Identity Practices of Multilingual Writers in Social Networking Spaces

Abstract

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.Through the designs available to them in these online environments, multilingual writers constructed multiple identities that were dynamic and developmental over time.The writers demonstrated that they adopted different strategies and subject positions when participating in onlinenetworked discourses.Analysis and understanding of these digitally mediated multiliterate practices-by researchers, teachers, and learners alike-may provide insight into pedagogies that recognize and even affirm these practices.