1. Fan Fiction, Fan Practices
& Language Learning
Shannon Sauro
Malmö University
@shansauro l ssauro.info l shannon.sauro@mah.se

3. “A fan is a person
with a relatively deep
positive emotional
conviction about
someone or
something famous...”
(Duffet, 2013, p. 18)
Photo credit: Sake Jager

4. Online fandom: “the
local and international
networks of fans that
develop around a
particular program,
text or other media
product”
(Sauro, 2014, p. 239)

5. CALL in the Digital Wilds
“informal language
learning that takes places
in digital spaces,
communities, and
networks that are
independent of formal
instructional contexts”
(Sauro & Zourou, 2017, p. 186)

6. A Few Fan Practices
• Anime and manga
consumption
• Fan site web design
• Debating and modding
• Amateur translation
• Spoiling
• Fanfiction
(Sauro, 2017)
Art: Foxestacado

7. Anime consumption
inspired and enhanced
Japanese learning which
inspired further
engagement with
Japanese anime
(Fukunaga, 2006)

8. How a fan and L2
learner of English
developed a new textual
identity through regular
correspondence in
English around the
design of a fan website
for a Japanese pop
singer.
(Lam, 2000)

9. The advanced
leadership and
academic literacy skill
development of a 13-
year-old engaged in
debate and moderating
discussions in online
forums and fan sites.
(Curwood, 2013)
Art: pennswoods

10. The development and
use of intercultural and
L2 language skills of a
Spanish manga fan who
engaged in amateur
translations (scanlation)
of Japanese manga from
English into Spanish in
an online fan community.
(Valero-Porras & Cassany, 2015)
Figure 2
(Valero-Porras & Cassany, 2015, p. 11)

11. Spoiling
“…the purposeful discovery
of crucial developments in
the plot of a fictional story
of a film or TV series
before the relevant
material has been
broadcast or released.”
(Duffett, 2013, p. 168)

12. Case Study of a
Sherlock Fan
To explore the informal L2
language learning and
digital literacy development
of a Sherlock fan.

13. Steevee’s Fan History
2009
• Joined Supernatural Fandom
• Joined Twitter; Created a fan FB
page
2010
• Joined Torchwood and Doctor Who
fandoms
• Created a fan Tumblr
2012
• Joined Sherlock fandom
2013
• Began reporting on filming of
Sherlock #setlock
Art: Foxestacado

14. Extramural English
“…English-related activities
that learners come in
contact with or are
engaged in outside the
walls of the English
classroom, generally on a
voluntary basis.”
(Sundqvist & Sylvén, 2014, p. 4)

15. “As we have noted,
motivation is never
simply in the hands of
the motivated
individual learner but is
constructed and
constrained through
social relations with
others”
(Ushioda, 2008, p. 157)
Art: Foxestacado

16. I tried to shift my accent
from American English to
British English. I tried to
learn to write colour with
‘ou’ and so on. And I
started to watch Doctor
Who and Torchwood.
Those were my next two
big fandoms.
(Interview, 14 December 2015)
…it was the opportunity to
completely immerse myself
in the English language.
That was it for me. I was so
stoked. I’m going to get
online and I’m going to talk
to people and learn English.
And I’m going to learn new
words. And I used to sit
there with a notepad next
to Twitter and write down
words I’d never seen
before, look them up, learn
them.
(Interview, 14 December 2015)
Art: Foxestacado

17. The non-native speakers
are really the lose canon
because they might
understand something
incorrectly because of their
own lack of knowledge of
the English language or
sarcasm or whatever is
being used as a metaphor
for example.
(Interview, 14 December 2015)
Art: Foxestacado

18. Due to the massive increase
of hits and followers due to
setlock, I somehow became
someone who was consulted
on various things and I
realized that if I wanted to
help/give answers etc, I’d
have to make myself
understood in the way I
wanted to be – that’s when
my answers got longer and
more in-depth, as I wanted to
make sure my arse was
covered XD
(Email, 7 January 2016)
Art: Foxestacado

19. “Fanfiction is a story
written by a person in the
fandom because breaking
into the creator’s office
and telling them that
everything that they did is
wrong and rewriting it is
considered ´rude´ and
´illegal´”
(Fan definition reported in Klink, 2017)
Art: Foxestacado

20. Case studies of ESL
learners’ use of fanfiction
in anime fandoms to
transition from novice
writer in English to
successful writer, and the
bilingual fanfiction writing
practices of Finnish fans of
American TV shows to
index multilingualism and
global citizenship.
(e.g. Black, 2006; Lepännen et al,
2009)
Art: pennswoods

21. The Blogging Hobbit: A
collaborative story of a
missing moment from The
Hobbit:
• Story outline and map
• Collaborative roleplay
fanfiction - each group
member to write from
the perspective of one
character from the
novel
• Reflective paper
(Sauro & Sundmark, 2016)

22. “this writing activity has
influenced my language
skills…. During this project I
have been able to expand
my repertoar [sic] of English
words which are not so
commonly used in everyday
English anymore.”
(Sauro & Sundmark, 2016, p. 420 )

23. It is lying still, yet it spins around
It tries to move but its body is bound
All because of the precious it stole
Fool us again and they eats it whole.
(from The Mirkwood Mysteries;
Sauro & Sundmark, 2016, p. 418)

24. Learner Fanfiction (172,911)
• N=31 stories produced by
Cohorts 2013 & 2014
• 2000-16000 words each
• Rated Teen
• Gen
• Canon compliant
Ao3 Fanfiction (92,760)
• N=18 stories posted Dec 1
2013 – Jan 31, 2015
• 2000-16000 words each
• Rated Teen
• Gen (no het or slash)
• Not alternate universe or
other sub-genres

25. Top 10 Content
Lexemes in
Classroom
Fanfiction
Top 10 Content
Lexemes in Online
Fanfiction
Thorin
Bilbo
Gandalf
Dwarves
Say
Kili
Time
Fili
Think
Bombur
Thorin
Kili
Bilbo
Say
Thranduil
Eyes
Time
Head
Fili
Brother

26. Keywords
Third Person Plural Pronouns:
we, our, us
Character Names:
Gandalf, Beorn, Balin, Elrond,
Gollum, Dori, Bombur, Bilbo
Species:
dwarves, goblins, wizard, elves

27. Negative Keywords
Third person singular
pronouns:
she, her, his, him
Kinship terms:
son, sister, mother, brother,
uncle
Character names: Thranduil,
Legolas, Tauriel, Bifur
Contracted forms:
d, s, re, t

28. “…fanfics that get really popular,
they kind of answer to some kind
of fantasy that people have about
the characters. Or something they
really want to explore or they
create an alternate universe … We
didn’t have anything like that,
really. I mean, I think ours was
very, kind of, very much like the
book it a way, so maybe it wasn’t
as exciting as some other
fanfiction because it wasn’t
innovating in that way…”
B, Dream Team Interview
(Cohort 2014)

29. “I felt it unfair to work
with The Hobbit on such a
project since a big part
was to connect with a
character from the book
and write from that
perspective. To choose a
book with absolutely no
women at all made me not
wanting to take neither
Tolkien nor this
assignment to heart.”
(Student Reflection,
Cohort 2014)

30. “A challenge is an organized
activity in which participants
agree to perform or produce
fan activities or fanworks
according to some pre-
determined criteria.“
• Gift exchanges
Secret Santa, ficathon
• Prompt-based
Fests, games, battles
• Other
Big Bangs, charity drives
(“Challenge”, n.d.)

31. “…restorying can also
characterize the complex
ways that contemporary
young people narrate the
word and the world... In
other words, as young
readers imagine themselves
into stories, they reimagine
the very stories themselves,
as people of all ages
collectively reimagine time,
place, perspective, mode,
metanarrative, and identity
through retold stories...”
(Thomas & Stornaiuolo, 2016, p. 323)Figure 1. Forms of Restorying
(Thomas & Stornaiuolo, 2016, p. 319)

32. “Racebent characters have
long been making
appearances on sites like
Tumblr, but they’ve been
picking up heat recently.
One of the most popular
and frequent, at least on
my dash?
Hermione Granger as a
woman of color, most
often black.”
What a “Racebent” Hermione
Granger Really Represents
(Bennett, 2015)
Art: mariannewiththesteadyhands
(in Bennett, Feb 1, 2015)

33. A Study in Sherlock:
Collaborative mystery writing
with a challenge
1. Retell a Sherlock Holmes
mystery or tell an
original mystery but in
an alternate universe.
2. Tell an original Sherlock
Holmes mystery in the
original context.
Instructions available in PDF here

35. “See here” Sherlock said pointing to
the small screen, “I have had a
google alert set up for these certain
phrases ever since I took a small
interest in the Ms. Al-Farsi-case,
relating to racial violence in the
Malmö area.…”
“Islamophobiacs who fear everyone
and everything they can’t buy at
Ullared” scoffed John. “Yes, well, not
quite” replied Sherlock. “The people
behind the avatars on this particular
site is not your average, uneducated
riffraff pointing fingers at anyone
who doesn’t share their love of
meatballs.”
A Study in Brown
(Cohort 2016) A Study in Graffiti
(Cohort 2016)

36. “Well, now I bother. Now
and again a case turns
up which is a little more
complex. Then I have to
bustle about and see
things with my own eyes.
Because obviously,
Oswald was not the
murderer,” he said as if it
was the most blatant fact
in the world.
The Missing Case
(Cohort 2016)

37. “…my interest in Doyle and the
Sherlock Holmes world is still
at an intermediate level…. On
the other hand, my knowledge
of the Scooby Doo universe is
far greater and I could enter
that verse much easier than
the universe of Sherlock
Holmes. As a child I loved the
characters of the Mystery Gang
and therefore I really enjoyed
this task.”
(Student 18, Cohort 2015)

38. “…instead of saying “he said”,
we and Doyle instead used “said
he”. Second, we and Doyle
often, from Watson’s
perspective, referred to Sherlock
Holmes as “my colleague”, and
from Sherlock’s perspective
referring to Watson as “my
friend”. Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes
often said “pray” instead of
“please”, and “I fancy” instead
of “I believe”, which we also
used in our fanfiction. “
(Student 16, Cohort 2015)
Art: Foxestacado

39. “First off, I am highly
Americanized in my English
use, and I blame Hollywood. It
has been a welcomed
challenge to write in British.
My biggest inspiration has
once again been the BBC
show.…I truly enjoyed using
the word ‘foggiest’ in a text,
and it is now a part of my
vocabulary. My American is
being invaded, ‘the British are
coming!’”
(Student 54, Cohort 2015)
Art: Foxestacado

40. Acknowledgements
Graphics
Fox Estacado of The Art of Fox Estacado: Fine Fan Art and Geekery
(artbyfox.storenvy.com). All rights reserved and used in this presentation with
permission.
Pennswoods
All rights reserved and used in this presentation with permission.
Photographs of #setlock
Shannon Sauro.

41. References
Bennett, A. (2015, February 1). What A "Racebent" Hermione Granger really represents. Buzzfeed. Retrieved from https://www.buzzfeed.com/
alannabennett/what-a-racebent-hermione-granger-really-represen-d2yp?utm_term=.whRP7G78P#.ooKogjg4o
Black, R.W. (2006). Language, culture, and identity in online fanfiction. E-learning, 3, 180–184.
“Challenge”. (n.d.). Retrieved August 17, 2017 from Fanlore Wiki: https://fanlore.org/wiki/Challenge
Curwood, J.S. (2013). Fan fiction, remix culture, and The Potter Games. In V.E. Frankel (Ed.), Teaching with Harry Potter (pp. 81-92). Jefferson, NC:
McFarland.
Duffett, M. (2013). Understanding fandom: An introduction to the study of media fan culture. New York/London: Bloomsbury.
Fukunaga, N. (2006). “Those anime students”: Foreign language literacy development through Japanese popular culture. Journal of Adolescent & Adult
Literacy, 50(3), 206-222.
Klink, F. (2017). Towards a definition of “fanfiction”. Retrieved from https://medium.com/fansplaining/towards-a-definition-of-fanfiction-178d4c681289
Lam, W. S. E. (2000). Literacy and the design of the self: A case study of a teenager writing on the Internet. TESOL Quarterly, 34, 457-484.
Lepännen, S., Pitkänen-Huhta, A., Piirainen-Marsch, A., Nikula, T., & Peuronen, S. (2009). Young people’s translocal new media uses: A
multiperspective analysis of language choice and hetero-glossia. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14, 1080–1107.
Sauro, S. (2017). Online fan practices and CALL. CALICO Journal, 34(2), 131-146. doi: 10.1558/CJ.33077
Sauro, S. (2014). Lessons from the fandom: Task models for technology-enhanced language learning. In M. González-Lloret & L. Ortega (Eds). Technology-
mediated TBLT: Researching technology and tasks, (pp. 239-262). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Sauro, S., & Sundmark, B. (2016,) Report from Middle Earth: Fanfiction tasks in the EFL classroom. ELT Journal, 70(4), 414-423 . doi: 10.1093/elt/ccv075
Sauro, S., & Zourou, K. (2017). CALL for papers for CALL in the Digital Wilds special issue. Language Learning & Technology, 21(1), 186.
Sundqvist, P., & Sylvén, L.K., (2014). Language-related computer use: Focus on young L2 English learners in Sweden. ReCALL, 26(1), 3-20.
Thomas, E.E., & Stornaiuolo, A. (2016). Restorying the self: Bending toward textual justice. Harvard Educational Review, 86(3), 313-338.
Ushioda, E. (2008). Language motivation in a reconfigured Europe: Access, identity, autonomy. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 27(2),
148-161.
Valero-Porras, M.-J., & Cassany, Y. (2015). Multimodality and language learning in a scanlation community. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 212,
9-15.
Presentation available at https://www.slideshare.net/Shansauro