Bringing the fanfiction project I had used for the past 6 years in Malmö Sweden to a US university course in TESOL posed several challenges. This included not only adapting the instructions for the assignment to an audience of teacher candidates going on to teach widely different ages and proficiency levels but also finding a way to help students envision how fanfiction tasks could be developed to draw upon their students’ varied interests and backgrounds in a way that inspired them to want to write creatively in English. 

The most significant change made in the assignment for students was that they were given the opportunity to not only select a fanfiction genre but also to select a source text that was potential interesting and relevant for them and their future students. I still drew upon the Harry Potter fandom as a source of example fanfiction in the wild to serve as models for the different genres and also incorporated work from the FanTALES project, including the Fanfiction Learning through Doing Module but also The Storytelling Prompts and the Evaluation Rubric for Fanfiction.  Below are links to 12 of the final stories, all written individually and covering a wide range of source materials, some of which I was completely unfamiliar with. I’m looking forward to using these as models for the next fanfiction project in Fall 2020.

Fall 2019 Fanfic

Black Widow – After the Fall – Fanfiction inspired by my student’s own interests and a desire to find something of relevance for elementary school learners – an Avengers/Sesame Street Fusion

Elizabeth and the Chocolate Factory – An alternate point of view and Author Self-Insert of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 

Final Thoughts – An alternate POV of a scene from the film A Star is Born. Content Warning.

Luna Lovegood: Queen of the Slugs – An alternate point of view of a scene from the Harry Potter novels, must have an account on Ao3 to view

One World – Two Hermiones – An alternate point of view from the Harry Potter novels

Rescuing Each Other – A sequel/continuation of the movie Pretty Woman

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: Christina – An alternate point of view of a young adult novel from the perspective of the mothers instead of the daughters

Spring 2020 Fanfic

The Corvids 2020 -A fusion of The Crow, The Birds, and The Raven which relates the perspective of the street prophet Sarah after she has been apprehended and interviewed by police in 2020.

An Honorable Profession– A short story set in the world of My Hero Academia about the events leading up to the capture of Toxic Chainsaw told from the point of view of Sansa Tamakawa. 

The Last Flight of the Cant – An alternate point of view story from the perspective of Shed Garvey, a medical technician during a pivotal event in Leviathan Wakes.

My Stepsister Cinderella – An alternative point of view of Cinderella’s story from her more sympathetic stepsister, Anastasia.

The True Story of How Freddy Bailey Launched the Career of Mr. E.A. Poe, or, A Tale of How a Baltimore Slave Boy Influenced World Literature – A real-person historical piece of fanfiction that explores a chance encounter between two of Baltimore’s famous historical/literary figures (a young Frederick Douglass and Edgar Allan Poe) which results in the publication of Poe’s first published story.

One of the best teaching experiences I have is with the use of virtual exchange (VE) in my courses. I find VE not only to be a terrific and humbling learning experience for my students (future language teachers themselves) but also for me because unexpected conflicts and misunderstandings (sometimes amusing; sometimes upsetting) arise and challenge my own assumptions about good teaching, collaboration, and my own intercultural competence.

I have also been extremely fortunate to be part of a three-way virtual exchange partnership, for the past five years while in Sweden and now this year in the US, with my colleagues and friends Robert O’Dowd (in Spain) and Elana Spector-Cohen (in Israel), which has led to a great deal of professional growth and introspection. And research.

We have just published an article that draws upon our experiences teaching in this English-as-a-lingua-franca three-country partnership , in which we examine the influence of the teacher in VE: The Role of Pedagogical Mentoring in Virtual Exchange is now available via Open Access in TESOL Quarterly.

For anyone curious about what works (or doesn’t) when implementing blog-based fan fiction in the classroom and how it compares to online fan fiction in the wild, the wait is over. Our article critiquing the implementation and features of blog-based #fanfiction in the university classroom is now available in ReCALL. (Those without institutional access, please message me for an access code). #fanstudies

Reference: Sauro, S. & Sundmark, B. (2018). Critically examining the use of blog-based fanfiction in the advanced language classroom. ReCALL, First View: 1–16, doi:10.1017/S0958344018000071

Abstract: This paper critically examines the integration of online fanfiction practices into an advanced university English language classroom. The fanfiction project, The Blogging Hobbit, was carried out as part of a course in the teacher education program at a Swedish university for students who were specializing in teaching English at the secondary school level. Participants were 122 students who completed the course in 2013 and 2014. In both classes, students were organized into groups of three to six to write collaborative blog-based role-play fanfiction of a missing moment from JRR Tolkien’s fantasy novel The Hobbit. The 31 resulting pieces of collaborative fanfiction, the online formats they were published in, the 122 reflective essays produced by the two classes, and interviews with a focal group of participants were used to explore how technology and learners’ experience with this technology may have mediated the resulting stories. In addition, the classroom fanfiction texts were compared with comparable online writing published in the fanfiction site Archive of Our Own (Ao3) to identify thematic and stylistic differences. The results showed that students’ lack of familiarity with publishing in blogs often posed a challenge that some groups were able to overcome or exploit to facilitate or enhance the readability of their completed stories. Compared to online fanfiction, the classroom fanfiction was less innovative with respect to focal characters yet more collective in its focus, with stories being told from multiple characters’ perspectives.

Below are links and downloads to the powerpoint, recording, and handouts from the March 7th webinar on Technology in Language Acquisition Research and Pedagogy (sponsored by the TESOL CALL and Applied Linguistics Interest Sections) featuring two talks by myself and Volker Hegelheimer of Iowa State University:

Webinar Recording: To access the recording at the link,  please input your name and e-mail first.

Powerpoint: The full powerpoint for both talks: Fanfiction & Language Learning: Implications for the Classroom and Technology & Writing: Implications for the Classroom.

Fanfiction In The Classroom: References and links to the three fan fiction projects mentioned in the talk (The Blogging Hobbit, A Study in Sherlock, and The Potter Project) and the European project FanTALES.

Potter Project Instruction: Full instructions and evaluation criteria for The Potter Project.

Here are the fan fiction stories based upon the Harry Potter books written by English teacher education students for this year’s fanfiction project, The Potter Project (2017). In total there were 18 stories (15 of which are available here).  All were written by teams of 2-6, students who were given one of four different types of fan fiction tropes or genres to use:

1. Alternate Point of View (e.g. Draco Malfoy and the Philosopher’s Stone)
2. Prequel or Sequel (e.g. It’s Not Over Until I Say It’s Over)
3. Missing Moment (e.g. Meanwhile, In Hufflepuff House)
4. Alternate Universe (e.g. When Harry Met Pippi)

Detailed instructions and evaluation criteria available here.

Best Gryffindor Student in the 20th Century – Inspired by the sorting of Harry Potter during his first year, Minerva McGonagall reflects back on her own time as a student at Hogwarts and the path that brought her back as a teacher.

The Curious Case of Quirinus Quirrell – An alternate version to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone that follows Professor Quirrell at select moments during Harry’s first year at Hogwarts.

Desperate Dudley and the Padlocks of Pain – During the summer holidays after his first year at Hogwarts, Harry uses magic to take revenge on his bully of a cousin, Dudley Dursley. However his plan has drastic consequences when it appears he pushes Dudley too far.

The Diary of Tom Riddle – A prequel to the Harry Potter stories that follows young Tom Riddle as he records his own transformation into Lord Voldemort up to his first encounter with the young Harry Potter.

Draco and the Stolen Cup – (Available on Wattpad – registration required.) What was it like for a Slytherin, specifically Draco Malfoy, when the Hogwarts House Cup was awarded to Gryffindor at the end of his first year?

The Dreville Malbottom Affair – From their first meeting on the Hogwarts Express, a special relationship emerges between the unlikely couple, Neville Longbottom and Draco Malfoy.

Hagrid’s First Day with Harry – Harry’s first trip to Diagon Alley to buy supplies for Hogwarts told from Rubeus Hagrid’s point of view.

Harry Potter and the Hogwarts Calamity – Set in the future – Harry Potter is called out of retirement to help Headmistress Hermione Granger solve a series of sinister murders at Hogwarts.

Harry, Yer a Loony – It’s just another typical week at Hogwarts, but Harry is troubled by unusual dreams, mysterious paintings, and his friends’ peculiar behavior.

Magical Muggles – An alternate version to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone that follows Professor McGonagall at select moments during Harry’s first term at Hogwarts.

Neville Longbottom and the Diligits Fortemus – A missing moment from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone that explores how Neville managed to escape with the help of a special plant after being petrified by Hermione in Griffindor common room.

Neville Longbottom and the Rebel Uprising – It’s Neville Longbottom’s seventh year attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but nothing is the same. Harry, Ron and Hermione are missing, and, of course, the gossip is spreading. They are trying to defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and end the ongoing war. When Snape takes over as Headmaster of Hogwarts, and appointing known Deatheaters as teachers, it becomes abundantly clear to Neville that he and the other students are in no position to wait for Harry to rescue them. They needed to start an uprising, they needed to rebel. And with their main fighter out of the picture, Neville needs to pick up the sword.

The Petti-Wallflower – Raised by her loving mother, Megan is as normal as any other muggle – maybe a bit too invisible, though. But the past of her unknown father catches up with her when she receives a letter. One that her father had once received, as well. Her name is written on it in emerald green ink. The wax seal read the letter ‘H’. Our heroine has been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!

Severus Snape and the Boy Who Lived – An alternate version to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone that follows Professor Snape during the first few weeks of Harry’s first year at Hogwarts.

 

The following is the abstract for my keynote talk at EUROCALL 2017 (August 25, 2017) at the University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.

We live in a time of change that requires flexible and creative approaches to the socio-political mandates and constraints imposed upon our teaching and scholarship. While CALL provides us with technology-mediated solutions to some of the challenges that stem from recent political developments (e.g. subverting limitations to academic freedom imposed by national travel bans; see Oskoz & Smith, 2017), technology itself poses other challenges, including threats to personal dignity, privacy, individual agency, and democratic digital citizenship (European Data Protection Supervisor, 2015). In this talk I argue that we look to fandom for inspiration and motivation in responding to the socio-political challenges facing us in this time of change.

Online fandom, defined as “the local and international networks of fans that develop around a particular program, text or other media product” (Sauro, 2014, p. 239) encompasses online affinity groups of fans who come together over social media and other Web 2.0 platforms to communicate, create, celebrate, critique or otherwise respond to the media, artist, personality, team or thing they are a fan of. These digital contexts and communication technologies have both enhanced and enabled sophisticated fan practices, for example, the formation of international and multilingual teams of fans engaged in amateur subtitling and translation of their favorite television shows and graphic novels (e.g., Valero-Porras & Cassany, 2016; Zhang & Cassany, 2016). At the same time, online fandom has also come together in response to changes and challenges in their socio-political landscape. This is illustrated, for instance, in the formation of the fan activist group the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) whose 100,000 worldwide members draw inspiration from the Harry Potter stories to mobilize against social injustices and to raise money for charity in response to international natural disasters and literacy initiatives (Jenkins, 2012). In addition, fandom’s response to shifting digital landscapes, including those brought about by corporate interest and ever-changing terms of service, has led to the formation of fan archives for the purpose of legitimizing and preserving fanworks (Lothian, 2011).

In this talk, I begin by reviewing research on fans which has examined their language and literacy development through various online fan practices such as modding and debating, fanfiction writing, scanlation, and spoiling. I then look to other practices or movements fans have engaged in to respond to changing sociopolitical and digital landscapes and which may serve as models and inspiration for the socio-political challenges CALL practitioners and researchers face in this time of change.

One of my favorite classes to teach is the gaming/fan site workshop for my freshmen and sophomores. The geeks and gamers are each tasked with teaching one to two curious classmates how to game or how to use a fan site. Then as a team they analyze the language and skills required of the game or site to brainstorm a teaching activity with it. Yesterday’s classes explored Portal, Diablo 2, World of Warcraft, Viki.com, Archive of Our Own, Civilization, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Deviantart. It’s kind of cool to see what each team comes up with and it’s especially fun to see my students so passionate about teaching each other about a thing they love.

Materials

Gaming and Fan Site Worksheet

Readings and Podcast

Sauro, S. (Producer). (2010, March 22). The CALLspot episode 4: Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) & language learning [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://callspot.libsyn.com/webpage/episode-4-massively-multiplayer-online-games-mmo-gs-language-learning

Sauro, S. (2017). Online fan practices and CALL. CALICO Journal, 34(2), 131-146. doi: 10.1558/CJ.33077

Sundqvist, P., & Sylvén, L.K., (2014). Language-related computer use: Focus on young L2 English learners in Sweden. ReCALL, 26(1), 3-20.

Below are the links and resources introduced in the workshop on Fan Practices and Language Learning at Gymnasieskolan Spyken, Lund.

1. Powerpoint slides
2. Fanfiction Tasks Worksheet
3. The Blogging Hobbit (2014)– detailed instructions
4. A Study in Sherlock (2016)– detailed instructions and rubric
5. Casefic 2016 – 17 Sherlock Holmes fanfiction stories completed by students this past January

Example fanfiction shared with students by Sherlock fans and used as models for different types of casefic in 2015 and 2016:

1. The Beleaguered Red-Head by moonblossom – Retelling of The Red-Headed League in the BBC Sherlock Universe
2. The Adventure of the Bridegroom’s Photograph by spacemutineer Original casefic based on a real life mystery – ACD Holmes
3. The Vast Profundity Obscure by mistyzeo – Original casefic – ACD Holmes/His Dark Materials fusion

References cited in this workshop

Black, R.W. (2006). Language, culture, and identity in online fanfiction. E-learning, 3, 180–184.

Cavicchi, D. (1998). Tramps like us: Music and meaning among Springsteen fans. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Curwood, J.S. (2013). Fan fiction, remix culture, and The Potter Games. In V.E. Frankel (Ed.), Teaching with Harry Potter (pp. 81-92). Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

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.

Jamison, A. (2013). ‘Why Fic?’ in A. Jamison (ed.). Fic: Why fanfiction is taking over the world. Dallas, TX: Smart Pop Books.

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 translocal new media uses: A multiperspective analysis of language choice and hetero-glossia. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14, 1080–1107.

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.

Sauro, S., & Sundmark, B. (2016,) Report from Middle Earth: Fanfiction tasks in the EFL classroom. ELT Journal, 70(4), 414-423 . doi: 10.1093/elt/ccv075

Sauro, S., & Zourou, K. (2017). CALL for papers for CALL in the Digital Wilds special issue. Language Learning & Technology, 21(1), 186.

Sundqvist, P., & Sylvén, L.K., (2014). Language-related computer use: Focus on young L2 English learners in Sweden. ReCALL, 26(1), 3-20.