Moving methods online: Researching digital language practices

TY - CHAP

T1 - Moving methods online

T2 - Researching digital language practices

AU - Androutsopoulos , Jannis

AU - Stæhr, Andreas Candefors

PY - 2018/1/1

Y1 - 2018/1/1

N2 - Digital media is a key element in theorizing superdiversity, and digital language practices have been a core part of language and superdiversity research from the very start. This chapter discusses methods for digital language research in the language and superdiversity paradigm. It has three aims. First, we describe the historical and theoretical background of digital language research in sociolinguistics. Second, we focus on practices of blended data collection across online and offline contexts. Third, we reflect on how social and communicative aspects of superdiversity, especially transnational mobility and proliferation of mobile media, impact on research methods and motivate the development of new research designs. We identify four relevant themes: the role of mobile media for transnational trajectories, the consequences of polymedia for linguistic repertoires, practices of transmodal interaction and the circulation and recontextualisation of semiotic resources. Against this backdrop, we examine how digital interaction contributes to a sociolinguistic process that is central to language and superdiversity research, i.e., enregisterment. We conclude with summary guidelines for online research in the sociolinguistics of superdiversity.

AB - Digital media is a key element in theorizing superdiversity, and digital language practices have been a core part of language and superdiversity research from the very start. This chapter discusses methods for digital language research in the language and superdiversity paradigm. It has three aims. First, we describe the historical and theoretical background of digital language research in sociolinguistics. Second, we focus on practices of blended data collection across online and offline contexts. Third, we reflect on how social and communicative aspects of superdiversity, especially transnational mobility and proliferation of mobile media, impact on research methods and motivate the development of new research designs. We identify four relevant themes: the role of mobile media for transnational trajectories, the consequences of polymedia for linguistic repertoires, practices of transmodal interaction and the circulation and recontextualisation of semiotic resources. Against this backdrop, we examine how digital interaction contributes to a sociolinguistic process that is central to language and superdiversity research, i.e., enregisterment. We conclude with summary guidelines for online research in the sociolinguistics of superdiversity.

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 978-1-138-90509-2

SP - 118

EP - 132

BT - The Routledge Handbook of Language and Superdiversity

A2 - Creese, Angela

A2 - Blackledge, Adrian

PB - Routledge

CY - London

ER -