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Dr Caroline Tagg | OU people profiles

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Dr Caroline Tagg

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • AHoS Research and Scholarship
  • Faculty of Wellbeing, Education & Language Studies
  • School of Languages & Applied Linguistics
  • English Language & Applied Linguistics
  • caroline.tagg

Professional biography

I am a Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics with an interest in how social media constrains and enables different forms of communication. I began my current post at the Open University in October 2015. Prior to that, I was a lecturer at the University of Birmingham, where I had previously gained my PhD with a thesis titled 'A corpus analysis of SMS text messaging'. I have an MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL from Leicester University, and before that worked as a TESOL teacher in Spain, and then in Vietnam with the British voluntary organisation, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).

I am currently Associate Head of Research and Scholarship in the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics (LAL) at The Open University. 

I am Chair of the British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL) (2024-2027) and former Editor in Chief of the international journal Discourse, Context & Media (2021-2024). I co-edit the Routledge Focus on Language and Social Media monograph series, with Professor Sirpa Leppänen. I am on the editorial boards of Lingua, Talk & Text, and Internet Pragmatics. 

Research interests

My latest funded project, Mobile Conversations in Context (MoCo), was funded by a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship. Through MoCo, I aim to develop new understandings of the way in which people move between online and offline interactions in their daily lives.  

My research into language and digital technologies rests on the understanding that digital communication practices are deeply embedded into individuals’ wider social, economic and political lives. I have expertise in a range of research methods from corpus linguistics to linguistic ethnography, and in various analytical concepts including Appraisal theory, audience design, everyday creativity, heteroglossia and translanguaging. My contribution to understanding the impact of digital communication is fourfold.

  • Firstly, I have shown how linguistic analysis can challenge popular assumptions regarding the detrimental effect of digital communication on language and literacy, suggesting instead that non-standard spelling practices be seen as acts of performativity (The Discourse of Text Messaging, Continuum 2012).
  • Secondly, with Philip Seargeant and Amy Aisha Brown, I have explored how miscommunication on social media sites like Facebook can be understood as processes of context design, whereby users draw on their awareness of complex contextual factors in styling utterances for unseen audiences (Taking Offence on Social Media, Palgrave 2017). 
  • Thirdly, with Mel Evans, I am developing a distinctive transhistorical approach to the study of so-called new media which challenges claims to novelty by exploring continuities with earlier technology uses (Message and Medium, Mouton de Gruyter, 2020).
  • Finally, drawing on my work as Co-I on the AHRC-funded research project ‘Translation and Translanguaging’ (2014-2018), I am addressing the complexities involved in understanding contemporary communicative practices with an approach to digital communication I call post-digital ethnography which combines online and offline data to explore how people use digital technology as a tool in their social and working lives (see Mobile Messaging and Resourcefulness, Routledge 2022).

My research throws up new imperatives and challenges for applied social research in the field of language and social media, and has implications for pedagogic interventions aimed at equipping children and adults with critical digital literacies for social interaction in the twenty-first century.

Research students interested in working in any area related to language and digital technology are encouraged to get in touch. I currently supervise two PhD students:

  • Kat Goodacre: An exploration of psychologically informed environments (PIEs) for adult literacy learners with experience of homelessness or compound trauma
  • Leanne Fitton: An exploration of the ways in which academics who teach on higher education courses engage and interact with a chatbot designed to augment professional development opportunities

I was convenor of the BAAL Special Interest Group in Language and New Media (2017-2021)

Teaching interests

My teaching interests span a wide range of applied linguistics topics and areas of expertise. Most recently, I chaired presentation of the Stage 3 Dissertation module (EE819) on our MA in Education (Applied Linguistics) programme, and was part of the module team producing the new Stage 2 module. I also chaired production of a new Level 2 undergraduate module, L201 English in the World, and was alo involved in developing a Level 1 undergraduate module (L101 Introducing English Language Studies) which introduces students to contemporary issues related to language, and the concepts needed to address them. I am currently part of the module teams for the new MA module, L804 Core Concepts in Linguistics, and L101.

Impact and engagement

As a member of the Translation and Translanguaging team, I have written a number of working papers freely available on the project website.

  • Tagg, C. (2015) Language, business and superdiversity: a report on social media across case studies. TLANG Working Paper 6.
  • Tagg, C., Lyons, A., Hu, R., & Rock, F. (2016). The Ethics of Digital Ethnography in a Team Project. Working Paper 12.
  • Tagg, C., R. Hu, A. Lyons and J. Simpson (2016) Heritage and social media in superdiverse cities: personalised, networked and multimodal. TLANG Working Paper 17.
  • Tagg, C. and R. Hu (2017) Sharing as a conversational turn in digital interaction. TLANG Working Paper 29.
I have also written a number of posts for the project blog.
 
With Lina Adinolfi, I have written for EAL Journal: NALDIC's termly magazine of practice, research and activism on 'Translanguaging as a pedagogy for online distance modern language learning' (Issue 8, Spring 2019, pp. 32-33).
 
I have written articles in The Conversation and The Times Higher Education magazine, among others, on the implications of my research with Philip Seargeant for recent debates around online filter bubbles and fake news.

The filter bubble isn’t just Facebook’s fault – it’s yours (The Conversation, 5th Dec 2016)

Fake news: the solution is education, not technology (THE, 29th Dec 2016)

The real reason you can’t quit Facebook? Maybe it’s because you can judge your friends (12th July 2017)

Facebook and a fractured society: how online communication is changing friendship and politics (The Magazine for Advanced Level English, Issue 79, February 2018)

Matt Hancock leaks: why WhatsApp is a terrible place to conduct important political conversations (The Conversation, 21st March 2023)

I have given various public talks, including one at the Library of Birmingham held as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Sciences November 2014, and another as part of the Church Inn's Music and a Lecture series, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham.

Publications

Conversational rhythm as a disconnective practice among middle-aged adults in situated mobile-messaging interactions (2024-08)
Tagg, Caroline and Lyons, Agnieszka
Journal of Pragmatics, 229 (pp. 56-70)

Post-Digital Connectivities: Framing Offline Encounters in a Digital Prospection Space (2024)
Lyons, Agnieszka and Tagg, Caroline
Applied Linguistics ((Early access))

Polymedia repertoires of networked individuals: A day-in-the-life approach (2021-11-26)
Tagg, Caroline and Lyons, Agnieszka
Pragmatics and Society, 12(5) (pp. 725-755)

Chronotopic (non)modernity in translocal mobile messaging among Chinese migrants in the UK (2021-10)
Lyons, Agnieszka; Tagg, Caroline and Hu, Rachel
Internet Pragmatics, 4(2) (pp. 190-218)

Context design and critical language/media awareness: implications for a social digital literacies education (2021-04)
Tagg, Caroline and Seargeant, Philip
Linguistics and Education, 62, Article 100776

[Editorial] Discourse, context & media: Relevance in a changing world (2021-03)
Tagg, Caroline; Lee, Carmen; Vásquez, Camilla; Eriksson, Göran; Anderson, Clare and Fitzgerald, Richard
Discourse, Context & Media, 39, Article 100468

Repertoires on the move: exploiting technological affordances and contexts in mobile messaging interactions (2021)
Tagg, Caroline and Lyons, Agnieszka
International Journal of Multilingualism, 18(2) (pp. 244-266)

Role of EFL teachers’ beliefs in speaking practice: The case of a Mexican university (2020-12)
Garcia-Ponce, Edgar Emmanuell and Tagg, Caroline
System, 95, Article 102376

[Book review] The Pragmatics of Text Messaging: Making Meaning in Messages, Michelle A. McSweeney, Routledge, New York (2018) (2020-01)
Tagg, Caroline
Journal of Pragmatics, 155 (pp. 346-348)

The discursive construction of mobile chronotopes in mobile-phone messaging (2019-11)
Lyons, Agnieszka and Tagg, Caroline
Language in Society, 48(5) (pp. 657-683)

Social media and the future of open debate: a user-oriented approach to Facebook's filter bubble conundrum (2019-03-31)
Seargeant, Philip and Tagg, Caroline
Discourse, Context & Media, 27 (pp. 41-48)

The pragmatic use of vocatives in private one-to-one digital communication (2019)
Asprey, Esther and Tagg, Caroline
Internet Pragmatics, 2(1) (pp. 83-111)

Metonymy and Text Messaging: A Framework for Understanding Creative Uses of Metonymy (2018-08-01)
Littlemore, Jeannette and Tagg, Caroline
Applied Linguistics, 39(4) (pp. 481-507)

The ethics of digital ethnography in a team project (2017-06)
Tagg, Caroline; Lyons, Agnieszka; Hu, Rachel and Rock, Frances
Applied Linguistics Review, 8(2-3) (pp. 271-292)

Heteroglossia in text-messaging: performing identity and negotiating relationships in a digital space (2016-02)
Tagg, Caroline
Journal of Sociolinguistics, 20(1) (pp. 59-85)

Evaluative Language and Its Solidarity-Building Role on TED.com: An Appraisal and Corpus Analysis (2015)
Drasovean, Anda and Tagg, Caroline
Language@Internet, 12, Article 1

Scraping the barrel with a shower of social misfits': everyday creativity in text messaging (2013-09)
Tagg, Caroline
Applied Linguistics, 34(4) (pp. 480-500)

Language choice and addressivity strategies in Thai-English social network interactions (2012-09)
Seargeant, Philip; Tagg, Caroline and Ngampramuan, Wipapan
Journal of Sociolinguistics, 16(4) (pp. 510-531)

"I didn’t spel that wrong did i. Oops": analysis and standardisation of SMS spelling variation (2012-06-01)
Tagg, Caroline; Baron, Alistair and Rayson, Paul
Lingvisticae Investigationes, 35(2) (pp. 367-388)

Writing systems at play in Thai-English online interactions (2012)
Tagg, Caroline and Seargeant, Philip
Writing Systems Research, 4(2) (pp. 195-213)

English on the internet and a ‘post-varieties’ approach to language (2011-12)
Seargeant, Philip and Tagg, Caroline
World Englishes, 30(4) (pp. 496-514)

Mobile Messaging and Resourcefulness: A Post-digital Ethnography (2022)
Tagg, Caroline and Lyons, Agnieszka
ISBN : 9780429031465 | Publisher : Routledge

Taking Offence on Social Media: Conviviality and Communication on Facebook (2017-08-30)
Tagg, Caroline; Seargeant, Philip and Brown, Amy Aisha
Pivot
ISBN : 978-3-319-56716-7 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan

Exploring Digital Communication: language in action (2015-02-27)
Tagg, Caroline
ISBN : 978-0-415-52491-9 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon

The Discourse of Text Messaging: Analysis of SMS communication (2012)
Tagg, Caroline
ISBN : 9781441174093 | Publisher : Continuum | Published : London

Digital language and communication (2024)
Tagg, Caroline
In: Wei, Li; Hua, Zhu and Simpson, James eds. The Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics, Second Edition (pp. 68-80)
ISBN : 9780367536244 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon, Oxon

Inclusive and decolonising moves in the English Language curriculum: possibilities and barriers in online distance contexts of teaching (2023-05-18)
Giaxoglou, Korina and Tagg, Caroline
In: Leedham, Maria; Tagg, Caroline and Tuck, Jackie eds. Online Pedagogy and the Student Experience: Teaching Applied Linguistics and Beyond
ISBN : 9780335251889 | Publisher : Open University Press, McGraw-Hill | Published : London, UK

The sociolinguistics portfolio: integrating students’ language experiences into online applied linguistics modules (2023-05-18)
Tagg, Caroline and Giaxoglou, Korina
In: Leedham, Maria; Tagg, Caroline and Tuck, Jackie eds. Online Pedagogy and the Student Experience: Teaching Applied Linguistics and Beyond
ISBN : 9780335251889 | Publisher : Open University Press, McGraw-Hill | Published : London, UK

Introduction (2023-05-18)
Tuck, Jackie; Tagg, Caroline and Leedham, Maria
In: Leedham, Maria; Tagg, Caroline and Tuck, Jackie eds. Online Pedagogy and the Student Experience: Teaching Applied Linguistics and Beyond
ISBN : 9780335251889 | Publisher : Open University Press, McGraw-Hill | Published : London, UK

Women's spelling in Early Modern English: perspectives from new media (2020-11)
Evans, Mel and Tagg, Caroline
In: Condorelli, Marco ed. Advances in Historical Orthography, c. 1500-1800 (pp. 191-218)
ISBN : 9781108471800 | Publisher : Cambridge University Press | Published : Cambridge

Spelling in context: a transhistorical pragmatic perspective on orthographic practices in English (2020)
Tagg, Caroline and Evans, Mel
In: Tagg, Caroline and Evans, Mel eds. Message and Medium: English language practices across old and new media. Topics in English Linguistics (pp. 55-79)
ISBN : 978-3-11-062039-9 | Publisher : De Gruyter Mouton | Published : Berlin

English language and social media (2020)
Tagg, Caroline
In: Adolphs, Svenja and Knight, Dawn eds. The Routledge Handbook of English Language and Digital Humanities. Routledge Handbooks in English Language Studies (pp. 568-586)
ISBN : 9781003031758, 9781138901766 | Publisher : Routledge

Critical digital literacy education in the ‘fake news’ era (2018-08-14)
Seargeant, Philip and Tagg, Caroline
In: Reedy, Katharine and Parker, Jo eds. Digital Literacy Unpacked
ISBN : 9781783301997 | Publisher : Facet Publishing | Published : London

Using research vignettes to explore co-production in a large diverse team: implications for research in superdiverse contexts (2018-02-21)
Goodson, Lisa and Tagg, Caroline
In: Creese, Angela and Blackledge, Adrian eds. The Routledge Handbook of Language and Superdiversity. Routledge Handbooks (pp. 103-117)
Publisher : Routledge

Mobile messaging by migrant micro-entrepreneurs in contexts of superdiversity (2018-02-21)
Tagg, Caroline and Lyons, Agnieszka
In: Creese, Angela and Blackledge, Adrian eds. The Routledge Handbook of Language and Superdiversity. Routledge Handbooks (pp. 312-328)
Publisher : Routledge

Negotiating social roles in semi-public online contexts (2016-12-08)
Tagg, Caroline and Seargeant, Philip
In: Leppänen, Sirpa; Westinen, Elina and Kytölä, Samu eds. Social Media Discourse, (Dis)identifications and Diversities. Routledge Studies in Sociolinguistics (13) (pp. 211-234)
ISBN : 978-1-138-65141-8 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London

Facebook and the discursive construction of the social network (2015-07-27)
Tagg, Caroline and Seargeant, Philip
In: Georgakopoulou, Alexandra and Spilioti, Tereza eds. The Routledge Handbook of Language and Digital Communication (pp. 339-353)
ISBN : 9780415642491 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon

Audience design and language choice in the construction and maintenance of translocal communities on social network sites (2014-02-18)
Tagg, Caroline and Seargeant, Philip
In: Seargeant, Philip and Tagg, Caroline eds. The Language of Social Media: Identity and Community on the Internet (pp. 161-185)
ISBN : 9781137029300 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan | Published : Basingstoke

Introduction: The language of social media (2014-02)
Seargeant, Philip and Tagg, Caroline
In: Seargeant, Philip and Tagg, Caroline eds. The Language of Social Media: Identity and Community on the Internet (pp. 1-19)
ISBN : 9781137029300 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan | Published : Basingstoke

Texting and corpora (2012-04-19)
Tagg, Caroline
In: Hyland, Ken; Huat, Chau Meng and Handford, Michael eds. Corpus Applications in Applied Linguistics (pp. 150-165)
ISBN : 9781441107800 | Publisher : Continuum | Published : London

Wot did he say or could u not c him 4 dust? Written and spoken creativity in text messaging (2011)
Tagg, Caroline
In: Ho, Caroline M. L.; Anderson, Kate T. and Leong, Alvin P. eds. Transforming Literacies and Language: Multimodality and Literacy in the New Media Age (pp. 223-236)
ISBN : 9781441123916 | Publisher : Continuum | Published : London

Corpus-based analysis of SMS text messaging (2007)
Tagg, Caroline
In: Teo, Peter and Ho, Caroline Mei Lin eds. Discourse in the Modern World: perspectives and challenges (pp. 267-284)
ISBN : 9780071264921 | Publisher : McGraw-Hill Education | Published : Singapore

Online Pedagogy and the Student Experience: Teaching Applied Linguistics and Beyond (2023-06-05)
Leedham, Maria; Tagg, Caroline and Tuck, Jackie eds.
ISBN : 9780335251889 | Publisher : Open University Press, McGraw-Hill | Published : London, UK

Message and Medium: English Language Practices Across Old and New Media (2020-05-18)
Tagg, Caroline and Evans, Mel
Tagg, Caroline and Evans, Mel eds.
Topics in English linguistics
ISBN : 978-3-11-062039-9 | Publisher : De Gruyter Mouton | Published : Berlin

The Language of Social Media: Identity and Community on the Internet (2014-02)
Seargeant, Philip and Tagg, Caroline eds.
ISBN : 978-1-137-02930-0 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan | Published : Basingstoke

The Politics of English Conflict, Competition, Co-existence (2012-05-10)
Hewings, Ann and Tagg, Caroline eds.
Worlds of English
ISBN : 978-0-415-67424-9 | Publisher : Routledge in association with the Open University | Published : Abingdon

Discussion Analytics: Identifying Conversations and Social Learners in FutureLearn MOOCs (2017-03)
Chua, Shi-Min; Tagg, Caroline; Sharples, Mike and Rienties, Bart
In : FutureLearn data: what we currently have, what we are learning and how it is demonstrating learning in MOOCs (13-17 Mar 2017, Vancouver) (pp. 36-62)