The Integration of ELF and Social Networking into ELT: An Ethnographic Survey

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to report on the results of a student ethnographic survey that was conducted at the end of a research project informed by Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, which regarded the integration of English as a lingua franca (ELF) into English language teaching (ELT) via social networking. The emergence of ELF is examined from a social constructionist theoretical perspective on second language learning, which considers the reshaping of English as part of the intercultural process that leads to the development of the L2-user’s sociolinguistic identity. A group of thirty-six Italian voluntary high-school students from Rome, Palermo and Messina were interconnected online by means of a wiki to create a community of practice (CoP) working on fan fiction cooperatively. Moreover, the wiki hosted a forum that was open to the fandom, which gave the project an intercultural dimension. The student ethnographic survey that is presented here explored the respondents’ subjective views of their experience. It provided: (a) quantitative data concerning the use of ELF in online communication from home and from school; and (b) qualitative data about the respondents’ attitude towards the implementation of networked creative writing and fan fiction. Findings cannot be generalised to all learners of English; nevertheless, they offer an insightful look into the pedagogic potential of innovative learning activities based on ELF and social networking.