is a positive reminiscence of Mexico's agrarian past, while on the other, rancheros, along with indigenous Mexicans, are at the bottom of the hierarchy in Mexican society. A discourse-centered, ethnographic analysis of digitally mediated conversations demonstrates how language use allows participants to reminisce about their collective past, maintain Mexican identities tied to their ancestors, fit their identities to contemporary U.S. Mexican culture, and distance themselves from the stigma associated with the ranchero background.
Este estudio describe la forma en la que mexicanos bilingües transnacionales de segunda generación utilizan una variedad del español mexicano estigmatizada para comunicarse vía Facebook y construir una identidad. Las características estereotípicas de esta variedad denotan una identidad de rancheros. Históricamente, ranchero es una identidad que es ambivalente para la sociedad mexicana en general. Por una parte, la cultura ranchera es una reminiscencia del México agrario pasado. Por otra parte, los rancheros se encuentran al fondo de la jerarquía en la sociedad mexicana, junto con los indígenas mexicanos. Mediante el análisis etnográfico cualitativo de conversaciones digitales en línea, los resultados de esta investigación demuestran cómo el utilizar este español vernáculo les permitió conservar reminiscencias del pasado colectivo agrario, manteniendo las identidades mexicanas atadas a sus ancestros, pero amoldadas a la cultura de origen mexicano en los Estados Unidos, distanciándose del estigma asociado a un antecedente ranchero.
Este estudio describe la forma en la que mexicanos bilingües transnacionales de segunda generación utilizan una variedad del español mexicano estigmatizada para comunicarse vía Facebook y construir una identidad. Las características estereotípicas de esta variedad denotan una identidad de rancheros. Históricamente, ranchero es una identidad que es ambivalente para la sociedad mexicana en general. Por una parte, la cultura ranchera es una reminiscencia del México agrario pasado. Por otra parte, los rancheros se encuentran al fondo de la jerarquía en la sociedad mexicana, junto con los indígenas mexicanos. Mediante el análisis etnográfico cualitativo de conversaciones digitales en línea, los resultados de esta investigación demuestran cómo el utilizar este español vernáculo les permitió conservar reminiscencias del pasado colectivo agrario, manteniendo las identidades mexicanas atadas a sus ancestros, pero amoldadas a la cultura de origen mexicano en los Estados Unidos, distanciándose del estigma asociado a un antecedente ranchero.
Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Ethnography, Sociolinguistics, Digital Media, Ethnography of Communication, and 6 moreFacebook, Internet Communication, Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), Online ethnography, New Media, Social Network Analysis, e-research, Link analysis, Social Network Sites, Twitter, Facebook, Political Communication, and Mexican Spanish
This article explores how younger members of a multigenerational social network of transnational Mexicans of ranchero background construct their ethnic identity both in offline and online contexts. By using traditional ethnography and... more
This article explores how younger members of a multigenerational social network of transnational Mexicans of ranchero background construct their ethnic identity both in offline and online contexts. By using traditional ethnography and discourse-centered online ethnography (DCOE), this study found that members of this network use four emic criteria (language, color, transnationality, and display of culture) to construct their ethnic identity as Mexican. In the online context, members use these criteria to challenge each other’s degree of Mexicanness. By challenging other members’ degree of Mexicanness, members are indirectly re-constructing their social order, not based on age and gender but based on a hierarchy that conforms to a place of influence in the network grounded in centrality, which correlates to their perceived degrees of Mexicanness. Facebook serves as a catalyst for change, as it allows members to interact in more direct ways, slowly influencing interactions carried out in offline contexts.