English - Language Learners , Fan Communities , and 21 st - Century Skills

Globalization is a term often used to describe the increasing f low of people, ideas, goods, and capital across national borders (Appadurai, 1996; Suárez-Orozco & Qin-Hilliard, 2004). In many ways, globalization has been facilitated by and tied to new tools and technologies. For example, new technologies have played a significant role in expediting transportation and communication across physical space, which in turn has made it easier for people to live, communicate, and conduct business across national borders. As technology and such cross-border forms of social and economic practice become increasingly prevalent, it stands to reason that there also may be a concomitant shift in the sort of skills and abilities that individuals will need for effective participation in modern work, academic, and leisure environments. In recognition of such a shift, partnerships among businesses, schools, and researchers have been working toward a common understanding of the sort of so-called 21st-century skills that students should be developing as they prepare for their futures. This article draws from literature on 21st-century skills as a framework for exploring the forms of literacy and learning that many adolescents are engaging with in out of school spaces. In particular, this article is a theoretical exploration of themes that emerged during a longitudinal ethnographic study of adolescent English-language learners’ (ELLs’) literate and social activities surrounding online fan fiction. Fan fictions are texts written about media and popular culture by fans. In these texts, fan fiction authors take up the characters and plotlines of the original media and creatively rework them by developing new relationships between characters, extending plot and timelines, creating new settings, and exploring novel themes. By considering how such practices relate to 21st-century skills, this article aims to provide insight on youth-led, technology-mediated learning and literacy practices and to stimulate thinking about how our understandings of 21st-century skills in out-of-school spaces might inform pedagogical approaches in the teaching of language and literacy in more formal learning environments. Popular media and new