ABSTRACT
Digitally mediated life activity has become ubiquitous across a range of social classes and world regions. Among the many professional, social, and recreational phenomena that digital tools have transformed and/or made possible is the amplification and rapid expansion of popular (hereafter pop) culture fandom communities that are often transnational, transcultural, and plurilingual. This intervention project explores the possibilities that pedagogically structured participation in a fan fiction community might offer for second language learning. These learning potentials are examined and illustrated through the six-year implementation and iterative redesign of a pedagogical project rooted in task-based language teaching, fan practices, and fanfiction activities that takes place in an English teacher education course at a Swedish university. Positive outcomes from the project include identifiable linguistic gains and augmented levels of student engagement, both of which were enabled by the inspiration that sprang from participation in culturally relevant fandom communities. In conclusion, we underscore that pedagogical innovation in pop culture contexts requires agility and the willingness to iteratively adapt to emerging cultural conditions and practices.
