Background: With a growing new materialism paradigm and research on multimodality, there is an increasing attention on the role of material objects in science teaching and learning. However, there is currently no available framework, coding scheme, or method of inquiry to specifically analyze the use of material objects in science meaning-making.…

Background: Science teaching and learning, as discursive practices, occur through the utilization of various semiotic modes. Gestures play a pivotal role as an embodied mode that acts in conjunction with speech in oral communication settings, such as classrooms. Previous research on gestures in chemistry and science education has illuminated how…

Teaching and learning in science disciplines are dependent on multimodal communication. Earlier research implies that students may be challenged when trying to interpret and use different semiotic resources. There have been calls for extensive frameworks that enable analysis of multimodal texts in science education. In this study, we combine…

Recent research has focused on innovative instructional shifts that aim to expand what constitutes science and engineering practices, exploring also how they can build on students' diverse language resources in science learning. However, few studies explore the intersections of elementary teacher preparation and the implementation of science and…

Translanguaging and codeswitching are frequently employed in second/foreign language classrooms. Though the differences between these two practices have been examined from a conceptual perspective, the potential of translanguaging as a pedagogical resource has not been empirically addressed. This article opens with a concise comparison of…

Classroom communication is increasingly accepted as multimodal, through the orchestrated use of different semiotic modes, resources, and systems. There is growing interest in examining the meaning-making potential of other modes (e.g., gestural, visual, kinesthetic) beyond the semiotic mode of language, in classroom communication and in student…

Materials use is a critical yet poorly understood dynamic of language classrooms. This study examines 'materials-in-action,' meaning how materials shape classroom interaction and activity, in a beginning-level French-as-a-foreign-language classroom. The conceptual framework, 'pedagogical ergonomics,' similarly centers on materials-in-action, and…

Effective arts learning requires the development of important literacies. While investigation of discipline-specific literacies has filtered the literature, it is unclear if these literacies are acknowledged, understood, and/or taught. In this paper, we share the classroom discourse of two arts teachers in early and middle years across visual art…

"Multimodal Signs of Learning" proposes a methodology to uncover evidence of learning in students' multimodal compositions. Informed by social semiotic theory, the book tracks representation of subject content from physical and embodied teaching resources to students' handmade artefacts and physical presentations. Using materials from…

This chapter examines video-recorded peer interactions in one primary Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) maths classroom in Barcelona (Spain) from the perspective of facework (Goffman E, Interaction ritual: essays on face-to-face behaviour. Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1967). It aims to identify and describe how participants establish and…

Efforts to decolonise foreign/English language teaching involve recognising the importance of diverse meaning-making resources rooted in speakers' socio-cultural realities, traditions, and values alongside English practices. This focus highlights the value of multicultural and multilingual environments, particularly in dominant English-speaking…

This study explores teachers' perceptions and practices about the translanguaging approach in CLIL elementary and secondary school contexts in Taiwan. It first investigates 422 in-service teachers' perspectives toward teachers' and students' use of (1) a native language; (2) non-verbal behaviors; and (3) other meaning-making signs in the language…

This essay explores the way that the social interactions of the classroom play a role in shaping sign production. It examines the talk of one second year Advanced Level English literature class in North London during their study of John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" through the lens of Volosinov's theories of language. It seeks to…

This article drew on the recent dynamic, distributed view of "translanguaging and flows" and the New Materiality view of meaning making to explore content and language integrated learning (CLIL) activities in an English-Medium-Instruction (EMI) secondary Science classroom. Fine-grained analysis of the multilingual and multimodal…

This paper reports on combining semiotic and discursive approaches to reification in classroom interactions. It focuses on the discursive characteristics and semiotic processes involved in the teaching and learning of square roots in a ninth grade classroom in Japan. The purpose of this study is to characterize the development of mathematical…