Technology-Mediated Transnational Writing Education: An Overview of Research and Practice

This chapter reviews research and practice in technology-mediated transnational writing education, based on 75 journal articles and chapters in edited volumes, published between 1996 and 2016. After outlining the research outcomes and surveying practice cases in Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America, the chapter points out three issues prevalent in existing research and practice: a) the (un)witting endorsement of Standard English as the privileged communicative language; b) the unexamined relations between “mere literacy” and multiliteracies; c) the institutional confinement of participants and readerships. To address these issues, the chapter argues for three perspectival changes: a) from the conformist approach to the cosmopolitan approach; b) from monolingual focus to multilingual, multimodal, and multicultural foci; c) from institutionally sanctioned access to participatory engagement.