Middle EarthFanfiction and English Language Learning

Report From

Shannon SauroMalmö University

Shannon.sauro@mah.se

@shansauro

LANGUAGE LEARNING & LANGUAGE PLAY

“A rich source of inspiration for the development of … technology-mediated tasks can be found in the language play and language use of online media fandoms…”

(Sauro, 2014, p. 242)

THE QUEST: BLOG BASED ROLE PLAY

1. Story Outline & Map of a Section of Middle Earth

2. Collaborative Story of a Missing Moment from The Hobbit

3. Reflective Paper

4. Oral Presentation

11 TALES (49,445 WORDS)

CAREFUL READING

“Usually I just plow through books like these to get a good story, but to suddenly look for “gaps” where we could create another story or to actually put myself in the mind of Bombur gave even more knowledge of the book.”

“FIRST OF ALL, LET ME START BY SAYING THAT I

AM NOT A FAN OF CREATIVE WRITING. I ENJOY

READING BUT I ABSOLUTELY LOATHE WRITING.”

SO HOW WAS THE WRITING?

Communicative Competence

• Linguistic competence

• Sociolinguistic competence

What is appropriate in which situation and with which speakers

• Discourse competence

• Strategic competence

(Canale & Swain, 1980)

HOBBIT-LIKE STYLE

"By all the good apricot marmalade I've ever eaten! How insolent!" Bilbo had to take hold of his own collar to keep himself from yelping his thoughts out loud. "Here I am, despite my own dearest wish, on a dangerous route to find that coarse mutt of a dwarf riches, and how am I estimated? This journey is a miserable thing altogether!"

– (from Secrets of the Last Homely House)

VOICING THE AUTHOR

“Bombur, it’s time for you to start hauling or you will receive a one way ticket down the waterfall!” Kili yelled. That got Bomburmoving faster than ever, except the time they ran from the skin

changer, but that comes later in the story.

(from The Wooden Bridge)

ATTENTION TO FORM & STRUCTURE

It is lying still, yet it spins around

It tries to move but its body is bound

All because of the precious it stole

Fool us again and they eats it whole.

(from The Mirkwood Mysteries)

TYPES OF WORDS USED

http://archiveofourown.org/works/692992

TYPES OF WORDS IN ACTUAL FANFICTION

ADVICE FOR THE NEXT ADVENTURE

LOOK TO FANDOM

Draw upon texts with an existing fandom and allow their fanworks to guide the parameters of the assignment

CONSIDER MULTIMEDIA TEXTS

“I normally don’t read books, I mostly prefer to watch movies and this was a fun challenge for me.”

FIND TECHNOLOGY THAT FITS

Consider:

– The affordances of the particular tool for narrative texts

– What is ubiquitous from your students’ perspective

– What technology they need to learn to use