This was an invited presentation at the University of Iowa (USA)

1. Digital semiospheres and L2 development:
Cases and issues
Pusak-Otto Lecture Series
University of Iowa
October 5, 2012
Steven L. Thorne
Department of World Languages and Literatures
Portland State University
&
Department of Applied Linguistics, University of Groningen
+ the 503 Design Collective

2. Talking points
• Digital demographics and semiopheres
• Phenomenological primacy of 1st order languaging;
affordances & constraints of 2nd order language
• Approaches to (potentially) ameliorating conditions of
possibility for language development
1. Language use and development through pedagogical
mediation: Intercultural online exchanges and DDL
• Unicollaboration.eu – supporting L2 online exchanges
2. The semiotic ecology and linguistic complexity of an
online game world
3. Engineering interactivity: Design of a place-based
plurilingual augmented reality experience (!)
• Semiotic agility and next steps

3. Part 1: Digital demographics
& language use
Thorne, S. L., Black, R. W., & Sykes, J. (2009). Second language use, socialization,
and learning in Internet interest communities and online games. Modern Language
Journal, 93: 802-821.
Thorne, S. L. (2008). Computer-mediated communication. In N. Hornberger & N. Van
Duesen-Scholl (eds.), Encyclopedia of language and education, Volume 4: Second
and foreign language education (p. 325-336). Springer/Kluwer.
Thorne, S. L., & Payne, J. S. (2005). Evolutionary trajectories, Internet-mediated
expression, and language education. CALICO Journal 22(3): 371-397.

5. French
Spanish
Spanish
Spanish
French
Italian
Spanish
Spanish
English
Portug.
Spanish
French
Spanish
French
Spanish
Chinese

7. Big context & emerging environments
• 2.1 billion Internet users world wide (2012 est.)
• 156 million accounts on Runescape (10m month)
• 14 + million played World of Warcraft at peak
• Approaching 1 billion on facebook, 800m visits per
month, 400m users visit daily
• 200+ million twitter accounts
• Users of social media ―curate‖ online personas (Clive
Thompson, NY Times, 2008)
• Technology use starts early!!

8. Allure of the digital wilds
• Mediated communication is not a proxy or practice
environment, it‘s the real thing
• In some cases, how to carry out mediated communication
should be the goal of educational practice (chat, gaming,
txting, …)
• L2 education as inclusive of the broader semiotic ecology
of everyday life – living langauge!
• Extending the event horizon of instructed L2 education 
plurilinguality of media

9. What is language development in the wild?
• Language complex and adaptive – moving target! (5 Graces,
2009; de Bot et al, 2007; Ellis & Larsen-Freeman, 2006)
• Patterns: Learning occurs through repeated exposure to input;
pattern recognition/construction learning (e.g., N. Ellis, 2009)
• Associations: Language learning = complex associations
between speech/writing and meaningful contexts/activity
types/concepts/emotions/pragmatic functions …
• Environments: Social environment pivotal to development –
language learning at the nexus of joint attention, intension-
reading, and cultural learning (Tomasello, 2003)
• Experience: Hopper (1998) describes language repertoires as
a ―loose confederation of available and overlapping social
experiences‖, further noting that ―children do not learn
sentences but rather adapt their behavior to increasingly
complex surroundings.‖

10. 1st order languaging & 2nd order language
• DLG-inspired reconceptualizations of language, cognition, and
human sense-making (e.g., Cowley, 2009; Love, 2004;
Hodges, 2009; Steffensen, 2009)
• ―linguistic activity and the biological processes that subtend this
emergence are entrained and … constrained by higher order
social meaning-making practices, discourse genres, and
conventions [higher-scalar ecosocial relations]‖ (Thibault, 2000:
291) [see Maturana, 1978; Becker, 1988]
• First order languaging happens in real time, is immediate, but
also embedded
• Second order language happens in space (or is temporally,
and often also spatially, displaced)
• Second order patterns, evolving across longer time scales,
constrain first-order realtime dynamics

11. Design approaches: 3 tiers?
• Issue for L2 development – we live in a 1st order reality --
―nothing happens non-locally‖ (Pennycook, 2010: 55)
• Adaptive L2 pedagogical process 
• Acknowledge the primacy & situatedness of 1st order
languaging -- a distributed phenomenology of interactivity
• Ascertain appropriate 2nd order language resources
(including discrete morphosyntactic
realizations/strings/pragmatic formulations!)
• 3rd or tertiary order constructs: Create awareness of
situation transcending patterns (2nd order constructs) to
pedagogically scaffold 1st order interactivity

12. Internet-mediated intercultural
foreign language education
O‘Dowd, R. (ed.) (2007) Online intercultural exchange: an
introduction for foreign language teachers. Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters.
Helm, F., & Guth, S. (eds.), Telecollaboration 2.0 for
language and intercultural learning (pp. 139-164). Bern:
Peter Lang.
Thorne, S. L. (2010). The ‗intercultural turn‘ and language
learning in the crucible of new media. In F. Helm & S.
Guth (eds.), Telecollaboration 2.0 for Language and
Intercultural Learning (pp. 139-164). Bern: Peter Lang.
Thorne, S. L. (2003). Artifacts and cultures-of-use in
intercultural communication. Language Learning &
Technology, 7 (2), 38-67.

13. Empirical Study 1
Language learners as knowledge producers:
German Modal Particles
&
Data driven learning (DDL)
Nina Vyatkina, University of Kansas
Vyatkina, N. (2007). Development of second language pragmatic
competence: The data-driven teaching of German modal particles
based on a learner corpus. Unpublished dissertation, Pennsylvania
State University.

14. Online intercultural exchanges
• Mark Twain: ―I was greatly discouraged …‖
• The use of internet communication tools to support dialogue,
debate, collaborative research, and social interaction between
internationally dispersed groups of learners
• From ―communicative competence‖ to ―intercultural
competence‖
• Cost-efficient access to expert speakers – virtual mobility
• Embeds FLL in development of meaningful relationships
• New linguistic repertoires afforded by interpersonal mediation
(e.g., Belz & Kinginger, 2003; Thorne, 2003)

15. Teaching Modal Particles: Vyatkina 2007
• well, you know, like, kind of, so, really, maybe, right?
• Modal particles = uninflected smallwords which serve to
express the position of the speaker on what is being said
THE PROBLEMS
• Absence of a direct counterpart in English (translated by
tag questions, intonation, omitted)
• Rampant polysemy and strongly context-bound meaning
• Absence of an informal ―particle-friendly climate‖ in
traditional language classrooms
• Overly formal treatment in textbooks
• Sentence-based rather than utterance-based
[interactive]

16. Participants
American and German students discussing intercultural
topics in German and in English using email and chat
during 8 semester weeks (Fall 2005)

17. German Modal Particles
• Ja, denn, doch, mal, aber
• German modal particles: indeclinable ―smallwords‖ -- high
frequency in oral discourse
• ‗The German listener expects a particle. If it is absent, the
sentence acquires a specific stylistic value: without a
particle it sounds choppy, harsh, unfriendly, its utterance
is apodictic, abrupt, blatantly noncommittal.‘ (Weydt, 1969)

18. Pedagogical intervention
• Classroom intracultural
QUAN & QUAL Data-driven sessions: explicit
analysis instruction
instruction based on the
data produced by the
participants in
CMC practice CMC practice • Internet-mediated
intercultural sessions:
practice in language
QUAN & QUAL use using CMC with
Data-driven analysis
instruction native speakers

19. Awareness-raising exercise 1
Questions adopted in part from Möllering and Nunan (1995)
• In this excerpt from chat with our German partners, what
lexical category (part of speech) do the words ja, mal, aber
belong to?
• Can you list other words belonging to this category?
• What functions do these words have in the examples from
your partners‘ writing?
• Which of these words have you ever used (in this course or
earlier) in the same functions?
• Soren: Wann kommst Du mal nach Deutschland?
• Jeremy: Hoffentlich komme ich der Fruhling 2007.
• Soren: Oh das dauert aber noch
• Soren: Das ist ja noch über ein Jahr
• Soren: Naja, vielleicht schaffst Du es ja dann mal bei mir vorbei
zu kommen.

20. Awareness-raising exercise 2
Questions adopted in part from Möllering (2004)
• Consider the following concordance lines with the modal
particle MAL from your partners‘ writing and answer the
questions:
• Underline all the finite verbs in the clauses containing
MAL. Do you see any patterns?
• What sentence types do the examples contain –
declaratives, exclamatives, commands, questions?

21. Relative frequency:
modality/intervention effect
15
12
9
Amer
6 Ger
3
0
chat/pre* email/pre* chat/post email/post
* Statistically significant difference in mean relative frequencies (no.
MPs/1000 German words), p<.05

22. MP Dispersion in the corpus
Learners:
1. ja
2. denn
3. doch
4. Mal
NSs:
1. ja
2. denn
3. doch
4. mal

23. MP use by NSs and learners
(absolute numbers)
Stages NSs Learners: Learners:
Accurate use Inaccurate use
Pre-Interv. 89 3 0
(4 weeks)
Interv. W1 7 2
Interv. W2 6 0
Interv. W3 27 3
Post-Int. W4 22 1
Total 80 65 6
Post-Interv.

24. Pedagogical Issues for DDL
• DDL – Learning to learn language by picking out
patterns (Saffron et al., 1996), but with help
• Suggestion: DDL in close affinity with pedagogical
mediation (input enhancement, salience cues, concept-
based approaches to grammar)
• Authentic/engaging + pedagogical mediation =
‗Mediated authenticity‘

25. Join us @ unicollaboration.eu!

26. L2 learning in massively multiplayer games
• Thorne, S. L., & Fischer, I. (2012). Online Gaming as Sociable Media. ALSIC:
Apprentissage de Langues et Systemes d’Information et de Communication.
• Thorne, S. L., Cornillie, F., & Desmet, P. (eds.) (2012). Digital Games for Language
Learning: Challenges and Opportunities. ReCALL Journal, 24(3).
• Thorne, S. L. (2012). Gaming Writing: Supervernaculars, Stylization, and Semiotic
Remediation. In G. Kessler, A. Oskoz, & I. Elola, (Eds.), Technology Across Writing
Contexts and Tasks (pp. 297–316). CALICO Monograph: San Marcos, Texas.

27. Empirical Study 2

28. Core tenets of second language development
• All theories of adult L2 development acknowledge the
importance of meaningful communicative engagement
and exposure to adequate volumes of the L2
• Quality of the linguistic environment is a primary driver of
language development
• Distributions, frequencies, functions, and forms, and their
salience, affects developmental rates and outcomes (e.g.,
Ellis & Collins, 2009; Ellis & Ferreira-Junior, 2009)

29. Empirically assessing an MMO:
World of Warcraft
• What do players actually do in MMOs like WoW?
• What, if any, game-external semiosis do they read and/or
author?
• What is the linguistic complexity of high frequency WoW
associated texts?

30. Assessing linguistic complexity
Thorne, Fischer, & Lu (2012): ‗Ling ecology online game world‘ ReCALL
• Survey: 64 WoW players
• Dutch (N=32, 16 females, 16 males) (Age M=26.6,
SD=8.9)
• Americans (N=32, 11 females, 21 males) (M=33.1,
SD=9.2)
• Surveys were publically posted on WoW-related
sites, distributed through authors‘ social networks,
and redistributed by initial respondents
• Demographics, play style, communication tool
preferences, languages actively used, languages
exposed to, use of external websites

31. Play experience
How long have you been playing WoW
50%
40%
30%
20% Dutch
Americans
10%
0%
1-5 1-2 5-6
months years years

32. Frequency of play
How often do you play
60%
50%
40%
30%
Dutch
20%
Americans
10%
0%
less than 1-3 times a1-3 times a 4 times a
once a month week week or
month more

33. Duration of play episodes
How many hours at a time do you play
60%
50%
40%
30%
Dutch
20%
Americans
10%
0%
less than 1-2 ours 3-4 5-6 more
1 hour hours hours than 6
hours

34. Playing together, alone, or mixed
Dutch = American =
81% together 69% together
13% mixed 6% mixed
6% alone 25% alone

35. Languages actively used by players

36. Assessing linguistic complexity
• Readability: Coleman-Liau Index (CLI): word character
count and sentence length
• Lexical sophistication (LS): ratio of sophisticated lexical
word types divided by the number of lexical word types
• Mean segmental type-token ratio (MSTTR): measures
lexical diversity as a function of type-token ratio per 50
word sample
• * Developmental Level Scale (D-Level): measures
syntactic and structural complexity

37. D-Level Linguistic Complexity Scale: Covington et al (2006)

38. • Perception-action
Artifacts
cycles
*Narratives, • Effectivity-affordance
Machinima, pairings
Modding, Art • Shuttling among
discourses
Metaplay
*Strategy sites,
Documentation
Game Play
*Quest texts,
Communication,
Collaboration,
Navigation

39. Quest Texts

40. Assessing linguistic complexity: Quest texts

41. Assessing linguistic complexity: Quest Texts

42. Assessing linguistic complexity

43. Quest texts: Right skewed ―U‖

44. Artifacts
*Narratives,
Machinima,
Modding, Art
Metaplay
*Strategy sites,
Documentation
Game Play
*Quest texts,
Communication,
Collaboration,
Navigation

45. Game-external websites: Core part of
gameplay
• Moonpunisher: ―I use quite a few external websites, and I
have all of them open while I am playing the game, so that
when I need to I can immediately look stuff up.‖ [translated
from Dutch]
• Glakela: ―I never play full screen, I always play in a way so
that I can just reach my desktop and can immediately
access my browser. I will just put myself in a safe town, so
nothing can happen and then I will calmly start reading
and looking up things.‖ [translated from Dutch]

46. Game-external websites: Everyone uses
them
• http://www.wowhead.com: Topics include strategy for
completing quests and information on items in the game
(e.g, armor, weapons, etc).
• http://www.wowwiki.com/Portal:Main: Lore and mythology
of the WoW universe; information related to different
classes (or types) of online characters
• http://elitistjerks.com/: Game related strategy and general
topics related to WoW

47. Game-external websites: Right skewed ―U‖

48. Game strategy websites as scientific
discourse (Steinkuehler & Duncan, 2008)
• Analyses of nearly 2,000 WoW-related forum posts
• 86% of the entries displayed ―social knowledge
construction‖ rather than ―social banter‖
• 65% treated knowledge ―as an open-ended process of
evaluation and argument‖
• 50% + included evidence of systems based reasoning
• 10% showed scientifically precise model-based reasoning
(Steinkuehler & Duncan, 2008, p. 539)

49. Artifacts
*Narratives,
Machinima,
Modding, Art
Metaplay
*Strategy sites,
Documentation
Game Play
*Quest texts,
Communication,
Collaboration,
Navigation

50. Remix and recombinatory texts
• Propagations of figurative worlds across representational
media
• ―Fan fiction‖ -- enthusiasts of media (books, movies,
television, comics, video games) borrow elements of these
popular cultural texts, such as characters, settings, and
literary tropes, to construct their own narrative fictions
(e.g., Black, 2008; Thorne, 2009)
• Black 2008: (Nanako, Chinese L1, received 7k ‗reader
reviews‘)

51. fanfiction.net  games  warcraft

52. fanfiction.net  games  warcraft

53. fanfiction.net  games  warcraft

54. fanfiction.net  games  warcraft

55. Remixing & language development
(Thorne, 2012. ‗Gaming writing, …‘)
• Object-, other-, and self-regulation
Original texts Readers Fan fiction authorship
 Manga  Reader feedback
 Anime  Comments
 Film
 Literature

56. Gaming texts: L2 implications
• Quests and external website texts:
• High degree of lexical sophistication, lexical diversity, syntactic
complexity
• A significant proportion of both structurally simple and complex
sentences
• Interactive, phatic, and interpersonally engaged discourse
• Narrative and remix texts: Compelling by volume, creative,
interactive, community-related
• Complex semiotic universe – yes!
• Anecdotal reports are many (e.g., Thorne, 2008, 2010)

57. Survive the Futurepast

58. Kindra Adair, Christopher Farhoodi,
Jasmine Gower, Stacie Looney,
Alex Manning, Xan Pedisich,
Rusty Powers, Meredith Rider, Marc 503 Design Collective
San Pedro, Melissa Sandoval,
Ruby Warnock, Jim (Pong)
Kelsheimer-Sevick, Steve Thorne

59. AR for Language Learning
• Narrative: The future is dead due to environmental degradation.
You (player) are an agent from the year 2070 who comes back in
time to the present. Your mission is to explore the ‗simultaneous
dawn and dusk‘ of green power and green environmental
practices that could have, and may yet, save your world
•
• Learning through performing roles/identities that extend beyond
that of ―student‖ (agent, spy, detective, reporter)
• Learning experiences are designed for interactivity: simple game
mechanics  complex languaging behaviors in interface with 2nd
order language

60. • Game played on GPS-
enabled Apple iPhone
(ARISgame.org)
• Opening screen
• Game playable in
French, English, and
Spanish

61. • Players navigate city using
googlemaps and receive sound
alerts when they enter particular
locations
• Players are ―pushed‖ texts/media
(some of which is ―super
authentic‖) and quests when in
location (see bottom icons)
• Game can be played in pairs,
small groups, or potentially alone
• External web resources are being
designed to provide language
support

62. • Image pushed to
players to help
them locate a
distant solar array.
Text message
accompanies the
image (below)

63. Language production --
Notebook feature:
• Bread-crumming &
guerilla reportage
• As players move through
the city they can annotate
and report on their
experience by taking
photos, writing notes, and
recording voice and/or
video
• These media
(text/image/voice/video)
are stored and inform
future players‘
experience

64. ―The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new
landscapes but in having new eyes‖
Why AR? (Marcel Proust, in Schell 2008, p. xxv).
• Get out of the classroom and away from ‗language‘ as an object
and toward interactivity
• Engagement in the physical world—embodied, mobile, and
experiential (this includes designing AR games!)
• Game narrative information/semiosis/action is laminated over
place, remediating space, purpose, meaning, and action
• Non-dichotomous relationship between game designers and
players, with players creating aspects of future experience
• (Squire et al 2009, Thorne 2011, 2012)

65. PLAY!
survivethefuturepast.blogspot.com

66. Shift in how digital mediation,
cognition/action and L2 development are
related
• Developing a pedagogy of ―mediated authenticity‖
rooted in rich/thick exposure to ecologically aligned 2nd
order patterns
• Move from ‗the dead hand of [communicative]
competence‘ (Geertz, 1973:88) to semiotic agility
• Semiotic agility – the capacity for shifting ―rapidly and
fluently between and among semiotic worlds‖ (Prior,
2010: 233)
• Goal of foreign language education?  catalyzing the
development of anticipatory dispositions that enable
complex, nuanced, recipient-aware, nimble and
improvisational communicative capacities (Thorne,
2011)

67. Thanks!
Articles referenced available here:
https://sites.google.com/site/stevenlthorne/
Unicollaboration & virtual mobility project:
http://unicollaboration.eu/
Steven L. Thorne
Portland State University
& University of Groningen