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Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 54(7)April 2011doi:10.1598/JAAL.54.7.2 2011 International Reading Association(pp. 485-493)

On theCusp ofCyberspace:Adolescents^nline TextUse in ConversationHow teens talk about textsthey re readingorviewingonline reveals interestingparallels- and somedivergence between newmedia and traditionalprint.

MargaretA. Berg

TLLhe sheernumber f choicesadolescents ave available o themfor heirreading nd writing ractices ogglesthe mind:magazines, omic books,graphic ovels,young dult YA) literature,lassic iterature,exting,nstantmessaging, logs,chatrooms,multiplayerames,wikis,fanfiction, -zines,MySpace,Facebook,and so on. The changing iteracy ractices nd culturalnorms ssociatedwith nformationnd communicationechnologiesICTs)have beenexplored n a number fpublicationsboutnew iteracies nd me-dia (e.g.,Alvermann, 005; Ito etal., 2008; Knobel & Lankshear,007).Teensactively reate agesfor hemselves nMySpaceandFacebook, s-semblingwords,mages, nd music orepresenthemselveso othermembersofthe ites.Adolescents rite toriesnspired ythebooks ofYA authors ndJapanese omic books (manga) nfanfiction orums. eens work ogetheroovercome bstacles nmultiplayerames hrough ooperation fonlinechar-acters nd sharing fgame secrets nd cheat codes. Youthare downloadingcell phone ringtones, ploading heir rtwork, oggingbook reviews, ndseeking utexpertise o learnmore ndepth bouttopics hat nteresthem.Though teachersmay fear traditionaliteracypractices re vanishing(Stolle,2008), this tudy hows how teensdraw on familiar racticeswhenusing CTs outsideof school.The waysthat eens call upononline texts ntheir ive conversationstcomputersllustrate owadolescents ave nternal-ized manyof the basic elements freading ndwriting rocesses aughtnschools, nd haveexpanded hetechniques o include exts ther hanprint.After briefdiscussion f the new literacies nd the methodsof datacollectionand analysis, his articledelineatesfivepatterns f textusereference,uthority,xperience, xpression, nd instrument that mergedfrom sampleofconversationshat ookplace aroundcomputersn the YAsection of a public ibrary,onnecting ach ofthesepractices o the class-room. The final ection xamines hebroadermplicationsor eaching. hisarticle, herefore,ims to provideteachers solid bridgebetween old andnew iteracies.

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New LiteraciesNew iteraciess anambiguousermndusuallysso-ciatedwith CTs theelectronicevices,ccompa-nyingoftware,nd nternetesourceshat ontinuetoemergend xpand henotion fwhat onstitutesliteracyndreadingnandof heworld. dolescents'online ctivitieso not ake lacewith isembodiedstrangersutwith riends ho exist nd eventshathappenntheyoung erson'school ndcommunity.Ito and colleagues'2008) massive,hree-yearethnographictudyllustratedow teens ctivelyseICTs to extend riendshipsnd to learn.These re-searchersointed ut that youthrealmost lwaysassociatingith eople heylreadynowntheir f-flineives"Summaryection,ara. ).Therefore,heliteraciesnactedwith ndthroughCTs arehighlycollaborativend ociallyituated.Electronic ommunicationevices, ike theInternet,epresentnformationna multimodalor-mat hatncludes onprintormsuch s audio andimages, othmovingnd static.nternetsers,n-cludingeensnthistudy,elp rganizehe massinginformationhoughagging,processo attachkey-word o files r mageso that hepieces fdata anbe foundmore asily hen earchingrbrowsingheInternet.hesecollaborative,istributed,articipa-tory racticeshat evelopnrelationshipith CTsconstitutehatsreally ew bout henew iteracies.Accordingo Lankshearnd Knobel 2007), henew iteraciesave oth technicaltuff"nd "ethosstuff."he technicaltuffs thehardware,oftware,and networkshat recreated ndemployedy CTusers. he concept f ethos tuffs useful or du-cators, ecause talignswellwith deason student-centered ducationndpushes eacherso expandtheirhinkingbout uthorshipndknowledge.Students'uggestingotentialtudy opicsnlinethrough "platformor articipation"Wesch,008)and reating ultimodalroup esponseshatxplorea topic hey uggested ouldalignwith he ethosstuff,ecause hesepproachesrecollaborativeithknowledgeatheredrom he members fa group.AccordingoLankshearndKnobel2007), he thosstuffncludes

A mindset hatrecognizes worlddifferentfromrevious eriodsn whichCTswerenotasprevalent Literacieshat re moreparticipatory,ollab-orative,nd distributednd esspublished,n-dividuated,nd author-centrichan raditionalliteracies A cyberspacehat oexists ith hysicalpaceAs this tudyhows, dolescentsive with he ethosstuffndhave dapted echniquesrom lderiteracypracticeso construct eaning ith ndfrom nlinetexts.The transactionalheory'sRosenblatt,938/1995)emphasisnthe ackgroundnd motionshat readerbringso a text o constructeaningscompoundedwith hemultipleoices f uthorsnd riendsoth n-line ndoffline. he boundariesetween eader ndauthorrefurtherlurred ith urrenteeniteracies,because he lectronicext anbeeasilymodifiedynumberf readersr authorshroughddingwords,images,nd ound or broaderublic ppeal. heseaural nd isual lementsn computercreenrewhataremeanty extnthis rticle.While exts ontinueochangend he iteraciesthat urroundhemontinueoevolve, achnewpe-riodbrings ith tthe ld. This tudyn the usp fcyberspace,herenline extsnfluenceonversationand conversationnfluenceshecreation f onlinetexts, emonstratesheappropriationf traditionalliteracyracticesuch salludingo andquotingrompassagesftextwhile alking ith riendso furtherdevelop extsncyberspace.A Method at thePeriphery fComputersThis discoursenalysis,asedon 18months fdatacollection,ocuses nthe onversationf dolescentsages11-18 per ibraryestrictionsothe rea's se),frommixed ocioeconomicackgrounds,hospenttime t the six computersituatedround large,horseshoe-shapedable n theYA area oftheonlypublic ibraryna Midwesternity f pproximately90,000 eopleU.S.Census ureau, .d.). liers erepostedntheYA areafor woyearsMay2006-May

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2008, ncludinghe ime fthis tudy)o make tu-dents ware hat heplacewas under bservation.Thearrangementf he omputersn a single,argetablewith eens acingne anotherromotedcon-vergencef ocial ractices,uch sreading, riting,discussing,ndhangingut.Thesemoments,r itesof ngagementScollon, 002),weremost ften b-servedtthe tarredointsepresentednFigure .Thetranscriptsf een iscussionst he omput-ers hat reanalyzednthefollowingections eretaken rom ield oteswrittenfterhe liers adbeenondisplayor ourmonths,esseninghe ikelihoodof nfluencinghe eens' ehaviors.heexcerptsretaken rom 6 literacyvents. lleventsnvolvedtleast wospeakers,achtakingt east ne turn.Aliteracyvents"any ventnwhichwrittenanguageplays nontrivialole" Bloome,Carter, hristian,Otto,& Shuart-Faris,005,p. 5). The eventsangefrom0 seconds o 45 minutes nd weregatheredover total f1,044 ours f bservation.henamesof he dolescentsrepseudonyms.Mediated Discourse AnalysisThe "face-to-face,eal-timeocial nteractionshatbringhe extualrtifactsnto eing" re he ocus fmediatediscoursenalysisMDA; Scollon, 999, .152).Like other orms f critical iscoursenalysis,MDA takes p socialproblemsndposits anguageas deological,istorical,nd a form f ocial ction(Scollon, 002).MDA beginswith ctionn socialsettingsnd"only akes p the nalysisf anguage(discourse,exts) hen hose reunderstoodobesig-nificant ediational eansor ools]" or he ctionsundertudyScollon,002,p. 145).The currenttudy raws n MDA to examinethe iscourseround he omputersntheYAlibraryusingthnographic-styleield otesEmerson,retz,& Shaw,1995)over two-yeareriod ndformalinterviews ith ight eens. nterviewsegan fterfivemonthsf bservation.hesewere xamined s-ing constantomparativeethod ndceasedwhendata ecame edundantr aturatedGlaser Strauss,1967). he observationsnd nterviewsemonstratedthat houghdolescentscquired rint exts romvarietyf laces,ccess othe enreshey referredparticularlynline texts and social interaction

Figure1 Floor Plan ofYALibrary

withinheYA section ttractedhem o the ibrary(Berg, 009).Thisanalysisocuses nplacesnthefield oteswhere eens ngagedach otherndtheonline extatthe ame ime ndexamines ow the ulturaloolofcomputersameditationaleans) rovidedbasisfor heconversation.he teens' onversationserequickly oted s the events appened singmostlytraditionallaywritingechanicsor ranscription.Because heresearch atawere ollected n thecuspof teens' nline ctivity, ost requentlysedwebsites eredeterminedn threeways: 1) teensverballydentifiedhem,2)researcherisually oni-toredhem,nd 3)researchersked eenswhatweb-site hey isited. bbreviationsorhe ites eing sedwere ncludednthefield otes.Memoswere ddedassoon s I (the esearcherndpart-timeibrarys-sistant)eft he ibrary.TheEmergent odesThetranscriptsf alk t the omputersere hedataused or hisnalysis.nthe nitialhase f nalysis,heresearchermployedpencoding hat ntertainedllanalyticossibilitieso ccountorhe ata,nd cod-ing hatinkedategoriesnd ubcategoriesfpatternsthatmergedromhedata Strauss Corbin, 998).Inthenext hase, heresearcher'semos,ormaln-terviewsith eens,ndobservationsere omparedortriangulatedGlaser Strauss,967). n thefinal

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phase,he iscourseranscriptsere evisitedoensurea matchetweenhe ategoriesnddata.Throughhis rocess,hefiveways articipantsused nline ext nthe ibrarymerged:1.reference2. authority3. experience4. expression5. instrument

Finally, countwascompletedor achcategoryftext seto determineowmany iteracyventshecategoryccurredn at east netime.When hedatafitmore han necategory,hedominantunctionfthe tteranceasdeterminednd hen oded ccord-ingly,s notednthe TextUseOverlaps"ection.Patternsof Text UseThesefindingseveal hat eens allupon lectronictextsn traditionalaysoften ssociated ith essdynamic,multimodalextsi.e.,print exts). herearefive ses f ext dentifiednteens' onversationswithin he ibrary:

1. Text sreference,hichsalludingoa text2. Textas authority,hich s a more pecificreference3. Text s experience,hich s equivalento ef-ferenteadingRosenblatt,938/1995)4. Text as expression,hich s creation f textthat nlistshe id of friend5. Text s nstrument,hichstalk ocusedn themechanicsfwebsites,oftware,r hardwareThese indingshow hateens' ut-of-schoolit-eracy racticesave everalimilaritieso chool rac-tices,nd few uggestionsor eachingreprovidedbased nthis nformation.roadereachingmplica-tions elatedoteens' onversationsround omput-ers tthe ibraryollow briefectionnoverlappingpatternsf ext se.

Text s ReferenceText sreferences a generallludingo the ext. heparticipantsftensed casual eferenceo an online

text ogain conversationalartner,rawingtten-tion o a previouslyploaded mage, oundbite, rwriting. eens' iteracyvents eganwith text sreferencen39%of he 6 literacyvents,nd ext sreferenceppearsn67%of ll events.When dolescentsreoccupiedwith heirnlineinteractionsnd seek oreengageheir eersn talkat the ibraryomputers,he ext ften ecomeshefocus f heirmplicitnvitation.or xample,groupofteens uieted own fter boutof aughterorshort ime efore youngman aid loud o no oneinparticular,Look.Here's heXbox 720."Ayoungmanon his mmediateeft elf-selectedorespondothe nvitation.Friendshipsre trengthenednd ormedsthe ar-ticipantseferenceexts. n ntertextualonnection"theuxtapositionf exts...twormore extshar[ing]a common eferent"Bloome t l.,2005,p.40) is acommon irsttepn a move oward riendship.orexample,high chool-gedmale,Andy, ot pfromcomputer and walkedpast middle chool-gedmale, ray,tcomputer.Andyooked tthe creenand aid, I like Duality,'oo."The referenceotheSlipknotarock and)videoon the creen romptedBray owhip ff isheadphonesnd askwhat therbands ndvideosAndyiked.The conversationon-tinued sAndy eturnedo computer. Their alkmovedfrommusic o anime Japanesenimation),to onlinegames,nd to an exchangeffirst ames.Finally, ndymoved oBray'side tcomputertolearn n online ame hat ray raised.An interview ithNatalierevealed referencesandprioritiesorwhat extsre eferencedo mplicitlyinviteeoplentoher nline xperience.ataliepentmost fher ime nlinentheibraryritingerman-ga fanfiction. atalie eportedeferencingebsitesshefeltessmportanthan er referredritingites:"Well, ometimes'm ike Hey,youwant o see thisYouTube ideo? t'shilarious.'" atalie'suthorshipffan iction as nfluencedostlyromther an ictionwritersnline. atalie eportedhat hehasnevereenasked yher eachersbout er nterestnmangarfanfiction, uchess ubmittedtfor lass redit.Thesefindingsuggesthat eacherseed o takea genuinenterestntheir tudents'ut-of-schoolit-eracies ndencourageeens oreference,iscuss,nd

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wanted ogeton a paranaturalrparanormalite, t'be blocked."Educatorsmust upport tudents' esires o haveaccess to theirpreferrediteswithin school. In thisway, rusted dults re more ikely ogainadmittanceto the cultural orms hat reformingn and aroundICTs. A disturbing inding f the to andcolleagues(2008, Friendshipection) tudywas the nability fteens to distinguish hen an online encounter e-came harassing nd abusive.Empowering tudentsto instructeachers bout their referrednline textsshould lso movetoward mpoweringeens oupholddignityven ncyberspace.ReferencesAlvermann, .E. (Ed.). (2005). Adolescentsnd iteraciesn a digitalworld. ew York: PeterLang.Berg,M.A. (2009). Motivationnd discoursen a literatenvironment:A case tudy f youngdult ibrary.nnArbor,MI: Proquest/UMI.Bloome, D., Carter, S.P., Christian,B.M., Otto, S., & Shuart-Faris,N. (2005). Discoursenalysisnd the tudy f lassrooman-guage nd iteracyvents: microethographicerspective.ahwah,NJ:Erlbaum.Emerson,R.M., Fretz,R.I., & Shaw,L.L. (1995). Writingthno-graphicieldnotes.hicago: University fChicago Press.Glaser, .G., & Strauss, .L. (1967). Thediscoveryf roundedheo-ry: trategiesor ualitativeesearch.hicago: Aldine.Ito, M., Baumer, S., & Bittanti,M., boyd,d., Cody, R., Herr,., et al. (2008). Hanging ut,messinground,eekingut:Livingand earningn newmedia. etrievedDecember 10, 2010, fromdigitalyouth.school.berkeley.edu/report

Knobel, M., & Lankshear,C. (Eds.). (2007). A new iteraciesam-pler.New York: PeterLang.Lankshear, , & Knobel,M. (2007). Sampling the new" in thenew literacies. n M. Knobel & C. Lankshear Eds.), A newliteraciesamplerpp. 1-24). New York: PeterLang.Rosenblatt,L.M. (1995). Literatures exploration5th ed.). NewYork: Modern Language Association of America. (Originalworkpublished1938)Scollon, R. (1999). Mediated discourse and social interaction.ResearchnLanguage ndSocial nteraction,2(1-2), 149-154.doi:10.1207/S15327973RLSI321&2_18Scollon, R. (2002). Action and text: Towards an integrated n-derstandingftheplace of text n social (interaction,medi-ated discourse nalysis nd theproblem f ocial action. nR.Wodak & M. Meyer Eds.),Methodsf ritical iscoursenalysis(pp. 139-183). ThousandOaks, CA: Sage.Stolle,E.P. (2008). Teachers, iteracy,nd technology:Tensions,complexities,conceptualizations,and practice. In Y. Kim,V.J.Risko, D.L. Compton,D.K. Dickinson,M.K. Hundley,R.T.Jimenez,etal. (Eds.), 51thyearbookf heNational eadingConferencepp. 56-69). Oak Creek, WI: National ReadingConference.Strauss,A.L., & Corbin,J.M. (1998). Basicsof ualitativeesearch:Techniquesndproceduresordevelopingroundedheory2nded.).ThousandOaks, CA: Sage.U.S. Census Bureau, (n.d.). American actfinder.RetrievedDecember 10, 2010, fromfactfnder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=enWesch,M. (Producer). 2008, June17). A portal o media iteracy[Video file].Retrieved December 10, 2010, fromwww.you-tube.com/watch?v=J4yApagnr0s

Berg eachesntheDepartmentfReadingat theUniversityfNorthern olorado,Greeley, SA; [email protected].

CDCOo.COCD_Q>-.CD.493

The much-anticipatedourth dition f WhatResearch Has toSay AboutHeading nstruction illbepublished nApril 011. EditedbyS. JaySamuels and AlanFarstrup,his new edition f one of the field'smost-read exts ncludeschaptersby Alfredatum ndiversity [ heilaValencia nassessment ^^^^RichardAllingtonn intervention B^^H^^IhJeanne Paratore n parent nvolvement Marilynager dams n word ecognition |Andmorefrom uthors ncluding lizabethMoje, Douglas Fisher, . David Pearson,NellDuke,JohnGuthrie, imothy asinski, nd Linda Gambrell

Find hecompletetable ofcontents nd more nformationtwww.reading.org/books.

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