Locating itself broadly within the "sociolinguistics of mobility" (Blommaert, 2014) and taking heed of Stornaiuolo and Hall's (2014) call to "trace resonance" in writing and literacies research, this article works to trace academic literacies across the emerging "literacy sponsorscapes" (Wargo, 2016a) of contemporary…

This article examines the alternative English spelling practices of a student who is considered to be a "long-term English learner." It draws on a theoretical framework that integrates a social perspective on spelling with a rejection of idealized conceptions of bilingualism. The analyzed English spellings presented in this article were…

Much of the literature on social class and language study in schools argues that for middle-class parents and their children, languages are chosen for their capacity to offer forms of distinction that provide an edge in the global labour market. In this paper, we draw on data collected from interviews with parents and children in middle-class…

This paper draws on a Linguistic Ethnography (Blommaert & Rampton 2011) of a group of academically elite students in Singapore. The group comprises locals born in Singapore, as well as immigrants from China and Vietnam. My informants all attended a top-ranked secondary school in Singapore. I present data from interviews and a focus group…

The socio-cultural conditions of late modernity induce a "reflexive imperative" amongst young people, which also results in metapragmatic and metalinguistic behaviour, as has been demonstrated by linguistic ethnographers (LE). However, recent LE studies on reflexivity in Western European settings have mainly focused on how groups of…

Most sociolinguistic studies rely on apparent time, cross-sectional methods to analyze language change. On the basis of apparent time data, sociolinguists have hypothesized that cultural processes of lifespan change create predictable cycles of linguistic behavior in which adolescents lead in the use of vernacular variants and advance sound change…

Prompted by calls for research on technology-focused professional development, this ethnographic case study investigates how teachers' participation in learning communities may influence technology integration within the secondary English curriculum. In this article, I draw on educational psychology, cognitive anthropology, and sociolinguistics to…

Studies have shown that learners with high degrees of socialization with the target language community acquire the target language better (Lybeck, 2002; Schumann, 1978). Milroy's (1987) use of social network theory in sociolinguistics indicates that socialization patterns are constituted by structural relationships of different types and…

The article uses sociolinguistic and ethnographic methods and Black feminist theory to explore the classroom interactions of Pam and Natonya, two Black young females, during one event in a required high school British literature classroom. The event is presented as a telling case to explore gendered and racial complexities facing young Black…