Reconceptualizing Semiotic Resources in the Eco-Social System of an Online Language Tutoring Course

• In Event: New Pathways in Multimodal and Multilingual Learning: Moving Beyond Normative Practices

Abstract

Purpose
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 time scales in a complex eco-social system (Author 4, et al., 2020). Author 4 (2018) proposed the concept of trans-semiotizing as an alternative lens to study language teaching and learning. This study adopts these perspectives to re-conceptualize online language teaching, by viewing online language teaching as dynamic meaning-making processes in a complex eco-social system.

Theoretical Framework
Previous research about online teaching usually limits the analysis to focal teaching and learning activities in their specific online environment, leaving other factors such as physical environment and social context unexplored. This study adopts Jay Lemke (2000)’s concept of eco-social system, which expands the scope of analysis to social processes at different time scales and highlights the connectedness afforded by trans-semiotizing practices. This perspective helps to study online teaching in coordination with off-line teaching activities across different platforms, modes of communication as well as take into consideration the constraints and affordances of material in the physical environment.

Methods and Data Sources
All the materials collected as data for analysis are generated from the teaching conducted by the researcher. This study collected 6 different types of data including video recordings of the teaching from 3 camera angles, screen recording of the online teaching), chat logs with the students and administrative staff, public blog posts of the students and the teacher, and the information shared with the teacher by the school at the administrative portal for online teaching. The overall data analysis takes a bottom-up approach. It started with analysis of a particular 90-minute synchronous teaching session to develop analytical strategies which later applied to the rest of the data.

Results
This study reveals that language teaching usually involves a coordination of different types of teaching activities (i.e., synchronous, asynchronous, social media exchanges) and utilization of a wide range of semiotic resources (i.e., voice, social media post, chat app) trans-semiotically. In addition, social information obtained regarding the student’s learning background and the material within the immediacy in the teacher’s physical environment also affect online teaching and should be explored more comprehensively. It is also worth noticing that multiple processes at different time scales across different spatial and virtual environments can influence the teaching and learning activities in a dynamic manner.


Scholarly significance
This study demonstrates how the concept of eco-social system as an alternative theoretical framework contributes to a re-conceptualization of online language teaching as a dynamic, trans-semiotizing and social process, involving activities at different time scales across multiple platforms. This study also showcases the importance of taking these alternative perspectives towards studying online language teaching.

Authors

• Qinghua Chen, Simon Fraser University
  Presenting Author

• Angel Mei Yi Lin, Education University of Hong Kong
  Presenting Author