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In recent years, there has been a great deal of research and pedagogical experimentation relating to the uses of technology in second (L2) and foreign language education. The majority of this research has usefully described and examined the efficacy of in-class and directly classroomrelated uses of technology. This article broadens the scope of inquiry to include L2 and foreign language-related uses of technology that extend into the interstitial spaces between instructed L2 contexts and entirely out-of-school noninstitutional realms of freely chosen digital engagement. Two demographically and sociologically significant phenomena are examined in detail; the first focuses on participation in Internet interest communities such as fan fiction and virtual diaspora community spaces and the second describes a continuum of three-dimensional graphically rendered virtual environments and online games. A review of research in each of these areas reveals extended periods of language socialization into sophisticated communicative practices and demonstrates the salience of creative expression and language use as tools for identity development and management. In the final section of the article, we suggest a number of possibilities for synergistically uniting the analytic rigor of instructed L2 education with the immediacy and vibrancy of language use in digital vernacular contexts.IN THE FOREWORD TO A RECENT BOOK EXamining knowledge and learning processes using technology, the acclaimed information technologist John Seely Brown (2008) described a number of differences between predictable and relatively static traditional literacies and emergent literacies that accompany new media, Web 2.0 tools, 1 and other digitally mediated practices, stating that:

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In light of the increasingly blurred line between mediated and nonmediated contexts for social, professional, and educational purposes, attention to the presence and use of innovative digital media is critical to the consideration of the future of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). This article reviews current trends in the use of mediated communication and offers a vision for near-future second and foreign language (L2) learning that utilizes emerging media as (a) meaningful contexts for L2 language development and (b) a means for adding real world relevance to in-class uses of internet-mediated communication tools. In this article, we first explore a sampling of Web 2.0 technologies (e.g., blogs, wikis, and social bookmarking) related to collaborative content building and dissemination of information. We then consider three types of 3-dimensional virtual environments, including open social virtualities (such as Second Life and There), massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) (e.g., World of Warcraft, Everquest, and Eve Online), and synthetic immersive environments (SIEs, i.e., visually rendered spaces which combine aspects of open social virtualities with goal-directed gaming models to address specific learning objectives). In particular, we report on SIEs as they might be used to foster interlanguage pragmatic development and briefly report on an existing project in this area. The ultimate goal is to spark future research and pedagogical innovation in these areas of emerging digital media in order to arrive at a greater understanding of the complexities involved in their integration with language learning in ways that will be most relevant to the communicative contexts of the 21st century.

In this article we propose the pedagogical model bridging activities to address advanced foreign language proficiency in the context of existing and emerging internet communication and information tools and communities. The article begins by establishing the need for language and genre-focused activities at the advanced level that attend to the shifting social practices and emerging literacies associated with digital media. Grounded in principles of language awareness and the concept of multiliteracies, the bridging activities model centers on guided exploration and analysis of student selected or created digital vernacular texts originating in Web 2.0 and other technologies/practices such as instant messaging and synchronous chat, blogs and wikis, remixing, and multiplayer online gaming. Application of the model includes an iterative implementation cycle of observation and collection, guided exploration and analysis, and creation and participation. In sum, the bridging activities approach is designed to enhance engagement and relevance through the incorporation of students' digital-vernacular expertise, experience, and curiosity, coupled with instructor guidance at the level of semiotic form to explore interactional features, discourse-level grammar, and genre. The ultimate goal is to foster critical awareness of the anatomy and functional organization of a wide range of communicative practices relating to both digital and analogue textual conventions.

This article describes the evolution of communication technologies, accompanying transformations in everyday communicative activity, and pedagogical possibilities these tools support in second and foreign language (L2) settings. We begin with an overview of synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) and uses of the Internet to mediate intercultural communication for purposes of L2 learning. We then describe generational shifts in Internet technologies and their proliferation and uses, with the majority of our efforts focused on contemporary environments such as blogs, wikis, podcasting, device-agnostic forms of CMC, and advances in intelligent computer-assisted language learning (ICALL). Throughout, we engage in a discussion of praxeological fusions of various media technologies and the implications of this nexus of practice for the transformation of what it means to teach, learn, and communicate in L2 contexts.

This article describes second language uses of Internet communication tools, Web environments, and online gaming, and critically reviews existing research and emerging technologies representing diverse pedagogical conditions in three distinct computer-mediated configurations: (1) instructed and institutional intraclass discussion and interclass partnerships, (2) transcultural partnerships and structured participation in "open" Internet environments, and (3) interaction in ongoing Internet-mediated environments that include popular culture blogs and Web sites, fanfiction communities, language and/or culture communities, and online games. We propose that a critical-and-constructive appraisal of existing and emerging digital media, communicative genres, literacy practices, and the communities made possible through them, can help to forge more responsive, and more ecologically responsible, language-learning opportunities for students who are expected to navigate increasingly mediated social and professional worlds. All arenas of human interaction, from institutional contexts such as government, commerce, and education, to interpersonal communication among intimates, are mediated by tools and technologies, from gesture and speech to image and textual literacies. In dialectic tension with the explosive growth in digital information and communication media, Internet information and communication technologies have amplified conventional communicative practices in the areas of audience, impact, and speed and also have enabled the emergence of distinctive communicative, cultural, and cognitive practices. These practices emerge within distinctive cultures-of-use-that is, contextual aspects as well as "the historically sedimented characteristics that accrue to a [computer-mediated-communication] tool from its everyday use" (Thorne, 2003, p. 40)-and, as much of the research reviewed in this article suggests, these unofficial or assumed cultures-of-use often shape participation and forms of language development and literate engagement taking place in computer-mediated contexts, at times in ways that are at odds with formal and/or structured design elements of learning contexts. Thus, the argument developed in this article is that qualitative shifts in communicative contexts, purposes, and genres of language use associated with new media necessitate a responsive and LANGUAGE AND LITERACY DEVELOPMENT 135 greater opportunity for expression of ideas than in face-to-face discussions, more linguistic production overall (Chun, 1994; Beauvois, 1992), the expansion of occasions for authentic and meaningful discourse (Kelm, 1996; Kern, 2000; Warschauer, 1997), and increased engagement by students who do not participate as frequently in face-to-face classroom discussion (Sullivan & Pratt, 1996; Warschauer, 1996). The conventional subject positions of teachers and students were also argued to have shifted dramatically through the ongoing intervention of technology. To take one example, Kelm (1996, p. 27) stated that "technology allows lan...