【免费阅读/下载】《Digital Studies in Language and Literature》第二卷第一期上线

2025年6日，由重庆大学主办，全球知名出版商De Gruyter（德古意特）合作出版的Digital Studies in Language and Literature第二卷第一期正式上线，共发表论文6篇，其中4篇原创研究论文，1篇综述，1篇简报。作者来自美国、英国、中国香港、马来西亚、尼日利亚等国家及地区，均为国际知名学者。期刊采取开放获取模式出版，文章均可免费阅读或下载。

Abstract: Literature in the Twitterverse emerges through two cyber-species: the tweeter and the Twitterbot. Both are fighting for relevance in digital creative writing to win the reader’s attention. They tweet, read, and write to each other remotely, and they correct each other as an algorithmic sharpening symbiosis. This essay will analyse the symmetrical linguistics of Twitterbot poetry that incorporates critical code studies of its source code as a subset of technodiscursive analysis to decipher the meanings of the tweet-poems produced by Leonardo Flores’ @Protestitas. This text contextualises itself in a genre of generative electronic literature with multiple interdisciplinary approaches. Our study focuses on this Twitterbot poetry and its relation to socio-technological communication. We also seek to capture the intention of the Twitterary robopoet @Protestitas through a technodiscursive analysis that consists of what we call “Four-Dimensional Analysis (henceforth 4DAs)” of the Twitterbot poetry. How does Twitterbot produce its output as executed codes? How do we read the language of the tweet-poem? Our study seeks to demystify these phenomena in this article. The analysis deciphers Twitterbot poetry in the manner of the rebus, deconstructing the four semantic elements of the ten excerpts of @Protestitas with its source code. We have compared the source codes with the output on the screen. Therein, we discovered that both of them project the same literary spark.

Abstract: The last two decades have witnessed a growing interest in developing and incorporating tasks in technology-mediated settings. Correspondingly, technology-mediated task-based language teaching (technology-mediated TBLT) has established itself as a distinct domain of TBLT research, exploring the benefits of technology in promoting task performance and outcomes of task-based learning. This research synthesis intends to contribute to this growing trend by focusing on one type of technology – immersive virtual reality (VR). We conducted a systematic search and reviewed 33 primary studies (2014–2024) that adopted VR technology to create tasks, and then we assessed learning outcomes of these tasks. In addition to reviewing study features for a general trend (e.g., target population, language, and knowledge/skill area), we evaluated the VR-based instructional tasks for common characteristics of pedagogical tasks established in the TBLT literature. Results showed that the majority of VR tasks are meaning-focused and authentic, but they are not sufficiently designed to produce non-linguistic outcomes (outcomes beyond the mere display of linguistic knowledge and skills).

Abstract: Digital devices have been increasingly integrated into language learning environments, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing literature, focusing predominantly on dominant languages like English, presents mixed findings on the effectiveness of digital resources for language learning. Few studies address heritage languages, which often have limited resources beyond the home and may depend more on digital tools for support. This longitudinal, mixed-methods study investigated the impact of digital device use on heritage language learning among Chinese–Canadian families. We examined the relationship between digital device use and Chinese receptive vocabulary among 128 first graders, 137 second graders, and 66 third graders over three years. Additionally, we conducted parental interviews with 42 focal families for three years to explore the evolving patterns of digital resource use at home. Our findings revealed a statistically significant positive impact of digital device use on Chinese receptive vocabulary development among first and second graders, while no significant effects were observed in third graders. The analyses of parental interviews uncovered increased digital use, diversity of resources, positive parental attitudes, and digital literacy among families from grades 1 to 2 but decreased digital use and parental enthusiasm in the third grade due to health and addiction concerns, reinforcing the quantitative results. Conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study offers a unique perspective on how families’ digital device use for heritage languages changed before, during, and after the pandemic. The findings offer valuable insights for families and educators to better support heritage language learners with digital resources.This paper explores the “semiotics of latency,” examining how the discipline of signs can provide insights into the increasingly invisible dimensions of contemporary communication, especially with the rise of digital technologies and artificial intelligence. The study proposes that semiotics has become more relevant today as it can reveal the latent aspects of communication, which have expanded significantly with technological advancements. The discussion spans various themes including invisibility, subtlety, infrastructure, transcendence, magic, sentience, immateriality, and minority, offering a nuanced understanding of how latent spaces – particularly in AI – shape meaning in modern contexts. By tracing historical perspectives from figures like Girolamo Cardano and Robert Hooke to contemporary phenomena like AI-generated content and its societal impacts, the paper argues for a “subtle reading” approach in semiotics. This approach bridges close reading and distant reading methods to decode the complex, often invisible infrastructures that underlie digital communication. The exploration of these hidden spaces suggests new horizons for understanding both the potential and the ethical implications of AI and digital technologies, positioning semiotics as a critical tool for navigating the unseen forces that increasingly influence our lives.

Abstract: The PARSEME GRC guidelines distinguish between Light-Verb Constructions, such as to make a suggestion, and Verbal Idioms, such as to kick the bucket. Light-Verb Constructions need to contain a nominal element that is abstract and predicative. Verbal Idioms are lexically, morphologically, morphosyntactically, and syntactically inflexible. Syntactic nominalisations as the nominal element are usually disregarded especially in Light-Verb Constructions due to their structural and functional ambiguity. (Post)classical Greek has productive morpho-syntactic means for the nominalisation of any part of speech which are not restricted e.g. diatopically or distratically, whereas lexical nominalisation by means of derivational morphology is more restricted. This makes the exclusion of syntactic nominalisations seem artificial. When considering the eventiveness of the nominal component the crucial characteristic it emerges that non-deverbal and underived event nouns, including syntactic nominalisations, can in fact be predicative nouns in verbal multi-word expressions. Syntactic nominalisations can appear as predicative nouns in Light-Verb Constructions along with forming part of Verbal Idioms. Synchronically, verbal multi-word expressions containing a syntactic nominalisation can be gap fillers, indexical alternatives, or semantico-pragmatic alternatives to structures with a lexical nominalisation. The study is primarily based on the PARSEME GRC and ECF Leverhulme Sketch Engine corpora of literary classical Attic philosophical prose, historiography, and oratory.

Abstract: This article provides a critical synthesis and analysis of the research on the application of generative AI (GenAI) in second language (L2) writing. It conceptualizes GenAI literacy, synthesizes the research on written feedback, establishes a framework for prompt engineering, critiques the research examining the validity of GenAI ratings in writing assessment, and summarizes empirical evidence on the differences between GenAI and human writing. Specifically, the following findings and arguments are presented and discussed. GenAI literacy consists of four components pertaining to users’ competence and knowledge of GenAI basics, effective use, output evaluation, and ethics. The research on written feedback shows that teacher feedback focuses more on content, while GenAI feedback focuses more on organization. This research also suggests a need for criteria-based feedback and feedback evaluation. Prompt engineering is discussed along three dimensions: input, task, and output, followed by snapshots of prompts used in feedback research. The studies on writing assessment reveal that GenAI ratings are more consistent with human ratings when GenAI is trained using a large number of scored essays and when the rating criteria are well-defined. Comparisons of GenAI and human writing demonstrate that GenAI writing is more formal, academic, and impersonal, while human writing is more personal, creative, and linguistically accessible. This article concludes by making sense of the research findings, identifying future directions, and proposing three principles that may guide the research, practice, and theory construction for GenAI: individualization, domain-specificity, and writer agency.

Abstract: Heritage Language (HL) has been used as an umbrella definition to cover different facets of non-official/dominant languages (i.e., non-English in North America) within communities. Overall heritage language proficiency is highly related to literacy and general cognitive development. In America’s Deep South statest like Alabama, the three largest heritage languages are Spanish, Chinese, and Gujarati. Despite some parental investment and little governmental support in HL programs and schooling, most K-16 heritage language learners have a disparity between oracy, literacy, and overall HL proficiency. To remedy this discrepancy, we explore how generative AI provides Chinese Heritage Language (CHL) learners with tailored real-time feedback and observe how their literacy level changes with different social entities. By examining the influences of social-cultural factors on HL learners, we aspire to augment our comprehension regarding the efficacy of pedagogical modalities in equipping them to acquire advanced literacy. Surveys will be administered to evaluate participants’ familial, educational, and communal backgrounds, level of proficiency in HL, and attitudes toward AI models. ChatGPT3.5-4o will generate reading materials, with Prompt Engineering Techniques (PET) and Prompt-engineered Leading Protocols (PLP) designed for CHL learners at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels. To investigate the motivations to use AI and its impact on language learning, this study invites participants to engage in a six-month HL study by following pre-trained prompts and interacting with ChatGPT with the intensity, frequency, and duration specified by the learning protocol. Students’ and parents’ reports, periodic progress assessments, AI usage reports, and electrophysiological measurement (EEG) will be collected at the study’s initial, middle, and end times. This project will hold significant implications for AI tools’ role in bridging resource gaps in literacy and cognitive development in underserved communities.

Digital Studies in Language and Literature（《数字语言文学研究（英文）》，ISSN: 2943-0607）是由重庆大学主办，与国际著名出版公司德古意特（De Gruyter）合作出版的英文国际学术期刊，由重庆大学莫启扬教授、香港理工大学李少锋教授、阿拉巴马大学Albert Pionke教授担任主编，重庆大学王江教授担任执行主编，重庆大学范蓓教授、马里兰大学Bronson Hui助理教授担任副主编，来自十多个国家和地区的30余位领域内知名专家学者担任编委会委员。期刊以技术和数据驱动下的人文计算方法为核心，聚焦语言、文学和翻译学科研究成果，辐射文史哲艺等传统人文学科的最新研究进展。

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