Relay Writing in an Adolescent Online Community

Abstract

“Welcome to Buckeye City” is an adolescent online community that was maintained by 25 Korean students who attended American schools. On the website, the students engaged in “relay writing”—a writing activity in which each person contributed a portion of an evolving story in a relayed manner. Relay writing offers teachers a new and valuable window into online literacy as well as adolescent literacy practices beyond school. The activity can help teachers understand adolescents' composing activities in voluntary (i.e., out‐of‐school) circumstances.

Asian English language learners’ identity construction in an after school literacy site

“…It is also possible that the significant differences Kush must have experienced in his earlier years in the US and the fact that he had been in the US the longest among all of the participants might have led him to want to fit in with American peers while distancing himself from Korean peers' values. The lower value Kush placed on his Korean cultural and linguistic roots is in sharp contrast with the findings of Yi's (2005Yi's ( , 2008 studies that depict the rich bilingual literacy activities that Korean ELLs engaged, particularly in Korean, which helped build stronger ethnic identities with their Korean heritage.…”

“…Whereas Asian students' literacy practices that occur in a small group discussion format have received little attention (with the notable exception of Vyas's 2004 study), L2 literacy scholars have recently begun studying Asian ELLs' participation in literacy practices in out-of-school online literacy sites (Black, 2005(Black, , 2006Lam, 2000;Yi, 2008). Black (2005Black ( , 2006 examined how an English language learner who immigrated from China to the United States developed her literacy skills in English and reconstructed her Asian identity through active participation in a fanfiction website where she crafted novels drawing on her interest in Japanese comic books and pop culture.…”

“…The study showed that an online community he created through his homepage about a Japanese pop star granted him confidence as an English language user as he exchanged emails with international pen pals in English. While Black and Lam studied how ELLs developed English literacy skills and constructed identities in their online sites, Yi (2008) focused on how Korean 1. 5 generation (i.e., immigrant) adolescents used their first language in an online community.…”

A Comparison of the Effects of Classroom and Multi-User Virtual Environments on the Perceived Speaking Anxiety of Adult Post-Secondary English Language Learners

“…For example, Von Der Emde, Schneider, and Kotter (2001) assert that virtual learning environments for language instruction provides learners with the ability to contextualize language use as part of culture and social interaction. Research suggests that through interactive activities in virtual communities, ELLs can construct their identities while engaging in multiple learning practices (Black, 2005;Lam, 2000;Yi, 2008). Further, these benefits can be There is also a shortage of research that clearly demonstrates the benefits of using virtual learning environments for ELLs (Ranalli, 2008).…”

Languages and Literacies in Translocation

“…Yet less attention has been paid to the multiple literacy practices of transnational youth. For example, a few scholars, drawing on theories of multiliteracies (e.g., New London Group, 1996), have established that immigrant and transnational youth engage digital literacies to learn English, develop their writing abilities, and access transcultural and other social identities (e.g., Black, 2005Black, , 2009Lam, 2004Lam, , 2006Lam & Rosario-Ramos, 2009;Yi, 2008). Overall, however, the changing language and literacy repertoires of transnational youth are an understudied phenomenon in multiliteracies-informed research.…”