Digital Literacies and Socio-Emotional Learning: A Multimodal Approach to French Foreign Language Instruction

• In Event: What's in a Name? Notions of L2 Instruction Across Languages

Abstract

This study examined socioemotional learning in an intermediate, public high school French classroom (n=22) in the Southwest. It tracked students’ learning as they engaged in multimodal composing as a response to a piece of francophone literature. Methods draw upon social semiotics theory (Halliday, 1978; Kress, 2003), which is based on the assumption that various modes are integral in communication (Jewitt, 2009; Kress, 2003, 2010). Specifically, this theory provides a lens for understanding the nuanced and complex ways modes were orchestrated to create a multimodal message framed as a simulated Instagram post. Students were asked to read a francophone story and create an Instagram post using a template from one of the characters’ points of view. As students created these multimodal products, they were challenged to use French to express themselves in a form that was familiar and common to their social interactions outside of school. Data sources included students’ completed posts (which integrated a profile name and picture, an image, a caption and hashtags) and students’ reflections about the creation processes. Content analysis of students’ work applied an adapted four resources model (Freebody & Luke 1990) to examine intersemiotic meaning (multiple meanings represented by a combination of modes), language expression, and perspective taking. Results suggest that two aspects of socioemotional learning, specifically empathy and humour, encouraged overcoming language anxiety which occurred in the process of creating these posts. Humour was encouraged through the use of Instagram itself which is often typified by humorous posts and by considering the audience’s, that is their classmates’, thoughts and emotions. Empathy was encouraged through the latter as well, and through the activity of taking on another person’s point of view. Furthermore, results showed that this activity deepened students’ engagement and understanding with the piece of literature, and allowed for increased cultural competence and decreased language anxiety.

Author

• Rachel Floyd, The University of Arizona