Language in the Wild—Living the Carnival in Social Media

Sylvi Vigmo and Annika Lantz-Andersson
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Sylvi Vigmo: Department of Education, Communication and Learning, University of Gothenburg, Box 300, Gothenburg SE405 30, Sweden
Annika Lantz-Andersson: Department of Education, Communication and Learning, University of Gothenburg, Box 300, Gothenburg SE405 30, Sweden

Social Sciences, 2014, vol. 3, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: This study presents results from an intervention case study at upper secondary level, in which Blogger was introduced during English class. The overarching interest was to explore the students’ social performances and their interplay with students’ uses of language across multiple forms of literate activities in blogging. The study draws on a sociocultural perspective, taking a particular interest in language as a meditational tool for communication and interaction in the students’ own digital vernacular practices. Goffman’s dramaturgical approach including the concepts of performance and role distance in front and back regions together with Bakhtin’s notion of carnival were invoked as analytical tools for the analysis of video material as well as ethnographic scraping of online content in the blog. It was found that the students presented a witty, humorous image of themselves, while playing around with language as well as bringing in manipulated media for mockery and self-irony. Analytically speaking the students were living the carnival by utilizing a norm-breaking language—a language in the wild. Though this in-depth study presents a limited number of students’ blogging, the findings contribute to an increased understanding of the in situ creation of a blogger text providing a basis for discussing the uses of language in social media and what this implies for learning languages and for teaching practices.

Keywords: language use; social media; Bakhtin; carnival; Goffman; performance; blogging; interaction analysis; role distance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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