Language learning in the digital wilds describes the self-directed language learning that takes place in communities, networks, and digital spaces that are unassociated with formal instructional contexts such as schools and universities (Sauro & Zourou, 2019). Among these wild spaces are fan communities, or affinity groups of people who share a positive connection to someone or something famous (Duffet, 2013), including fans of media, sports teams, celebrities, and even politicians. It is in these online communities that fans engage in a wide range of fan practices which encompass the playful, creative, educational, critical, and controversial activities that allow them to enjoy and share the thing they are a fan of (Sauro, 2017). Because of the sustained effortful engagement fans pour into their fan practices, they are able to develop a range of skills, including second language skills. 

Perhaps the best-known fan practice is fan fiction, defined as writing which transforms or reimagines stories, characters, and universes others have already written about. Research, typically in the form of case studies, has documented the language development of fans who engage in the reading and writing of fan fiction in a language they are learning (e.g., Li, 2012) or a language they wish to develop and maintain (e.g., Korobkova & Black, 2014). These successful examples of language learning in the digital wilds through fan fiction have inspired a growing number of language teachers to integrate fan fiction-type tasks (Sauro, 2014) into their classes. 

This talk, therefore, provides an overview of research on fan fiction and language learning in the digital wilds and explores the findings from an emerging body of research on the language learning outcomes that result when fan fiction moves from the digital wilds into the language classroom. 

As a fundamental construct in language acquisition, identity is inseparably intertwined with language and human interaction. In the digital era, when communication and language learning are increasingly dependent on technological tools, self-identification through language is profoundly mediated by user-tool interactions (Caws & Hamel, 2016; Darvin & Norton, 2017), and directly linked to language learners’ experiences of media use in and outside the language classroom context (Thorne, 2003; 2016). Recent research shows that communication tools, modalities, and forms of digital mediation have made a significant impact on how, but also what languages and language varieties are used, experienced, and learned in digitally mediated language learning spaces (Kelly-Holmes, 2019). As the digital medium in which language occurs is not passive or neutral (Quan-Haase, 2016), CALL research cannot disregard the mediational role of technological tools in shaping human communication and self-positioning, often in restrictive ways. How does the medium interact with identity performances in digital spaces? What design elements of social media platforms and language learning tools impact language learners’ experiences with the medium and their identity performances? How does recent research on user-tool interactions in CALL problematize the notion of mediation adopted by SLA theory? This talk will address these questions by exploring recently published studies on the intersection of language learning practices and self-positioning in formal and informal digitally mediated learning spaces.