View Content #24903

By Julie Sykes, CASLS Director

In addition to the physical world around us, the multiplicity of discourse communities in the digital world afford learners a seemingly infinite number of opportunities to engage with multilingual content. One student might be interested in the Instagram and Twitter accounts about their favorite designer or another might enjoy participation in a fan fiction community about their favorite comic book character or TV show. Regardless of the choices they make, interaction with these spaces affords contact with the language of the community and enables practice and learning.  While much of the language used in digital spaces is unique to the space or community, much can also be applied in other interactional contexts as well. For example, an avid reader of a sports blog will undoubtedly learn relevant vocabulary and cultural expressions for talking about sports with a friend while studying abroad. 

By drawing on these experiences, and helping learners build the skills to engage with them critically, instructors can expand the language horizons of their learners and enable a positive impact of their use. One way, though certainly not a panacea, is through the use of thinking routines (For more on thinking routines and the Culture of Thinking see http://www.ronritchhart.com/COT_Resources_files/6Principles%20of%20COT_V2.pdf).

As learners practice the thinking routine of observation, analysis, and extension, they build skills necessary to engage with language during their out-of-class time as well. Take, for example, this week’s Activity of the Week. While it can be used in formal instructional contexts, the skills learned (especially the types of questions learners ask themselves) can be applied by the learners in any other digital domains with which they might be familiar. As learners begin to observe more, analyze their environment, and expand their participatory experiences, they will become better at decoding and synthesizing how language is used, online and offline.