BOOK REVIEW
Caroline Tagg, Exploring digital communication: Language in action (2015). Routledge Introductions to Applied Linguistics. New York: Routledge. Pp.i-viii, 1-291. ISBN 978-0-415-52493-3 (Paperback). ISBN 9780415524919 (Hardback). ISBN 9781315727165 (eBook).
Reviewed by Alexandra Nunes, CEL-UÉ - University of Évora (PT)
Exploring digital communication: Language in action, authored by Caroline Tagg provides an accessible debate and synthesis on digital communication and its latest developments in the scope of the contents addressed in “Routledge Introductions to Applied Linguistics” collection. It problematises and enlightens some internet-mediated communication concerns borrowing from Applied Linguistics. The author chooses to focus her attention on the central role of language in digital communication as a multimodal phenomenon, highlighting the role of empirical language research as an important tool to contribute to the overall understanding of contemporary languages and societies. Departing from concerns, issues and fears about online communication in contemporary society, the volume contributes to an understanding of synchronous and asynchronous language use and the manifold internet practices, i.e., “how people choose to exploit the affordances that they perceive a technology to have” (Tagg:6) such as “user-generated content, interactivity, networked resources and convergence [as advanced by Jenkins 2006]” (Tagg:5).
The book is divided into three sections comprising twenty-one chapters, headed by a hands-on approach which gradually shifts into theoretical considerations. Section A addresses “Problems and practices”, section B focuses on “Interventions”, and section C, entitled “Theory”, presents some theoretical considerations and concepts on online language in use. All sections are split into two subsections related to (i) “Digital language and literacy” and (ii) “Social issues and social media”. Altogether the volume entails an unconventional ‘back-to-front’ structure, as proposed by the series editors, Ronald Carter and Guy Cook (p.i). In addition, each chapter is supplemented by an opening part, “introduction”, and a closing one, “conclusion”. Chapters are intertwined in such a way that they may be read alternatively according to the reader’s personal preference or interest (cf. chapters 2, 9, 10 and 17, for instance). The book is also supplemented with sixteen encompassing tasks, examples, compilations of current studies, discussions of the different matters, a final glossary on linguistics, communication and internet terminology (pp.239-251), further reading suggestions at the outset of the volume (pp.13-14) as well as extensive bibliography drawing on a carefully updated selection of references (pp.252-282).
Section A, part I, first demystifies fears of language corruption associated with online communication and its effects on grammar, spelling, writing (chapter 1, “Is digital communication ruining language”) and reading practices (Chapter 2, “Has the web changed how we read?”) due to abbreviations, “unconventional spelling”, “mix of scripts and languages” (pp.21-20) or, simply put, “digitalese” (p.23). Chapter 3, “Writing as a collaborative, community-based practice”, contemplates authorship, plagiarism, copyright, and proper crediting issues while reflecting on fan fiction and user-generated content. The chapter is based on the assumption that in a ‘many-to-many’ communication model, digital media “blur the line between writers and readers” (p.37) in such a way that users become producers and consumers of content as they “not only access information in new ways but actively contribute to its creation, by commenting on websites and by posting on social network sites, media-sharing sites and blogs” (p.6). The chapter also addresses hyperlink use as a digital language feature “not only within a particular site”, “but [also] between different websites (‘external links’)”, as “increasing reader agency” and affording “readers the possibility of leaving an otherwise linearly constructed argument” also “follow[ing] other paths through the web” (p.29). Section A, part I, concludes with chapter 4, “The global dominance of English”, presenting, on the one hand, some considerations on the predominance of English language in the online context due to its global lingua franca status and political, economic, technological, and historical reasons, and, on the other, reflecting on the role or fate of minority languages online.
Section A, part II, discusses and analyses matters related to anonymity, self-promotion and selfie publication (Chapter 5, “from anonymity to self-promotion”), online privacy (Chapter 6, “what are the implications of social media for privacy?”), digital interactivity and potential decrease of social interactions offline (chapter 7, “is social media making us less social offline?”), as well as flaming, trolling, and online bullying (chapter 8, “what can be done about trolls and online bullying?”).
Section B, part I, gathers empirical and applied linguistics research and studies with corpus linguistics insights to analyse SMS, Twitter, Wikipedia, or fan fiction language. First, this section addresses the correlation between phonetic spelling, orthographic principles, and literacy skills, (chapter 9, “Why digital communication may be good for literacy”), departing from the argument that “if children are able to play with spellings when communicating by SMS text message or the internet, this may indicate a strong grasp of the underlying orthographic principles – they have to know the rules before they can bend them” (p.99). In chapter 10, “Exploring digital literacies”, the author further extends digital literacies beyond reading and writing skills, implying an understanding of the internet’s multimodal, technological, and information domains. As people need to “learn to access, filter and organise information from a huge web of networked resources; and to navigate” “through hyperlinked text[s]”, the author argues that “digital literacy is not simply a question of mastering the technology (to turn on a computer and operate a mouse) but of developing a range of cognitive, personal, social and cultural strategies” (p.111). Tagg further delves into the potential of digital communication to develop writing (Chapter 11, “Using the web as space for writing”) and multilingual skills (Chapter 12, “Using more than one language online”), addressing code-switching and trans-scripting phenomena online as “multilingual internet users emerge not as passive victims of globalising forces but as active agents able to draw on English and other languages for complex social purposes” (p.139).
Section B, part II, (re)addresses social issues and social media, first focusing on online identity negotiation and construction, arguing that “gender roles and identities online” (p.144) “are to some extent reconstructed [from offline contexts] through digital communication” (p.146), but also they “may be shaped by various online factors including changes in technology”, “intergenerational differences” (p.146), different genres and the way users convey authority, authenticity and credibility (Chapter 13, “Performing identity online”). The author proceeds to explain the way the speaker chooses to address the audience which can (simultaneously) be professional, private, or public, especially when social media is considered, and points out possible linguistic strategies to preserve privacy such as vague expressions, multilingual code-switching, hints, and puns to “signal what is private and what is public” (p.161, Chapter 14, “Audience design on social media”). In chapter 15 “Constructing virtual communities”, Tagg claims that similarly to offline contexts online communities are built on a “sense of affiliation” (p.164) due to shared interests, social variables, extensions of pre-existing offline social networks, hashtags, or node-oriented networks. In this chapter, the author grounds her analysis of language in use in a systemic functional linguistic approach to language (Halliday 1985) and appraisal theory’s framework (Martin, & White 2005). Tagg concludes Section B by exploring the current matter of online aggression and cyberbullying while highlighting linguistic strategies of intimidation and defence and stressing online hate as one among many ways to respond to digital media’s affordances though not as a predominant paradigm of online behaviour (cf. Chapter 16, “The linguistics of online aggression”).
Section C, part I, reassesses the concept of multiliteracies departing from the assumption that literacy is a social practice. It is grounded on a specific society and culture and not simply a correspondence of language or sound to symbols, characters, or letters but also the ability “to interpret images, recognise and recreate genre conventions, take into account underlying agendas and so on” (p.104, chapter 17, “multiliteracies”). Chapter 17 presents a distinction between “vernacular” and “dominant literacies” (related to media, law, or education, for instance) and the way they may combine creatively in the digital space to “enable us to do things, make relationships and take on particular roles” (p.190). Chapter 18, “translanguaging via superdiverse internet”, presents “an emerging paradigm in sociolinguistics [which] seeks to describe multilingual practices not in terms of switching but as a more fluid and complex process by which users draw on any and all of the languages in their repertoires, without necessarily making conscious distinctions between them: a process known as translanguaging” (p.199) which has potential to open speakers to a “sense of identity within transnational space[s]” (p.206). The final chapter suggests theoretical considerations on “heteroglossia” (Bakhtin 1981) as a concept which can embrace digital hybridity and simultaneously encompass multilingual, multimodal, multi-authored and intertextual practices “that often characterise vernacular writing online, and the social tensions and conflicts between these and dominant or more established ways of writing” (p.198).
As for part II of section C, it initially offers some insight on “identities in interaction” (Chapter 20), according to Bucholtz and Hall’s (2005) identity principles: emergence, positionality, indexicality, relationality, and partialness. Chapter 21 entitled “sociolinguistic communities” traces the evolution of the concepts of speech communities (Labov 1972), social networks, communities of practice, discourse communities (Swales 1990) to the latest “developments in sociolinguistic ideas about community” and the way virtual communities “to some extent parallel perceived changes in the real world, given the quickening pace of globalisation, the shake-up of traditional structures and sources of authority, the greater possibility for mobility, and people’s increasing ability to use digital communications to establish networks beyond their immediate vicinity” (p.230).
The subjects focused in the book, the way issues are explored, reviewed, and debated as well as their structure contribute to achieving the goals of the book in the series. The volume may easily be read by undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students, researchers, academics, educators, media, communication and language professionals, stakeholders in the higher education, or even a general readership with interest in Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics, Communication Studies, New Media, or Contemporary English language studies. All in all, the book provides some initial but necessary tools and concepts to develop informed judgements on online language use and to reflect on current and upcoming uses of digital communication affordances.
References
Bakhtin, M. (1981). Discourse in the novel (M. Holquist, & C. Emerson, Trans.). In M. Holquist (Ed.), The dialogic imagination (pp. 259-422). Austin: University of Texas Press.
Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4-5), 585-614.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1985). Spoken and written language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press.
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Martin, J.R., & White, P.R.R. (2005). The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
How to cite this article: Nunes, A. (2022). Exploring digital communication: Language in action (2015). Routledge Introductions to Applied Linguistics. New York: Routledge. Pp. i-viii, 1-291. ISBN 978-0-415-52493-3 (Paperback). ISBN 9780415524919 (Hardback). ISBN 9781315727165 (eBook). Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education – JoLIE, 15(3), 241-244. doi: https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2022.15.3.14
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