1. The document summarizes research on how a fan of the TV show Sherlock developed their digital literacy and English language skills through participating in online fandom. 2. It describes how being a fan led them to immerse themselves in English by learning new vocabulary and practicing writing. They shifted to using British English. 3. Through experiences in fandom spaces like Twitter, Tumblr and reporting on filming locations, the fan learned skills like evaluating online information, giving credit, and seeing different perspectives.

1. “I know I have those tools
because of fandom”:
The digital literacy
development of a Sherlock fan
Shannon Sauro
Malmö University
@shansauro l ssauro.info l shannon.sauro@mau.se

2. “A fan is a person
with a relatively deep
positive emotional
conviction about
someone or
something famous...”
(Duffet, 2013, p. 18)
Photo credit: Sake Jager

3. Online fandom: “the
local and international
networks of fans that
develop around a
particular program,
text or other media
product”
(Sauro, 2014, p. 239)

4. CALL in the Digital Wilds
Online informal learning of English
(OILE)/Apprentissage informel de
l’anglais en ligne (AIAL)
(Toffoli & Sockett, 2010)
Extramural English
(Sundqvist & Sylvén, 2014)

5. Digital Literacies
“the modes of reading,
writing and communication
made possible by digital
media”
(Hafner, Chik & Jones, 2015, p. 1)
Art: Foxestacado

6. A Few Fan Practices
• Anime and manga
consumption
• Fan site web design
• Debating and modding
• Amateur translation
• Fanfiction
• Spoiling
(see Sauro, 2017)
Art: Foxestacado

7. Anime consumption
inspired and enhanced
Japanese learning
which inspired further
engagement with
Japanese anime
(Fukunaga, 2006)

8. How a fan and L2
learner of English
developed a new textual
identity through regular
correspondence in
English around the
design of a fan website
for a Japanese pop
singer.
(Lam, 2000)

9. The advanced
leadership and
academic literacy skill
development of a 13-
year-old engaged in
debate and moderating
discussions in online
forums and fan sites.
(Curwood, 2013)
Art: pennswoods

10. Case studies of ESL
learners’ use of fanfiction
in anime fandoms to
transition from novice
writer in English to
successful writer, and the
bilingual fanfiction writing
practices of Finnish fans of
American TV shows to
index multilingualism and
global citizenship.
(e.g. Black, 2006; Lepännen et al,
2009)
Art: pennswoods

11. The development and
use of intercultural and
L2 language skills of a
Spanish manga fan who
engaged in amateur
translations (scanlation)
of Japanese manga from
English into Spanish in
an online fan community.
(Valero-Porras & Cassany, 2015)
Figure 2
(Valero-Porras & Cassany, 2015, p. 11)

12. Spoiling
“…the purposeful discovery
of crucial developments in
the plot of a fictional story
of a film or TV series
before the relevant
material has been
broadcast or released.”
(Duffett, 2013, p. 168)

13. Case Study of a
Sherlock Fan
To explore the informal L2
language learning and
digital literacy development
of a Sherlock fan.

14. Steevee’s Fan History
2009
• Joined Supernatural Fandom
• Joined Twitter; Created a fan FB
page
2010
• Joined Torchwood and Doctor Who
fandoms
• Created a fan Tumblr
2012
• Joined Sherlock fandom
2013
• Began reporting on filming of
Sherlock #setlock
Art: Foxestacado

15. “As we have noted,
motivation is never
simply in the hands of
the motivated
individual learner but is
constructed and
constrained through
social relations with
others”
(Ushioda, 2008, p. 157)
Art: Foxestacado

16. I tried to shift my accent
from American English to
British English. I tried to
learn to write colour with
‘ou’ and so on. And I
started to watch Doctor
Who and Torchwood.
Those were my next two
big fandoms.
(Interview, 14 December 2015)
…it was the opportunity to
completely immerse myself
in the English language.
That was it for me. I was so
stoked. I’m going to get
online and I’m going to talk
to people and learn English.
And I’m going to learn new
words. And I used to sit
there with a notepad next
to Twitter and write down
words I’d never seen
before, look them up, learn
them.
(Interview, 14 December 2015)
Art: Foxestacado

17. Twenty-first century skills
include critical thinking,
information literacy,
global citizenship.
(Suto, 2013)
Art: Foxestacado

18. “Many young people today
consider what exists on the
Internet freely available raw
material to be used however
they see fit. Moreover, tools for
copying and modifying this raw
material are simple and
abundant. What is distinctive
about the digital environment is
not borrowing per say … but
rather the sense that borrowing
does not require an
acknowledgement.”
(Chun, Kern & Smith, 2016, p. 69)
Art: Foxestacado

19. That was the first thing I
learned on Twitter,
basically. How not to
steal anybody’s tweet
because I got yelled at
for copying and pasting
because that’s what I
knew.
(Interview, 14 December 2015)
I had no idea what
Tumblr was about until
I got yelled at…And
from then on I knew,
you give credit. You
reblog. You can tag
some things. So
somebody took me by
the hand, and I’ve
taken hundreds of
people by the hand
over the years, letting
them into the fandom
on Tumblr, so to speak.
Don’t steal anybody’s
art.
(Interview, 14 December 2015)Art: Foxestacado

21. Symbolic Competence
“the ability not only to
approximate or
appropriate for oneself
someone else’s language,
but to shape the very
context in which the
language is learned and
used”
(Kramsch & Whiteside, 2008, p. 664)
Art: Foxestacado

22. Due to the massive increase
of hits and followers due to
setlock, I somehow became
someone who was consulted
on various things and I
realized that if I wanted to
help/give answers etc., I’d
have to make myself
understood in the way I
wanted to be – that’s when
my answers got longer and
more in-depth, as I wanted to
make sure my arse was
covered XD
(Email, 7 January 2016)
Art: Foxestacado

23. The non-native speakers
are really the lose canon
because they might
understand something
incorrectly because of their
own lack of knowledge of
the English language or
sarcasm or whatever is
being used as a metaphor
for example.
(Interview, 14 December 2015)
Art: Foxestacado

24. “…a vast amount of
information is now available in
written form and this writing
varies tremendously in terms
of quality and trustworthiness.
When learning to read,
language learners need to
develop a host of information
management strategies: how
to find texts online, evaluate
those texts, distinguish
genuine from fake websites,
and so on.”
(Hafner, Chik & Jones, 2015, p. 1)
Art: Foxestacado

25. “The first thing for interviews that I
usually look for is who’s the author,
what else have they written and how
have they written it. Are they trying to
create some panic or some sort of
media attention…. What is the paper
trying to reach, the writer trying to
reach with it? Did they have their own
agenda because they always
do....Trying to take a step back and for
me not immediately joining the gossip
and rumour fun but rather waiting for a
minute or two and trying to critically
approach everything, especially where
it’s from, what is the agenda behind it,
what is their usual reputation regarding
fandom.”
(Published Podcast Interview, 6 January 2015)
Art: Foxestacado

26. I know I have those tools
because of fandom. To think
differently. To think critically.
Especially to try to see it from
a different point of view. And
fandom has provided me with
so many tools regarding my
own everyday life and also
accepting the other lives
around me as part of the
whole.
(Interview, 14 December 2015)
Art: Foxestacado

27. Meanwhile, in London
1. Experience working with
clients from multiple
countries
2. Social media savvy
3. Internet research skills
4. Native writing skills in both
German and English.
(Job Announcement, 20 June 2016)
Art: Foxestacado

28. Acknowledgements
Sherlock Graphics
Fox Estacado of The Art of Fox Estacado: Fine Fan Art and Geekery
(artbyfox.storenvy.com). All rights reserved and used in this presentation with
permission.
Photographs of #setlock
Shannon Sauro.

29. References
Black, R.W. (2006). Language, culture, and identity in online fanfiction. E-learning, 3, 180–184.
Chun, D., Kern, R., & Smith, B. (2016). Technology use, language teaching, and language learning. The Modern Language
Journal, 100 (Supplement 2016), 64-80.
Curwood, J.S. (2013). The Hunger Games: Literature, literacy and online affinity spaces. Language Arts, 90(6), 417-427.
Duffett, M. (2013). Understanding fandom: An introduction to the study of media fan culture. New York/London:
Bloomsbury.
Fukunaga, N. (2006). “Those anime students”: Foreign language literacy development through Japanese popular culture.
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 50(3), 206-222.
Hafner, C.A., Chik, A., & Jones, R.H. (2015). Digital literacies and language learning. Language Learning & Technology, 19(3), 1-7.
Kramsch, C. & Whiteside, A. (2008). Language ecology in multilingual settings. Towards a theory of symbolic competence. Applied
Linguistics, 29(4), 645-671.
Lam, W. S. E. (2000). Literacy and the design of the self: A case study of a teenager writing on the Internet. TESOL
Quarterly, 34, 457-484.
Lepännen, S., Pitkänen-Huhta, A., Piirainen-Marsch, A., Nikula, T., & Peuronen, S. (2009). Young people’s
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Sauro, S. (2017). Online fan practices and CALL. CALICO Journal, 34(2), 131-146. doi: 10.1558/CJ.33077
Sauro, S. (2014). Lessons from the fandom: Task models for technology-enhanced language learning. In M. González
-Lloret & L. Ortega (Eds). Technology-mediated TBLT: Researching technology and tasks, (pp. 239-262).
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Sundqvist, P., & Sylvén, L.K., (2014). Language-related computer use: Focus on young L2 English learners in Sweden.
ReCALL, 26(1), 3-20.
Suto, I. (2013). 21st Century Skills: Ancient, ubiquitous, enigmatic? Research Matters. A Cambridge Assessment Publication,15, 2-8.
Toffoli, D., & Sockett, G. (2010) How non-specialist students of English practice informal learning using web 2.0 tools.
ASp, 58: 125-144. doi: 10.4000/asp.1851
Ushioda, E. (2008). Language motivation in a reconfigured Europe: Access, identity, autonomy. Journal of Multilingual and
Multicultural Development, 27(2), 148-161.
Valero-Porras, M.-J., & Cassany, Y. (2015). Multimodality and language learning in a scanlation community. Procedia –
Social and Behavioral Sciences 212, 9-15.
Slides available at http://www.slideshare.net/Shansauro