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Part of
Digital Social Reading and Second Language Learning and Teaching
Edited by Joshua J. Thoms and Kristen Michelson
[AILA Applied Linguistics Series 21] 2024
► pp. 22–47

Chapter 2
Examining graduate students’ positioning identities in collaborative digital annotation tools

| TED University, Ankara,
Digital annotation tools (DATs) are one of the recent digital platforms in which multiple users can read and annotate a shared document. Scholars have explored the use and impacts of DATs on peer interaction and documented that collaborative annotation enables a more learner-centered academic space where students can facilitate peer learning and socialization. The present study, on the other hand, shifts the focus and explores the roles of peer interaction to document three multilingual doctoral students’ micro-level positioning identities in a semester-long DAT activity. The study’s data involved students’ collaborative annotations on 11 scholarly articles, semi-structured interviews, and demographic information questionnaires. The data were analyzed with discourse analysis techniques. Findings indicate that students’ previous teaching experiences, linguistic and educational backgrounds, and research interests shaped their annotation behaviors and discursive choices and thus led to taking different positioning identities. The study offers pedagogical implications that might cultivate and foster quality peer interaction and involvement in collaborative DAT activities.
Article outline
  • Digital annotation tools
  • Conceptual framework
    • Identity and positioning theory
  • The study
    • Setting and participants
  • Data collection and analysis
  • Researcher positionality
  • Findings
    • Lina: The critical reader
    • Max: The forever teacher
    • Mira: The EAL reader and knowledge seeker
  • Discussion
  • Pedagogical implications
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
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