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The theme of the AFinLA 2020 Yearbook Methodological turns in applied language studies is discussed in this introductory article from three interrelated perspectives, variously addressed in the three plenary presentations at the AFinLA Autumn Symposium 2019 as well as in the thirteen contributions to the yearbook. In the first set of articles presented, the authors examine the role and impact of technological development on the study of multimodal digital and non-digital contexts and discourses and ensuing new methods. The second set of studies in the yearbook revisits issues of language proficiency, critically discussing relevant concepts and approaches. The third set of articles explores participation and participatory research approaches, reflecting on the roles of the researcher and the researched community.

Der vorliegende Beitrag befasst sich mit Erzählen in seiner massenmedialen Vermittlung in einer Unterhaltungsendung im Fernsehen. Ziel ist es, anhand einer multimodalen und medienlinguistischen Analyse eines exemplarischen Ausschnitts aus der TV-Unterhaltungssendung "Zimmer frei" die Spezifik solcher massenmedialen Erzählungen herauszuarbeiten. Zum einen wird aufgezeigt, dass sich massenmediales Erzählen in seinem sequenziellen Auf- und Ausbau aufgrund seiner Einbindung in ein mediales Unterhaltungsformat in systematischer Weise von Alltagserzählungen unterscheidet. Zum anderen wird veranschaulicht, inwieweit theatrale Inszenierungs- und Aufführungsmittel der Fernsehproduktion die Aktivität des Erzählens mitkonstituieren. Erzählungen im Fernsehen, so die analyseleitende Prämisse, können nicht schlicht als durch das Fernsehen übertragene narrative Aktivitäten konzeptualisiert werden. Vielmehr sind sie durch eine mediale Theatralität mitgeprägt. (Para)verbale, körperliche und mediale Inszenierungs- und Aufführungsverfahren greifen konzertiert ineinander, um Erzählungen als "dramas to an audience" (Goffman 1974:508) hervorzubringen.

This contribution aims to describe privacy, publicness and anonymity as essential analytic dimensions for media linguistic research. The dimensions are not inherent in and predetermined by the technical features and forms of communication provided by mobile devices, but are used by the participants as an orientation grid for shaping their online and offline practices in and with mobile media. Consid-ering both mobile device use in the public realm and the dissemina-tion of increasingly private content in social media (which is said to lead to ‘blurred boundaries’ between the private and the public), the paper provides a brief overview of the main developments in mobile media research: Studies adopting various approaches – e. g. socio-logical-ethnographic, linguistic and media studies – illustrate how publicness, privacy and anonymity are actively shaped and brought about by mobile media users in face-to-face and remote social en-counters. As this shows that publicness, privacy and anonymity are still relevant concepts for users, future media linguistics studies should focus on the dynamic multimodal practices by which they are contextualized and accomplished.

Our research task consists in the study of the way in which multilingual resources are mobilized in team work within collaborative activities; how they are exploited in a specific way in order both to enhance collaboration and to respect the specificities of the members’ linguistic competences and practices within the team. Central to our analytical work, which is inspired by ethnomethodological conversation analysis, is the relationship between multilingual resources and the situated organization of linguistic uses and of social practices. These two aspects are reflexively articulated, multilingual resources being shaped by the very contexts of their use and activities being constrained and thus structured by the available resources.