Relocalization in digital language practices of university students in Asian peripheries: Critical awareness in a language classroom

Abstract

Abstract This paper seeks to reveal the out of classroom digital linguistic practices of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university students in the peripheral Asian countries such as Bangladesh and Mongolia - contexts that have rarely been addressed in previous research. It is based on two digital ethnographic research studies conducted in both countries for an extended period of time. Drawing on sets of Facebook data, this paper shows the processes of ‘relocalization’ - a form of language repetition that creates new meanings to digital language practices of these students as they draw on diverse linguistic and cultural resources. We argue that these students claim critical sociolinguistic awareness through the way they relocalize the meaning potential of the resources based on their local realities moving beyond classroom practices. The paper finally concludes that out of classroom digital language practices of these EFL students have educational implications for foreign language pedagogy that should draw on language learners’ creative linguistic practices and their critical awareness about social, cultural, political, racial, and sexual inequalities in all its scope.