From “newbie” to professional: Identity building and literacies in an online affinity space

Abstract

Reading and writing online has become more frequent for young people all over the world. Non-English speakers use English in order to enter international Internet spaces and to interact with foreign audiences. This ethnographic case study explores identity building and second language literacy development in a Russian fan of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic who was engaged in the practice of crafting pony figurines. In order to present his work to an international audience, he had to write in English online using specific crafting terminology while building his identity as a professional crafter. Over a two-year period, he gained online fame as a crafter and at the same time managed to develop his writing by appropriating new linguistic, technological, and multimodal resources. This study shows how the support of the affinity space of a fandom encouraged this “newbie” to build his online identity as a “recognized expert” in crafting and also to become a more confident and competent English writer.