This paper argues that meaning-making with multimodal representations in science learning is always contextualized within a genre and, conversely, what constitutes an ongoing genre also depends on a multimodal coordination of speech, gesture, diagrams, symbols, and material objects. In social semiotics, a genre is a culturally evolved way of doing…

This study explores the instruction of "equestrian feel" as an interactional accomplishment. Equestrian feel is an embodied knowledge encompassing riders' ability to feel the horse's actions and to act appropriately. Building on ethnomethodological and conversation analytic analyses of video-recordings of riding lessons, we explore how…

Television, like other media, can work as a platform for promoting learning. This article illustrates the value of multimodal discourse analysis for evaluating the potential of a children's television show as a vehicle for fostering knowledge and skills in a specific subject area. Drawing on social semiotic principles and systemic functional genre…

This paper explores the implications of children's out-of-school digital multimodal composing practices on learning and teaching in the formal educational context. It adopts a case study approach where publicly accessible "YouTube" video productions of three children around the world are examined. Applying a multimodal discourse analysis…

The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is defined as an overarching concept that integrates the main tenets of Vygotsky's theory of human development. The conceptualization of the ZPD begins with its social, cultural, and historical context and traces its development as a spatial and temporal metaphor that reflects the sociogenetic root of all…

In this article we examine the nature of inter-semiotic and intermodal construction in the exposition of a solution for a geometry rider. In the tradition of hermeneutic phenomenology, this case study involved an exploration of the oral discourse and visual texts used in a mathematics lesson. This research was intended to contribute to the…

Previous research on classroom interaction in international university contexts tended to focus on individual speakers' language (in)competence. This paper adopts a translanguaging and spatial orientation to intercultural classroom interaction and highlights the role of situated assemblages of linguistic, semiotic and multimodal resources embedded…

In science education research, there is a growing body of studies focusing on the role of multiple representations in pupils' learning. This study is based on a social semiotic perspective and in the analysis, there is a special focus on how the content is conveyed and how relations are created through interaction between teachers/pupils and the…

While translanguaging research has been gaining currency worldwide, calls have been made for deepening its theorisation and providing more systematic pedagogical guidance. To contribute to this discussion, this study is informed by a fluid, distributed, dynamic process view of human meaning-making. Through a fine-grained multimodal analysis of…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the mediational role of gesture and body movement/positioning between a teacher and an English language learner in a second-grade classroom. Responding to Thibault's (2011) call for understanding language through whole-body sense making, aspects of gesture and body positioning were analyzed for…

In literature, several processes have been suggested to describe conceptual changes being undertaken. However, a few parts of studies analyse in great detail which students' learning processes are involved in physics classes during teaching, and how they are used. Following a socio-constructivist approach using tools coming from discourse…

Our argument concerning the debate around the process of "conceptual change" is that it is both an evolutionary learning process and a revolutionary paradigm change. To gain a deeper understanding of the process, the article focuses on the discourse of educational facilitators participating in a community of learners. Applying the methodology of…

This paper examines the relation between bodily actions, artifact-mediated activities, and semiotic processes that students experience while producing and interpreting graphs of two-dimensional motion in the plane. We designed a technology-based setting that enabled students to engage in embodied semiotic activities and experience two modes of…

This study aims to investigate the role of mediation in the learning process from a sociocultural perspective, activity theory in particular. This study was carried out in a primary English immersion school within the CCUEI Programs in Mainland China. Data were collected mainly through observations and interviews, which were then supplemented by…

Summarizes content analyses of verbatim transcripts of secondary chemistry lessons. Finds that the use of words with a metacognitive and metalinguistic function was generally limited in extent and simple and colloquial in expression and that the language of the enacted curriculum did not match the terminology of the official curriculum document.…