Title: An Ethnographic Study of Digital Translanguaging and Transcultural Practices Among Algerian ELF Users
Stream: Linguistics, Language and Cultural Studies
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation
Authors:
Dounya Boumaza, University of Southampton, United Kingdom
Abstract:
It has been argued for years that Algerians_ having grown up with several linguistic resources_ are experiencing a very complex sociolinguistic conflict (Benrabah, 2013). At the same time, Algerians engage in global communication like the rest of the world using their linguistic resources in a diversified way. Therefore, relatively little has been said about Algerians intercultural digital communication. My research aims at deconstructing this familiar "conflict" perspective through which Algerians have always been seen, especially in research from the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) (e.g. Benrabah, 2013; Suleiman, 2011). I choose to adopt a more holistic lens through which I attempt to critically make salient the hidden realities of dynamic, emergent, complex, and actual linguistic and cultural performances of my participants (Baker, 2015). Through combining linguistic and digital ethnography, I attempt to answer the following research question: what do Algerians linguistic and cultural practices in the Facebook group tell about their cultural identities? I have mainly focused on detailed online observation of the Facebook group which is composed of my five (05) Algerian participants and ten (10) secondary participants who come from different backgrounds. In addition, I use retrospective interviewing to help mitigate the "one-sidedness of textual interpretation resulting from the researcher`s own reading of his or her data" (Jaworski & Thurlow, 2010, p. 15). Findings show that Algerians cultural identities are fluid, emergent, and dynamically constructed throughout the fieldwork.
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