Invisible and Ubiquitous: Translinguistic Practices in Metapragmatic Discussions in an Online English Learning Community

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Online Platforms as Spaces for Language Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Using virtual ethnography, I examined translinguistic practices employed in the metacommentary in an online English learning community of Korean bloggers. I focused on the posts and comments, in which the bloggers discussed the importance of preserving the purity of the Korean language and denouncing language mixing of Korean and English. The findings reveal that the bloggers seamlessly and regularly engaged in translinguistic practices drawing upon semiotic resources (e.g., emoticons, cyber onomatopoeias, photos) while discussing linguistic purism. This contradicting juxtaposition between the metapragmatic discussions of their linguistic use and their actual linguistic practices not only normalizes translinguistic practices but also sheds light on the users’ motivation to engage in certain translinguistic practices but not in others.

Author

• Rayoung Song, Defense Language Institute