O n f e r e n c e

Martine Pellerin 
University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada 
[e-mail] 
Digital and Transformative Ethnography Provides New 
Methodological and Epistemological Perspectives for CALL 
Research 
Bio Data 
Martine Pellerin
teaches in education specializing in French as a second language and 
French in a minority setting in both undergraduate and graduate programs. She regularly 
gives continuous professional training to teachers. Her research specializes on oral for 
learning; differentiated instruction in French Immersion teaching and qualitative 
assessment using digital technology. 
Abstract 
The emergence of new mobile technologies is changing the ways we teach and learn a 
language. These same technologies are also transforming the very meaning of doing 
research in a new digital era. The use of digital and mobile tools such as iPod, iPad, and 
Smartphone in the language learning context is forcing CALL researchers to rethink not 
only the use of technology but also how they do research with technology. The use of 
such technological devices by the researched also contributes to reshaping CALL research 
for and about them. Therefore, researchers are forced to re-examine the underlying 
paradigms that have guided conventional research, and to explore new methodological 
and epistemological perspectives for CALL research. 
This paper explores how digital and transformative ethnography provides new 
methodological and epistemological perspectives for doing research in CALL. First, the 
paper will address the following questions that reside at the heart of the debate about 
the necessity for new methodological and epistemological perspectives in CALL contexts: 
How does research in CALL take on new forms in our ever-changing digital contexts? How 
do digital tools (iPod, tablets, Smartphone) contribute to reshaping and transforming 
CALL methodologies? How does the use of these new digital and mobile tools contribute 
to new epistemological perspectives in CALL research? 
Second, the paper will explore digital and transformative ethnography as a new research 
methodology that requires a paradigm shift in CALL research. In particular, it will address 
the empowerment of the participants in the CALL inquiry process, the sharing of power 
between researchers and participants, the validity of the voice of the participants, and 
their rights in shaping the research process. And finally, the paper will examine how 
digital ethnography in CALL contexts becomes transformative and produces social 
changes. 

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-281- 
2014 CALL Conference 
LINGUAPOLIS
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