Refashioning linguistic expertise: Translanguaging TESOL in social media

Abstract

This article examines the performative reconfiguration of linguistic expertise and the mode of TESOL at the intersection of language teaching, networked technology, and the culture of ludification. Applying van Dijck and Alinejad’s (2020 ‘Social media and trust in scientific expertise: Debating the COVID-19 pandemic in The Netherlands’, Social Media + Society, 6/4) distinction of institutional versus networked models of communication, it addresses the shifting ecology of foreign language education in an age of digital platforms in which linguistic expertise is no longer the exclusive preserve of institutional establishments, but rather can be claimed or self-professed by individuals operating on the basis of multiplex networks. A case example of networked TESOL in social media is presented to explore how the affordances of the networked model give rise to a radically different teacher-student dynamic than in the standard classroom, speaking to the idea of translanguaging pedagogy. The article discusses the implications of networked TESOL for theory and practice in applied linguistics in the post-multilingual era, proposing the idea of ludic literacy, where the instructor-influencer’s persona tends toward the performative and the sardonic, and where resources are flexibly orchestrated across the boundaries of languages, modes, and media.