"Representational Practices and Multimodal Communication" - Linda Harklau

Harklau, Linda. “Representational Practices and Multi-modal Communication in U.S. High Schools: Implications for Adolescent Immigrants.” Language Socialization in Bilingual and Multilingual Societies. Eds. Robert Bayley & Sandra Schecter. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 2003. 83-97.

Harklau writes that "representations are to some extent an inevitable artifact of human meaning-making processes, and are generated in the context of institutional and societal discourses" (95-96).  While impossible to eliminate, representations have real impacts on students' identities and socialization and should therefore be recognized and interrogated for these effects to highlight individual agency for students in situations that position them at a disadvantage.

In her study of students in US high schools, representations from broader discourses included the following:

• colorblind representation- apolitical, students can develop unmarked identities
• "Ellis Island" mythological represenation- noble other
• linguistic deficit representation - off targeted standard, cognitive deficit

She also showed how multimodal communication practices lead to multiple & conflicting forms of socialization.  For example, during students and teachers' interaction, colorblind representations tended to be more common in face-to-face interaction, while "Ellis Island" representations tended to be encouraged and provided during written interaction.  Different types of socialization took place in advanced (parallel and coordinated modes) vs. remedial classes (redundant modes). 

This article brings more focus on the multi-modal resources of Harklau's study that was previously included in Second Language Writing.  It once again creates a strong connection between societal/institutional discourse, and student identities/representations.

"Writing in Multimodal Texts" - Jeff Bezemer & Gunther Kress

Bezemer, Jeff and Gunther Kress. "Writing in Multimodal Texts: A Social Semiotic Account of Designs for Learning." Written Communication 25.2 (2008): 166-195.

The authors provide conceptual/analytical tools by defining mode as "a socially and culturally shaped resource for making meaning" and medium as "the substance in and through which meaning is instantiated/realized and through which meaning becomes available to others" (171-172).  Both mode and medium have potential and constraints on what can be communicated in what ways by sign makers with texts seen as complex signs.  They also identify the processes of translation in general as important social actions for multimodal composition with transduction as change across modes and transformation as changes within a mode. These changes require epistemological commitments as well as (re-)contextual selection, arrangement, foregrounding and social (re-)positioning.  They use examples from classroom resources over time including representations of measuring angles with protractors, and the digestive system to illustrate how these conceptual/analytical tools can be useful.

 #multimodal

"Remix Culture & English Language Teaching" - Christoph Hafner

Hafner, Christoph A. "Remix Culture and English Language Teaching: The Expression of Learner Voice in Digital Multimodal Compositions." TESOL Quarterly 49.3 (486-509). 15 Sep 2015. Web. 2 Aug 2016.

Like Gries, Hafner identifies remix culture (and remix as a legitimate literacy strategy) as significant to multimodal composition and identifies four main remix processes that are part of multimodal composition: chunking, layering, blending, and intercultural blending.  He uses the example of a scientific video project in Hong Kong to investigate the impact of remixing on voice in multimodal composition.  His theoretical model is provided below:

 Crucially, Hafner also identifies "voice" according to Bakhtin as multiple, but as a coherent or cohesive persona that may be sensed behind a text that may exist only for that specific text, which averts the problems with cultural conception/metaphor of voice that Ramanathan and Atkinson raised in the Second Language Writing book.  The contribution he sees in this theoretical model is helping students gain awareness of the range of resources available to them.  The benefits of multimodal composition is a wider range of subject positions (and typified voices) while the risks involve lack of coherence.

"English has a New Preposition, Because Internet" - Megan Garber

Garber, Megan. "English has a New Preposition, Because Internet." The Atlantic. 19 Nov 2013. Web. 1 Aug 2016.

This article shows an example of a grammatical process as flexible and sensitive to context, medium, and exigence (my vocabulary, not the author's, since Garber has translated linguistic researchers for a popular audience).  She shows how the word 'because' as a subordinating conjunction usually takes a clause or verb phrase as its object, but it has been increasingly used with a noun phrase object, possibly related to its connection with use in memes, but definitely as a "by the internet, for the internet" type of language development.  She further points out that it is a way to "[make] grand and yet ironized claims, announcing a situation and commenting on that situation at the same time."  I have personally heard this usage from a friend when a movie plot doesn't make sense.  She'll be explaining the plot and then say something along the lines of the following: "Because... reasons!"