Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to understand the impact of four high school students’ multimodal literacy practices in blogging and instant messaging (IM) on academic writing and how they construct their identities in terms of language use in Taiwan. Sources of data are questionnaires, academic writings, blog entries, chatting scripts, and online interviews. Computer-mediated discourse analysis was employed to examine the impact of IM features in academic writing and identity construction when engaging literacy practices in English. Data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The study confirms that online context is an important site for literacy practices, and it affects language use and identity. Findings showed that literacy practice online provided fluency in students’ writing. Students also performed different identities to practice English in IM. The study suggests future researchers and educators can incorporate and validate students’ favorite sites for literacy practice and learning.

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