Fanfiction and Fan Practices for Language Teaching and Learning

Fanfiction and Fan Practices for Language Teaching and Learning explores fanfiction as a tool for language learning, harnessing fans’ enthusiasm and creativity while engaging in practices such as fanfiction writing, fan translation, and fanart in another language.

This book bridges theory and practice by highlighting three case studies demonstrating the varied ways in which fans, including the author herself, learn English and other languages as a second or foreign language. First, Sauro presents the case of a Sherlock Holmes fan engaging in “spoiling,” the practice of gathering and sharing information within fan networks. Second, the book offers a scoping review of existing research to trace which fan practices have been investigated for learning which languages. Finally, the author evaluates the Fanfiction Project, involving the use of fanfiction to support language and literary learning as part of a university‑level English course. This wide array of empirical evidence comes together in a clear teaching guide that offers replicable methods and teaching materials for educators interested in using fanfiction to develop language and literacy skills in the classroom.

This groundbreaking book is essential reading for students and researchers in fan studies, media studies, applied linguistics, TEFL, and language learning.

Shannon Sauro (PhD, Educational Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania) is a Professor in the program for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in the School of Education, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), USA.