Identity, Multilingualism and CALL: Responding to New Global Realities

This volume focuses on a range of topics and studies that address the notion of plurilingualism and multilingual identity in computer-mediated language learning (CALL) spaces. Interest in digital multilingual identity in the fields of applied linguistics and language education has been growing exponentially in recent years. New theoretical assumptions and recent global challenges have urged researchers to problematize the traditional notion of virtual identity in the face of increased virtual connectedness and the hybridization of transcultural and translingual practices. The chapters in this collection contribute to this fast-growing body of interdisciplinary research, featuring conceptual papers and research studies of identity performance and multilingual communication in highly complexified digitally mediated social platforms. The volume seeks to (a) contextualize digital multilingual communication as it pertains to language learning and teaching via a historical and conceptual overview of the multilingual movement in technologically mediated SLA; (b) offer in-depth explorations of multilingual practices and digital affordances that affect language learner identities beyond the classroom context, (c) fill the research void by exploring empirically the critical aspects of multilingual identity deployment in digital contexts where language learners actively participate in translingual and plurilingual practices, and (d) illustrate new ways of evaluating and adapting teaching practices to accommodate multilingual subjects, and reflect the increasingly hyperlingual nature of digital communication.