Abstract
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.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Routledge Handbook of Language and Superdiversity |
| Editors | Angela Creese, Adrian Blackledge |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Place of Publication | London |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Publication date | 1 Jan 2018 |
| Pages | 118-132 |
| Chapter | 10 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-1-138-90509-2 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781317444688 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2018 |