“How They Really Talk”

Abstract

This article responds to the need for more student voices in digital literacies research by discussing the results of interviews with two college students concerning the roles that their non-academic digital literacy practices can play in first-year college writing courses. The author reviews recent literature that has indicated that value of students’ non-academic literacy practices. The author then discusses students’ ideas for utilizing their non-academic digital literacies to provide a social context for situated writing practice and to give students the opportunity to exercise and critically recognize their abilities to code switch for different communicative purposes. The article concludes with a discussion of the need for gaining knowledge about students’ individual positions as users of technology and for facilitating students’ critical engagement with the digital technologies they use.