This book presents an indepth, qualitative case study of Chinese undergraduates’ selfdirected, outofclass use of digital technology in relation to learning English as a Foreign Language. This study is significant since there is a growing demand of competent Englishspeaking college graduates in China while there is also growing ownership of digital technologies by Chinese university students. There has been however little finegrained research on how Chinese students are handling the technology in relation to learning English.
After reviewing relevant literature, I propose a sociocultural approach to analyse the research objectives. The approach was operationalised in an activity theory generated framework, under the guidance of which, a multiplecase study was designed. Seven undergraduates were recruited, and data of their outofclass activities in relation to learning English using digital technologies were collected, using questionnaire, screen capture, and personal journals over a fivemonth period. The participants were also interviewed using critical incidents to describe their actions. From these data sources several case studies were constructed on the outofclass uses which Chinese undergraduates made of digital technology in relation to learning English.
Following a crosscase analysis of the seven students, I identified three types of activities — ‘learning to the test’, ‘languaging’, and ‘diffuse language learning’. Together the three types of activities form a spectrum which showed the ‘culturesofuse’ — the sedimented characteristics — of digital technology in relation to learning English in Chinese undergraduates discursive, outofclass lives on campus.
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