Reconceptualizing semiotic resources in the eco-social system of an online language tutoring course

ABSTRACT

Translanguaging and trans-semiotizing research has problematized the static view of language and argued that meaning making is a dynamic, material, social, and historical process across multiple timescales in complex eco-social systems. The second author proposed the concept of trans-semiotizing as an alternative lens to study language teaching and learning. In this autoethnographic study, the dynamic processes of online language learning and teaching are examined by analysing the semiotic resources, trans-semiotic practices, and the coordination of different semiotic resources. To capture such dynamic processes and the semiotic resources involved, the first author setup multiple cameras and used screen recording to document my teaching. Data include recordings of my computer screens, video recordings of my physical environment, facial expressions, body movements, screen shots of my social media posts, and my teaching notes. We draw on Lemke’s dynamic eco-social system concept to discuss how semiotic resources are used in online language teaching and learning across different timescales.

KEYWORDS:

• trans-semiotizing
• online teaching
• eco-social system
• semiotic resources

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Qinghua Chen

Qinghua Chen is a Ph.D. Candidate in the faculty of education, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada. His research interests include, multilingual education, critical media literacies and translanguaging. He has published an article promoting critical approaches towards social media texts consumption and production. He is currently doing an ethnographic work on the language learning experience of Chinese PhD students in Canada. His doctoral project is an interdisciplinary study of critical social media literacies, news framing analysis and emotion construction of Chinese immigrants in Canada.

Angel M.Y. Lin

Angel M.Y. Lin is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Plurilingual and Intercultural Education in faculty of education, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada. She received her Ph.D. in 1996 from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada. She has since led a productive teaching and research career in the areas of classroom discourse analysis, sociocultural theories of language education, bilingual and plurilingual education, academic literacies, youth cultural and media studies, critical discourse analysis, and language in education policy and practice in postcolonial contexts. Her current research interests include: translanguaging and trans-semiotizing; languages, cultures, and literacies across the curriculum; Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), languages and literacies in science and mathematics education, and social semiotics in plurilingual education contexts.