Visuals in Cross-Linguistic Interactions on a Social Networking Site: Windows to New Worlds?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: Multimodal Interactions and Learner Engagement in Online Communities

Abstract

1. Objective/Purpose of the Study:
Today, social networking sites (SNS) are part of the lives of millions of people around the world and increasingly people of different linguistic backgrounds are engaging with one another through these sites. In this study, I look at the role of images as catalysts for cross-linguistic interactions. My main objectives are to explore: (a) To what extent does the use of images that accompany text in a language unknown to the user encourage user interaction? (b) If culture is viewed as a “membership in a discourse community that shares a common social space and history and common imaginings”(Kramsch, 1998), how does coming into contact -through a social networking site- with contents in an unknown language that are accompanied by visuals affect users perception of belonging to an imagined community?
2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework:
Drawing from Benedict Anderson’s (1991) idea of “imagined communities”, this study looks at how communities that do not emerge from face-to-face interactions but from interactions enabled by communication technologies (the printing press at the time of Anderson’s conceptualization- Computer mediated technology today), foster a sense of belonging to a given group. Another, more linguistic perspective of “imagined communities” that this study takes into account, is the one offered by Claire Kramsch (1998). She considers language to have a central role of the formation of “discourse communities”
From a New Literacies approach, I also use a broad understanding of literacy which includes modes of meaning-making that go beyond the textual.
3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry:
This paper analyses cross-linguistic interactions on the Social Networking Site Facebook for posts that are accompanied by images. In order to obtain a representative sample I will initially conduct a survey in which I will ask about people’s use of Facebook. I will then proceed to conducting interviews and recording inter-linguistic Facebook interactions.
4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials:
In order to collect data, and for proper triangulation of data, surveys, interviews, and participant observation are used in this study. I have access to participants Facebook postings through my own Facebook account. Facebook interactions are recorded as screenshots. In order to protect participants, in addition to making them anonymous,they are also given full access to collected data and results before publication. Institutional Review Board application is in progress and will be reviewed before collection of the data.
5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view:
Results include user attitudes and reactions towards contents posted in other languages.
6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work: Very few studies have been conducted on cross-linguistic interactions on social networking sites. As the percentage of user-generated content in languages other than English continues to increase, the paradigm of culture as locally based and linguistically determined seems to be challenged. This study explores the dynamics allowed by multimodal communication, and its implications in the formation of ‘imagined communities’.

Author

• Anna C Conover, Teachers College, Columbia University