Young YouTubers: Multimodality and Language Variety

master's thesis

• Author: Petra Nizek
• Mentor: Marina Grubišić (mentor)
• Committee member: Anđel Starčević (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2020-11-05, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

The usage of the English language among the young speakers of other languages is often debated and discussed. This paper explores the usage of the English language in YouTube videos made by four young Croatian YouTubers. The goal of the paper is to show that the English language usage in this context can be explained through the concept of the community of practice and its three criteria: mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire. The analysis of twenty-four videos in total has shown that the selected YouTubers fulfil all three criteria for belonging to the same community of practice and that the English usage is an important part of their shared repertoire. Even though there is a decent amount of variability among the YouTubers in how English is used, some important consistencies have been noted in the analysis, such as its most dominant use in the written mode for multiple purposes (communication with audience, commenting on the content of videos, establishing topics/themes, and in titles). Multimodal Social Semiotic approach is used to demonstrate that such use of English is not accidental, but motivated and a part of a multimodal design.

• Keywords: community of practice; imagined community; virtual community; YouTube; multimodality
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:597267
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (double major); specializations in: Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation, TEFL; Course: Linguistics; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2020-11-09 18:04:43