“I’m going to get online and I’m going to talk to people and learn English”: ...Shannon Sauro
This presentations reports on a case study of the informal L2 language and digital literacy development of an adult fan.
The focal participant for this case study, Steevee, is a female fan in her early 30s originally from a small city in eastern Germany who first entered online media fandom six years prior with the goal of developing her English in order to live and work in London. Data analyzed include semi-structured interviews, email correspondence, and analysis of Steevee’s fan-based social media accounts on Tumblr and Twitter.
Findings reveal how Steevee’s heavy involvement in the fan practice of spoiling, defined as the discovery and sharing of plot elements (Duffet, 2013), during filming of the television series Sherlock facilitated Steevee’s English and digital literacy development for the purpose of living an working in an English-speaking context. This study, therefore, documents the process through which an adult L2 English user makes use of popular culture, technology, and online media fandom to engage in informal language learning.
A Study in Sherlock: Bridging the Digital Wilds & the Language ClassroomShannon Sauro
This reflective practice presentation builds on prior work that has looked at the use of fandom tasks (Sauro, 2014) for language learning. Such tasks include those that focus on fanfiction, defined by Jamison (2013) as "writing that continues, interrupts, reimagines, or just riffs on stories and characters other people have already written about" (p. 17). Initial investigation of fanfiction in the advanced English classroom has shown that collaborative fanfiction tasks that makes use of blog-based role-play to tell a missing moment from a story can be useful in bridging both language and literary learning (Sauro & Sundmark, in press 2016). However, although such tasks borrow from digital and linguistic practices found in online fan communities, the resulting stories do not fully reflect the linguistic or literary norms of the fanfiction in the digital wilds. This was a concern for language learners whose interest in publishing their online fanfiction was to communicate with online fans and fan communities.
The means of addressing this may lie in better integrating fan practices and fan voices in the tasks themselves and in actual classroom practice. This presentation, therefore, explores the revision and implementation of collaborative fanfiction tasks and instructions that do just that.
Building on previous blog-based fanfiction projects, the current project, A Study in Sherlock, was carried out as part of a course for students in the teacher education program at a Swedish university who were specializing in teaching English at the secondary school level. Students self-organized into small groups of 4-6 to write and publish online a collaborative mystery inspired by a Sherlock Holmes story. As part of their preparation, students were guided in the reading of several Sherlock Holmes mysteries, but were also required to read Sherlock Holmes fanfiction that had been identified by online fans as representative of the tropes and specific fan genres found in this type of fan writing. In addition, online several fanfiction writers were contacted to share writing activities they used when helping other novice fanfiction writers and these were incorporated into class instruction. Once completed, these stories were shared with online Sherlock Holmes fan communities.
Analysis of the language, content, and formatting of the 16 completed online stories as well as the reaction of fans, in particular to the six stories that were published to online fanfiction archives, revealed advantages for integrating fan practices into task design and teaching to support greater mastery of fanfiction genres in a manner more likely to reach (fan) readers and thereby link the digital wilds with the language classroom.
Fan Fiction and Fan Practices: Integrating the Digital Wilds and the Language...Shannon Sauro
Online fan communities and fan sites are home to many different kinds of fandom tasks and projects, perhaps the best known of which is fan fiction These are stories that reinterpret and remix the events, characters and settings found in fiction and popular media. Other online fandom tasks include translation projects such as fan-subbing, amateur subtitling of movies and television series carried out online by teams of fans in different countries, and spoiling, in which fan networks track down and share information via social media for the purpose of speculating about a television show or movie’s plotline before it is released (Duffet, 2013).
Research in applied linguistics on fandom practices has explored how youth have used fan fiction, in particular, to foster identity and second language development in the digital wilds (see for example Leppänen, 2008 and Thorne & Black, 2011). However, less attention has been paid to the older language learners in online media fandoms who also represent a type of language learner engaged in autonomous and long-term extramural language learning (Sundqvist, 2009) in the digital wilds. Moving from the wilds to the classroom, more recent research has begun to explore the domestication of fan fiction tasks in formal classroom contexts (Sauro & Sundmark, in press 2016) and which also holds promise for the design of technology-mediated tasks to support the learning of both language and literature.
This talk, therefore, discusses findings from case-study research with older fans as well as classroom-based research to explore how these fandom tasks and fan practices are used to facilitate the development of linguistic, literary, and digital competences both in the wilds and in the classroom.
“I’m going to get online and I’m going to talk to people and learn English”: ...Shannon Sauro
This presentations reports on a case study of the informal L2 language and digital literacy development of an adult fan.
The focal participant for this case study, Steevee, is a female fan in her early 30s originally from a small city in eastern Germany who first entered online media fandom six years prior with the goal of developing her English in order to live and work in London. Data analyzed include semi-structured interviews, email correspondence, and analysis of Steevee’s fan-based social media accounts on Tumblr and Twitter.
Findings reveal how Steevee’s heavy involvement in the fan practice of spoiling, defined as the discovery and sharing of plot elements (Duffet, 2013), during filming of the television series Sherlock facilitated Steevee’s English and digital literacy development for the purpose of living an working in an English-speaking context. This study, therefore, documents the process through which an adult L2 English user makes use of popular culture, technology, and online media fandom to engage in informal language learning.
A Study in Sherlock: Bridging the Digital Wilds & the Language ClassroomShannon Sauro
This reflective practice presentation builds on prior work that has looked at the use of fandom tasks (Sauro, 2014) for language learning. Such tasks include those that focus on fanfiction, defined by Jamison (2013) as "writing that continues, interrupts, reimagines, or just riffs on stories and characters other people have already written about" (p. 17). Initial investigation of fanfiction in the advanced English classroom has shown that collaborative fanfiction tasks that makes use of blog-based role-play to tell a missing moment from a story can be useful in bridging both language and literary learning (Sauro & Sundmark, in press 2016). However, although such tasks borrow from digital and linguistic practices found in online fan communities, the resulting stories do not fully reflect the linguistic or literary norms of the fanfiction in the digital wilds. This was a concern for language learners whose interest in publishing their online fanfiction was to communicate with online fans and fan communities.
The means of addressing this may lie in better integrating fan practices and fan voices in the tasks themselves and in actual classroom practice. This presentation, therefore, explores the revision and implementation of collaborative fanfiction tasks and instructions that do just that.
Building on previous blog-based fanfiction projects, the current project, A Study in Sherlock, was carried out as part of a course for students in the teacher education program at a Swedish university who were specializing in teaching English at the secondary school level. Students self-organized into small groups of 4-6 to write and publish online a collaborative mystery inspired by a Sherlock Holmes story. As part of their preparation, students were guided in the reading of several Sherlock Holmes mysteries, but were also required to read Sherlock Holmes fanfiction that had been identified by online fans as representative of the tropes and specific fan genres found in this type of fan writing. In addition, online several fanfiction writers were contacted to share writing activities they used when helping other novice fanfiction writers and these were incorporated into class instruction. Once completed, these stories were shared with online Sherlock Holmes fan communities.
Analysis of the language, content, and formatting of the 16 completed online stories as well as the reaction of fans, in particular to the six stories that were published to online fanfiction archives, revealed advantages for integrating fan practices into task design and teaching to support greater mastery of fanfiction genres in a manner more likely to reach (fan) readers and thereby link the digital wilds with the language classroom.
Fan Fiction and Fan Practices: Integrating the Digital Wilds and the Language...Shannon Sauro
Online fan communities and fan sites are home to many different kinds of fandom tasks and projects, perhaps the best known of which is fan fiction These are stories that reinterpret and remix the events, characters and settings found in fiction and popular media. Other online fandom tasks include translation projects such as fan-subbing, amateur subtitling of movies and television series carried out online by teams of fans in different countries, and spoiling, in which fan networks track down and share information via social media for the purpose of speculating about a television show or movie’s plotline before it is released (Duffet, 2013).
Research in applied linguistics on fandom practices has explored how youth have used fan fiction, in particular, to foster identity and second language development in the digital wilds (see for example Leppänen, 2008 and Thorne & Black, 2011). However, less attention has been paid to the older language learners in online media fandoms who also represent a type of language learner engaged in autonomous and long-term extramural language learning (Sundqvist, 2009) in the digital wilds. Moving from the wilds to the classroom, more recent research has begun to explore the domestication of fan fiction tasks in formal classroom contexts (Sauro & Sundmark, in press 2016) and which also holds promise for the design of technology-mediated tasks to support the learning of both language and literature.
This talk, therefore, discusses findings from case-study research with older fans as well as classroom-based research to explore how these fandom tasks and fan practices are used to facilitate the development of linguistic, literary, and digital competences both in the wilds and in the classroom.
A presentation on Will Rogers in the context that he wasn't just an american blogger but America's blogger. It was given at Oklahoma State University as part of their One Book celebration.
A presentation on Will Rogers in the context that he wasn't just an american blogger but America's blogger. It was given at Oklahoma State University as part of their One Book celebration.
Frank Luntz - Words That Work - Its Not What You Say - Its What People Hear.pdfJojie Alcantara
This book is part guide, part exposé. It explores how presidents and Fortune 500 CEOs craft messages that have the power to revolutionize what we think about politics and products in our day-to-day lives.
You will get a peek behind the scenes of the actual process by which some of America's most powerful brands have been created. And you will learn how our country's political and business leaders are developing a brandnew lexicon to address changing public anxiety: the twenty-one words for the twenty-first century.
This book is not merely for politicians or business leaders; it's for everyone who has an interest in or who makes a living using and listening to the language of America. It is for anyone who wants to harness the power of words to improve his or her own lot in life, and to ensure that the true meaning of these words is heard as they intended them to be.
Read the following pages, and you will learn about the language of America. You will also find the words to tell your own story.
Frank Luntz
This is a presentation I gave at the Conference for Global Transformation in San Francisco May 2008. It is an idea developed with my students in a hip-hop class in 2005.
Tense Present Democracy, English, and the Wars over UsageBy D.docxjacqueliner9
Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage
By David Foster Wallace
Harper’s Magazine
April 2001
Did you know that probing the seamy underbelly of U.S. lexicography reveals ideological strife and controversy and intrigue and nastiness and fervor on a nearly hanging-chad scale? For instance, did you know that some modern dictionaries are notoriously liberal and others notoriously conservative, and that certain conservative dictionaries were actually conceived and designed as corrective responses to the "corruption" and "permissiveness" of certain liberal dictionaries? That the oligarchic device of having a special "Distinguished Usage Panel... of outstanding professional speakers and writers" is an attempted compromise between the forces of egalitarianism and traditionalism in English, but that most linguistic liberals dismiss the Usage Panel as mere sham-populism?
Did you know that U.S. lexicography even had a seamy underbelly?
The occasion for this article is Oxford University Press's semi-recent release of Bryan A. Garner's A Dictionary of Modern American Usage. The fact of the matter is that Garner's dictionary is extremely good, certainly the most comprehensive usage guide since E. W. Gilman's Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, now a decade out of date.
Its format, like that of Gilman and the handful of other great American usage guides of the last century, includes entries on individual words and phrases and expostulative small-cap MINI-ESSAYS on any issue broad enough to warrant more general discussion. But the really distinctive and ingenious features of A Dictionary of Modern American Usage involve issues of rhetoric and ideology and style, and it is impossible to describe why these issues are important and why Garner's management of them borders on genius without talking about the historical context
in which ADMAU appears, and this context turns out to be a veritable hurricane of controversies involving everything from technical linguistics to public education to political ideology, and these controversies take a certain amount of time to unpack before their relation to what makes Garner's usage guide so eminently worth your hard-earned reference-book dollar can even be established; and in fact there's no way even to begin the whole harrowing polymeric discussion without taking a moment to establish and define the highly colloquial term SNOOT.
From one perspective; a certain irony attends the publication of any good new book on American usage. It is that the people who are going to be interested in such a book are also the people who are least going to need it, i.e., that offering counsel on the finer points of U.S. English is Preaching to the Choir. The relevant Choir here comprises that small percentage of American citizens who actually care about the current status of double modals and ergative verbs. The same sorts of people who watched Story of English on PBS (twice) and read W. Satire's column with t.
Questions over Ascent of the A-hole”1) How old is it as a der.docxcatheryncouper
Questions over “Ascent of the A-hole”
1) How old is it as a derogatory term for a person? Who first started using it that way?
2) What’s the difference between profanities and obscenities?
3) What does Nunberg mean when he says that some of the obscenities stopped being used for what is considered obscene?
4) How does ‘f—‘ differ from ‘a-hole’ in terms of the type of meaning it conveys?
5) What does it mean to say that the word ‘a-hole’ is sui generis? How does it differ from, say, ‘phony’?
6) How do Tom Cruise’s movie characters come into this?
7) Why do we not call kids ‘a-holes’?
8) What is the ‘moral logic of assholism’?
9) Women aren’t called ‘a-holes’ as regularly as men are. Why?
10) Would we be as concerned/obsessed with the concept behind the qualities of being an ‘a-hole’ if we didn’t have the word for it?
Questions over the the ‘f-word’
1. How did ‘faggot,’ which earlier meant a bundle of sticks most likely come to be used to refer to homosexuals in a derogatory way?
2. What is metonymy? Give an example. Try to think of one other than they give.
3. When was ‘faggot’ first recorded as a term for a gay man?
4. Today a use of “faggot” or “gay” has taken on a more general meaning as an insult, one that is not about sexuality. What does Zwicky say about the acceptability of that use?
Questions over “The B-Word? You Betcha” by Andi Zeisler
1. What does she say the general public intends to convey by the use of the term ‘bitch’?
2. Why did they choose the term for the name of the publication?
3. Describe the McCain episode that Zeisler discusses. How do you think McCain (a presidential nominee at the time) should have responded?
4. Do you think the word ‘bitch’ can be used for other men in a way that doesn’t make some comment on women and their proper role?
Grammar of expletives
Some expletives (words used to express strong emotions) are much more flexible grammatically than others; that is, some terms can fit different can work as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs in certain sentence frames. Sometimes they can do so with derivational endings and sometimes without. Sometimes, they don't take such endings. Let’s look at these words:
d--n, p--s, bas---d, f--k, h--l, a-hole, s-t, c--t. Which of the following frames can they fit it?
1 Personal Direct Address You + _______. Direct address
2 Personal Reference The _______. or What the __________? Said about someone or something that may or may not be present.
3 Destination _________ off! Telling someone to take themselves somewhere else
4 Cursing _________ you! Direct
5 General expletive of anger, annoyance and frustration _________!
6 Explicit expletive of anger, annoyance and frustration __________ it!
7 Can be used as phrasal verb. __________ around, up
8 Adjectival extension (possibly with –ing ending or –y ending) ___________ driver
For this discussion you will view the film Almost Famous and discuss the main character William’s difficulti ...
What are your pronouns? This foundational workshop provides an introduction to personal pronouns, including practical applications in a library setting. Attendees will develop an understanding of the importance of personal pronouns, and how to use them.
2. Language
• “Language is the human capacity for acquiring
and using complex systems of
communication” (“Language”).
• a method of communication
3. Connotation vs. denotation
• Denotation is the
dictionary definition
• Connotation refers to
the emotional
overtones of a word.
• …all of the “baggage” a
word brings with it.
4. context
• the circumstances that form the setting for an
event, statement, or idea, and in terms of
which it can be fully understood and assessed.
• When discussing the context of a word, a
person considers who’s using it, what other
words they’re using, who the audience is, and
where it is being used.
6. Levels of Dispute
• Words are misused or have taken on a new
meaning, different from the original dictionary
definition
• Words are used, but are not in the dictionary
• Words are vulgar (lacking in good taste)
• Words are used by the wrong group of people,
often in wrong ways.
• Words are offensive (causing someone to feel
deeply hurt, upset, or angry)
7. aggravate
• Some have argued that this word should not be
used in the sense of "to annoy" or "to oppress",
but only to mean "to make worse".
• Disputed because of misuse
• Disputed usage:
– When Mrs. Jones took my cell phone away, it
aggravated me.
• Undisputed usage:
– Being hit on the head by a falling brick aggravated my
already painful headache.
8. ain’t
• originally a contraction of "am not", this word
is widely used as a replacement for "aren't",
"isn't", "haven't" and "hasn't" as well.
• Disputed because it’s not in the dictionary.
• Note: Some writers use this word deliberately
to create an informal style in a text.
9. “swear words”
• Usage of words like “the f-bomb” or a synonym for “poop”
is disputed because it’s in poor taste.
• “Cursing in casual settings has never been alien to
American life,” according to McWhorter, but public (written
or oral) use is a different story (“Why Do”).
• Somin argues, “People who regularly insult others or use
language widely considered to be inappropriate suffer
tremendous damage to their reputation. They have fewer
friends, contacts and business opportunities than they
would otherwise. If they are public figures, they face severe
criticism in the media and elsewhere. When Vice President
Cheney and Vice President Biden used expletives that got
caught on tape, they were both widely denounced” (“Why
Do”).
11. The “n-word”
• This word has a long history and it’s usage is
long disputed for many reasons.
• It’s an epithet, one that is also a racial slur.
• According to Fishkin, “Racism is ugly. The
history and legacies of American racism are
our nation’s own peculiar brand of ugly -- and
the n-word embodies it.”
12. History of “nigger”
• “The word originated as a neutral term referring
to black people, as a variation of the
Spanish/Portuguese noun negro, a descendant of
the Latin adjective niger ("color black")”
(“nigger”).
• As time went on, the word was “[o]ften used
disparagingly, by the mid 20th century,
particularly in the United States, it suggested that
its target is extremely unsophisticated,” being
used as an insult (“nigger”).
13. Malcolm X
• “In the 60’s, Malcolm X
fought to restore African-
American’s true identity
by eradicating the word.
He fought by any means
necessary” (Jane).
• “Their worst habit is to
call us ‘niggas’… when we
end up using this word
about ourselves, we now
abuse our own.” –
Malcolm X (Jane)
14. “N-word” = taboo
• It’s not socially
acceptable for most
people to use this word,
especially if the speaker
is not black.
• Case in point: Paula
Deen, whose sponsors
dropped her when they
learned she used the
word in the past.
15. Oprah & the “N-word”
• “Oprah does not believe
either version of the word
should be used”
(Blackmore).
• Oprah addressed Jay Z in
an interview: “when I
hear the N word, I still
think about every black
man who was lynched--
and the N word was the
last thing he heard”
(Blackmore).
16. Contradictions in Pop Culture
• Then how can rap artists use it so freely?
• Why do I hear it so often?
17. The “N-word” & Rap
• “If major labels saw that they were losing
money because rappers were using the ‘n’
word, they wouldn’t sign on rappers that use
the ‘n’ word. But they aren’t losing money, so
it’s okay” in the labels’ eyes (Bright).
• As Puff Daddy (a.k.a. Sean Combs) reminds us,
“it’s all about the Benjamin’s, baby.”
18. What if I change the ending?
• According to Michael Eric Dyson, “‘N-i-g-g-a,
n-i-g-g-u-h, n-i-g-g-a-z — 'niggaz' — are terms
generated within hip-hop culture... attempts
of black people to wrest control over how they
will be viewed, or at least termed, by the
dominant society’” (“Is the 'N-Word' Going
Mainstream?”).
• Maybe this is why Jay Z, Kanye, Lil Wayne, and
Nicki Minaj still sell records, but it doesn’t
reflect society’s consensus on the word.
19. Not everyone is OK with it.
• “Nicki Minaj provoked
widespread outrage with an
Instagram post featuring one of
black history's most poignant
images: Malcolm X peering out
the window of his home, rifle in
hand, trying to defend his wife
and children from firebombs
while under surveillance by
federal agents. Superimposed
on the photo: the title of
Minaj's new song, which
denigrates certain black men
and repeats the N-word 42
times” (Cadet).
20. Minaj Catches Some Heat
• When critiquing Nicki Minaj’s use of the word,
a writer claims, “The N-word [nigga] still
carries a particular sting, a discomfort, (usually
expressed when a white person says it),
because it ultimately originates from its
painful predecessor: “Nigger.” THAT is why
Malcolm [X] fought so hard, and THAT is why
it’s crucial to understand the history of the N-
word before using it” (Jane).
21. Moving Further From History
Does Not Erase It
• “‘I don't want to say today's rappers are not educated
about black history, but they don't seem as aware as
rap generations before them,’ said Jermaine Hall,
editor-in-chief of Vibe, the hip-hop magazine and
website” (Cadet).
• While previous generations had to struggle with the
racism and neglect of the 1970s or the crack epidemic
of the 1980s, Hall said, today's young people have not
faced the same type of racial struggle — ‘They're sort
of getting further and further away from the civil rights
movement’” (Cadet).
22. The NFL & the “N-word”
• The commissioner of the NFL has suggested assigning a
15-yard penalty for using this word in a game.
• “Harry Carson, a former NFL all-pro, [says,] ‘I find it very
disheartening that in our society today we're having a
debate about the n-word being used as a term of
endearment. If that's a term of endearment, go up to
your grandfather, or an elderly black person , and use it
on them. See how they react. For those who use it, I say
they have no sense of history’” (Lawrence).
• The jury is still out on this rule, but even the suggestion
speaks to the power of this word.
23. To summarize…
• Usage of the “n word” is most often taboo
because it carries such racist connotations.
• Some black people use the word colloquially and
have tried to change the meaning of the word.
• Others, like Oprah, argue that the history of the
word can’t be erased, rendering the word taboo.
• Other forms of the word carry the same
connotations for some people.
24. Context is Everything
• When a word (like the “n-word”) carries so
much weight, one must consider context
before using it.
• In the context of this classroom, use of any
form of this word is unacceptable.
• You will read it (in A Raisin in the Sun), but we
will not use it.
25. Works Cited
• Blackmore, Dana T. "Tom Ford, the N-Word, and What
Oprah Winfrey and Jay Z Have in Common." The Huffington
Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 12 Aug. 2013. Web. 30 Mar.
2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-t-
blackmore/oprah-jay-z-n-word_b_3740870.html>.
• Bright, Paul. "Op-Ed: Why Rappers Can Say The 'N' Word,
But Paula Deen Can't." Digital Journal: A Global Digital
Media Network. 1 July 2013. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
<http://digitaljournal.com/print/article/353504>.
• "Language." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Mar.
2014. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language>.
26. Works Cited
• Fishkin, Shelly Fisher. "The Words of Pap Finn’s Rant." The New York Times.
The New York Times, 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/01/05/does-one-word-
change-huckleberry-finn/the-words-of-pap-finns-rant>.
• "Is the 'N-Word' Going Mainstream?" ABC News. ABC News Network, 10
Apr. 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
<http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=132632>.
• Jane, Deborah. "The “N-word”: From Malcolm to Minaj." MUSIC IS MY
OXYGEN WEEKLY. The Recording Connection Music Institute, 14 Mar. 2014.
Web. 29 Mar. 2014. <http://mimo.recordingconnection.com/the-n-word-
from-malcolm-to-minaj/968201/>.
• Lawrence, James. "The Proposed NFL Ban of the N-word." The Proposed
NFL Ban of the N-word. Gannett, 4 Mar. 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/editorial/2014/03/04/ban
-of-the-n-word/6012239/>.
27. Works Cited
• “Nigger." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Mar. 2014. Web. 29
Mar. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nigger>.
• “Usage." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Sept. 2013. Web. 28
Mar. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage>.
• Washington, Jesse. "Rap Artists' Disrespect Of Black Icons Raises
Concerns The Industry Has Lost Touch With History." The Huffington
Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 02 Mar. 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/02/nicki-minaj-
malcolm-x-rap-black-history_n_4885686.html>.
• "Why Do Educated People Use Bad Words?" Room for Debate Why
Do Educated People Use Bad Words Comments. The New York
Times, 12 Apr. 2010. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
<http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/why-do-
educated-people-use-bad-words/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0>.