'R.I.P. man...u are missed and loved by many': entextualising moments of mourning on a Facebook Rest in Peace group site

Digital media offer new domains for people to articulate aspects of their everyday selves, as well as to share resources, views, attitudes, and emotions on an unprecedented scale (Barton and Lee 2013; Georgakopoulou 2006; Jones and Hafner 2012). The recent emergence of online environments as new sites for the temporal, spatial and social expansion of death and mourning (Brubaker and Hayes 2011; Brubaker, Hayes and Dourish 2013) has attracted scholarly interest in digital post-death rituals of mourning and memorialisation as an important social phenomenon (Walter et al. 2011; de Vries and Roberts 2004). While previous studies have been largely based on content analyses of individual MySpace logs and Facebook or discussion forum posts, the present study approaches digital memorial posts as entextualised moments of mourning shared with and for a networked audience (John 2013; Androutsopoulos 2014). The article analyses a corpus of Facebook memorial posts (N=525) as post sequences, wall events and texts, looking at how content on the site is produced, shared and discursively regimented. Based on the analysis, it is suggested that the intextualisation of moments of mourning on Facebook is participatory: it involves users’ selection of moments for public display relating to offline ceremonies of mourning, calendar-important dates or personal updates and contributing to the production of a textured wall in memory of the dead. The textuality of posts is found to rely on an ad hoc blending of formal genres of mourning and vernacular genres of writing dependent on (i) situational (date of posting activity, position in the post sequence) and (ii) extra-textual parameters (gender of poster, relationship with the deceased). The present socio-discursive investigation contributes to the growing, in-depth understanding of the texture and textuality of Web 2.0 mourning practices

Language use as an institutional practice: An investigation into the genre of workplace emails in an educational institution

Past studies that examined the genre of email regarded genre as a model by focusing on the content and form alone. However, this study examined the genre as a resource by analyzing the knowledge producing and knowledge disseminating that makes the genre possible in its socio-rhetorical context. The study, in line with critical genre analysis, examined the text-internal and the influences of the text-external elements on language use in email communication at a private higher educational institution in Kuala Lumpur. Using 378 emails, participant observation and interviews, this study analyzed the genre from the ethnographic, textual, socio-cognitive and socio-critical perspectives. To conduct the analysis, a novel integrative methodology that included approaches to text, context and genre analysis was applied. The study revealed that the emails could be categorized into four types of genres that varied in their communicative purposes, intentions, goals of communication, register and generic structures. The discussion email genre, which was used to negotiate issues, mainly included involved production and overt expression of argumentation. Enquiry email genre, which was used as a request-respond strategy, included narrative and nonnarrative discourse while the delivery email genre, which was used to provide files, mainly included informational production and non-narrative discourse. Informing email genre, which was used to notify the recipients about general interest issues, mainly included abstract style and informational production. This study also revealed that the institutional practices and disciplinary conventions of the discourse community influenced language use in the emails. This was reflected in the strategies, mechanisms and linguistic choices made in the four types of genres. The study contributed to the socio-rhetoric perspective and critical genre analysis based on conventionalized practices and procedures in the community of practice in academic management. The integrative approach is also highlighted as an analytical method to examine language use in email communication

“Bridging Activities,” New Media Literacies, and Advanced Foreign Language Proficiency

In this article we propose the pedagogical model bridging activities to address advanced foreign language proficiency in the context of existing and emerging internet communication and information tools and communities. The article begins by establishing the need for language and genre-focused activities at the advanced level that attend to the shifting social practices and emerging literacies associated with digital media. Grounded in principles of language awareness and the concept of multiliteracies, the bridging activities model centers on guided exploration and analysis of student selected or created digital vernacular texts originating in Web 2.0 and other technologies/practices such as instant messaging and synchronous chat, blogs and wikis, remixing, and multiplayer online gaming. Application of the model includes an iterative implementation cycle of observation and collection, guided exploration and analysis, and creation and participation. In sum, the bridging activities approach is designed to enhance engagement and relevance through the incorporation of students’ digital-vernacular expertise, experience, and curiosity, coupled with instructor guidance at the level of semiotic form to explore interactional features, discourse-level grammar, and genre. The ultimate goal is to foster critical awareness of the anatomy and functional organization of a wide range of communicative practices relating to both digital and analogue textual conventions

Disseminating knowledge: the effects of digitalised academic discourse on language, genre and identity

In this introduction to the special issue Disseminating knowledge: The effects of digitalised academic discourse in language, genre and identity, the authors discuss the impact that digital technologies and the Web have had on academia. They show how this attests to interrelations between new digital platforms of knowledge creation and dissemination and their use within discourse communities as elements of innovation and change in the shaping and reshaping of existing academic practices. The introduction also discusses the various methodological approaches that have been adopted with a view to investigating digital academic discourse. Exploring some current academic discoursal practices and their specific textual manifestations in the form of digitally-mediated genres, the authors highlight the complexities of the study of digital academic communication

Needs before means: the dialectics of learning and technology

The general argument advanced in this paper is that in the changing context of present-day higher education it is vital that our educational purposes and student needs are clarified before decisions are taken about the means, including the use of learning technology, of satisfying those purposes and needs. The development of a critical understanding is still seen as the central purpose of higher education even in the context of a more vocationally relevant mass higher education. It is argued here that dialogue is the key to critical learning based on a process of dialectical communication. The task then is to construct an understanding learning environment which fosters interaction between students, staff and resources, reconciling individual needs with collective purposes. The specific role of learning technology as a means of encouraging dialogue within a learning environment is illustrated through examples of language learning such as TLTP CKS33 and the RACE Hipernet Project. Through a dialectical process, the appropriate use of learning technologies in meeting students' changing needs can be progressively refined

A Review of the "Digital Turn" in the New Literacy Studies

Digital communication has transformed literacy practices and assumed great importance in the functioning of workplace, recreational, and community contexts. This article reviews a decade of empirical work of the New Literacy Studies, identifying the shift toward research of digital literacy applications. The article engages with the central theoretical, methodological, and pragmatic challenges in the tradition of New Literacy Studies, while highlighting the distinctive trends in the digital strand. It identifies common patterns across new literacy practices through cross-comparisons of ethnographic research in digital media environments. It examines ways in which this research is taking into account power and pedagogy in normative contexts of literacy learning using the new media. Recommendations are given to strengthen the links between New Literacy Studies research and literacy curriculum, assessment, and accountability in the 21st century

Environmental Internet Discourse: Genre Overview

The article gives a genre overview of the environmental Internet discourse

ИЗМЕНЕНИЕ ФУНКЦИЙ ЯЗЫКА В СОВРЕМЕННОЙ ЛИНГВИСТИЧЕСКОЙ ПАРАДИГМЕ: ВЛИЯНИЕ ВИРТУАЛЬНОГО ДИСКУРСА

The modern linguistic paradigm in its conceptual and epistemological content represents a multi-subject system of directions united by a single methodological dominant of anthropocentrism. The priority of the anthropocentric projection in the description of the natural human language is due to the dialectic process of accumulation of linguistic knowledge, which predetermined a qualitatively new understanding of the ontology of the object under study. The principle of anthropocentrism determines the broad explanatory capabilities of modern linguistics in establishing constant units and categories mediated by the gnoseological unity of language and human. The study of the perception of verbal texts takes place within the framework of individual linguistic disciplines: text linguistics, grammar, stylistics, and psycholinguistics. However, most studies of speech messages are conducted in the context of the idealization of the object, that is, isolation from the specific situation in which the speech message is perceived. If we consider the actual functioning of a speech message, then almost always there will be a phenomenon of creolization of the verbal text. In reality, voice communication is a creolized text representing a fusion of verbal text and non-linguistic means, which include the extra-linguistic situation and paralinguistic means of oral and written speech.El paradigma lingüístico moderno en su contenido conceptual y epistemológico representa un sistema de direcciones de múltiples sujetos unidos por un único método metodológico dominante del antropocentrismo. La prioridad de la proyección antropocéntrica en la descripción del lenguaje humano natural se debe al proceso dialéctico de acumulación de conocimiento lingüístico, que predeterminó una comprensión cualitativamente nueva de la ontología del objeto en estudio. El principio del antropocentrismo determina las amplias capacidades explicativas de la lingüística moderna para establecer unidades y categorías constantes mediadas por la unidad gnoseológica del lenguaje y el ser humano. El estudio de la percepción de los textos verbales se lleva a cabo dentro del marco de las disciplinas lingüísticas individuales: lingüística del texto, gramática, estilística y psicolingüística. Sin embargo, la mayoría de los estudios de mensajes de voz se realizan en el contexto de la idealización del objeto, es decir, el aislamiento de la situación específica en la que se percibe el mensaje de voz. Si consideramos el funcionamiento real de un mensaje de voz, casi siempre habrá un fenómeno de creolización del texto verbal. En realidad, la comunicación de voz es un texto creolizado que representa una fusión de texto verbal y medios no lingüísticos, que incluyen la situación extralingüística y los medios paralingüísticos del habla oral y escrita.Современная лингвистическая парадигма в своем концептуальном и эпистемологическом содержании представляет собой многосубъектную систему направлений, объединенных единой методологической доминантой антропоцентризма. Приоритет антропоцентрической проекции в описании естественного человеческого языка обусловлен диалектическим процессом накопления лингвистических знаний, предопределившим качественно новое понимание онтологии изучаемого объекта. Принцип антропоцентризма определяет широкие объяснительные возможности современной лингвистики в установлении постоянных единиц и категорий, опосредованных гносеологическим единством языка и человека.  Изучение восприятия вербальных текстов происходит в рамках отдельных лингвистических дисциплин: лингвистики текста, грамматики, стилистики, психолингвистики. Однако большинство исследований речевых сообщений проводится в контексте идеализации объекта, то есть изоляции от конкретной ситуации, в которой воспринимается речевое сообщение. Если рассматривать реальное функционирование речевого сообщения, то почти всегда будет иметь место явление креолизации вербального текста. В действительности речевая коммуникация представляет собой креолизованный текст, представляющий собой сплав вербального текста и неязыковых средств, к которым относятся экстралингвистическая ситуация и паралингвистические средства устной и письменной речи