A netnography of emergent ESOL researcher identity and development in a virtual community of practice
Citation
Source Title
ISSN
Faculty
School
Collection
Abstract
For emerging researchers, communities of practice (CoPs) can be a much-needed source of knowledge and support, particularly during a global pandemic. Within this context, a virtual CoP (VCoP) project was initiated for novice researchers in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)/Applied Linguistics worldwide to exchange perspectives and academic knowledge. Guided by netnography, our study explores the social, cultural, and professional practices of VCoP through multiple digital sources, such as webinar recordings, Facebook group posts, reflective journal entries, and one-on-one interview. The triangulated data aims to examine the effects of virtual mentorship on the agency, engagement, and identity construction of an emerging researcher. Findings illustrate that a VCoP facilitates international networking, fosters the repositioning of ESOL researcher identity, and promotes agency through virtual mentoring. Specifically, netnography opens a viable avenue for remote data mining in Applied Linguistics research.
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Wood, Lincoln; Reiners, Torsten (2013)Research in virtual worlds has sought to distance itself from the perception that it is about games and appears to have achieved this distinction. However, in the process, valuable contributions and concepts from game-based ...
-
Roberts, Lynne D. (2001)The rapid growth of the internet over the past decade has provided increasing opportunities for individuals to engage in computer-mediated social interaction in virtual environments. Despite this rapid growth there has ...
-
Reiners, Torsten; Wriedt, S.; Rea, A. (2011)The hype of Second Life is over. But the experience of this truly exciting period lives on in many disciplines and research areas, which are developing emerging technologies in virtual, as well as augmented worlds. And ...