This article presents a case study that uses ethnographic and discourse analytic methods to examine how electronic textual experiences in ESL figure in the identity formation and literacy development of the learner. First, the article reviews some recent work in literacy studies, L2 learning, and computer‐mediated communication to provide a conceptual basis for studying discursive practices and identity formation in L2 learning. The results of a case study of a Chinese immigrant teenager's written correspondence with a transnational group of peers on the Internet then show how this correspondence relates to his developing identity in the use of English. This study develops the notion of textual identity for understanding how texts are composed and used to represent and reposition identity in the networked computer media. It also raises critical questions on literacy and cultural belonging in the present age of globalization and transborder relations.

S e n d r e q u e s t s f o r p e r m i s s i o n t o r e p r i n t t o : R i g h t s a n d P e r m i s s i o n s , U n i v e r s i t y o f C a l i f o r n i a P r e s s , J o u r n a l s D i v i s i o n , 2 0 0 0 C e n t e r S t . , S t e . 3 0 3 , B e r k e l e y , C A 9 4 7 0 4 -1 2 2 3 .

Through an in‐depth case study of the instant messaging practices of an adolescent girl who had migrated to the United States from China, this qualitative investigation examines the development of multiliteracies in the context of transnational migration and new media of communication. Data consisted of screen recordings of the youth's digital practices, interviews, and observations. Data analyses included qualitative coding procedures and orthographic analysis of the use of multiple dialects and languages in the youth's instant messaging exchanges. These exchanges illustrate the process of social and semiotic design through which the youth developed simultaneous affiliations with her local Chinese immigrant community, a translocal network of Asian‐American youth, and transnational relationships with her peers in China. The construction of transnational networks represents the desire of the youth to develop the literate repertoire that would enable her to thrive in multiple linguistic communities across countries and mobilize resources within these communities. This study contributes to new conceptual directions for understanding translocal forms of linguistic diversity mediated by digital technologies and an expanded view of the literate repertoire and cultural resources of migrant youth. As such, this study's contributions are not limited to the domain of digital literacies but extend to issues of linguistic diversity and adolescent literacy development in contexts of migration. تلخيص البحث: من خلال حالة دراسية معمقة بشأن ممارسات المكالمات الفورية لدى شابة مراهقة هاجرت إلى الولايات المتحدة من الصين، يفحص هذا الاستقصاء الخاصي تنمية تعددية معارف القراءة والكتابة في سياق الهجرة عبر القارات ووسائل المواصلات الجديدة. وتكونت المعطيات من سجلات ممارسات الشابة الرقمية المأخوذة من شاشة حاسوبها والمقابلات والمراقبات. وقد شملت تحاليل المعطيات إجراءات تشفير خاصية وتحليل الخط لاستخدام لهجات ولغات متعددة في تبادلات الرسائل الفورية عند الشابة. وتبين هذه التبادلات عملية التصميم الاجتماعي والرمزي من خلاله طورت الشابة انتماءات متزامنة لمجتمعها المهاجر الصيني المحلي، وهو شبكة عبر الأماكن المحلية من الشباب الآسويين الأمريكيين والعلاقات عبر الأماكن الدولية بنظراءها في الصين. ويمثل إنشاء الشبكات عبر الأماكن الدولية رغبة الشباب في تنمية مجموعة معارف المصطلحات التي ستساعدها في العيش في مجموعات لغوية متعددة عبر الدول عيشاً مثمراً وتعبئة موارد في تلك المجموعات. إذ تساهم هذه الدراسة في إتجاهات تصورية جديدة لفهم أشكال الأماكن المحلية المتنوعة اللغة تتوسط بالتقنيات الرقمية ومنظر موسع من مجموعة المصطلحات اللغوية والموارد الثقافية لدى الشباب المهاجرين. وعليه فأن مساهمات هذه الدراسة لا تقتصر على مجال تعلم القراءة والكتابة الرقمي بل تمتد إلى قضايا التعددية اللغوية وتطور تعلم القراءة والكتابة لدى المراهقين في سياق الهجرة. 本研究是一项定性调查，以一名从中国移居美国的少女为深入个案研究对象，透过研究她所实践的即时通讯经验，调查在跨国移居及新媒体通讯的语境中她的多元媒体读写文化发展。研究资料包括有关该少女在线上即时发送与接收的屏幕记录、与她访谈的记录及从旁观察的记录。研究资料分析工作包括把有关该少女在即时消息交换中所使用的多元方言和语言作定性编码程序以及作拼字分析。这些即时消息交换说明了该少女如何通过社会性和符号语言的设计过程，与她的本地华人移民社区及一个跨本地区的亚裔美国青年人网络同时发展联系，幷与她在中国的同辈发展跨国的关系。该跨国网络的建构象征该少女对发展这套读写技能的愿望，好让她在进行跨国多元语言社区的即时通讯时能够应付自如，亦能够把这些社区内的...

This review of research offers a synthesis and analysis of research studies that address issues of language and literacy practices and learning in transnational contexts of migration. We consider how theoretical concepts from transnational migration studies, including particular Boudieusian‐inspired concepts such as transnational social field, capital, and habitus, as well as sociolinguistic studies of language and transnational space, might inform and extend the field of literacy research. We mobilize these concepts in relation to each other as interpretive frames for discussing an emerging body of empirical studies that address various aspects of language and literacy practices as they are intertwined with issues of cross‐border relations and mobility. Studies reviewed examine practices in families and communities, practices among youth and within educational settings, and practices with transnational media (broadcast and digital communications). We argue that as a whole these studies show the important role of language and literacy practices in constructing and maintaining social relations across borders, and in how migrants navigate and position themselves in various social fields within and across national boundaries. We consider the intergenerational process in the family in mediating participation in these social practices, how language ideologies at multiple scale levels influence family and youth practices, and the variable ways in which institutional structures of schooling position the transnational affiliations and linguistic resources of migrant students.

This study explores the literacy practices that are involved in transnational social and information networking among youths of immigrant backgrounds in the United States. In particular, it investigates the ways in which young migrants of diverse national origins in the United States are utilising digital media to organise social relationships with friends and families, and engage with news and media products across the United States and their native countries. Based on results of interviews with 35 adolescents of diverse national origins, and survey data with a larger group of youths, this paper shows that digital media have become major tools and avenues for these young people to maintain and develop relations with people, media, and events across territorial boundaries. Within their digital networks, the youths mobilise multiple languages to conduct interpersonal relationships and seek out ideas and information from various sources in their 'home' and 'host' societies, and sometimes across a larger diaspora. We suggest that such literacy practices of a transnational scope provide a basis for re-assessing our understanding of multilingualism as both community and transnational resources and envisioning societal education that recognises and leverages such transnational resources in the literacy education of our young people.