The Analysis of a Model–Task Dyad in Two Settings: Zaplify and Pencil and Paper

This paper examines the added value of a digital tool that constitutes a new model to introduce students to multiplication. Drawing on the theory of semiotic mediation, the semiotic potential of this new model is analysed with respect to the same task that can be solved in two different settings (the digital tool and pencil and paper). The analysis shows that the task solutions undergo significant changes depending on to the technological settings. Even though the end product of the model–task dyads might look the same in both settings, the product emerges from the different processes that would mediate quite different meanings for multiplication. This suggests that while designing tasks that involve mathematical models, rather than focusing only on the end product, considering the whole process would reveal the extensive potential meanings the model–task dyad can mediate.

Conclusion

Using a cooking program viewing event, the conclusion reiterates how Moroccan sociality was calibrated through everyday talk about media and language. Just as a tagine (Moroccan stew and the clay pot in which it is cooked) has become a model or emblem of Moroccanness, and there are many ways and ingredients to make a tagine recognized as Moroccan, so too are there varied ways of relating semiotic mediation to Moroccanness. Fassis mobilized their heightened awareness and concern about channel/medium failures to do all kinds of uncoordinated political participation and sociality work, the phatic labor of Moroccanness.

Acquisition of artistic literacy in multimodal learning via intersemiotic translation

The topic of teaching competence in artistic perception in school curricula has been investigated in the fields of education (Kindelan 2012), psychology (Vygotsky 1991), and semiotics (Ojamaa et al. 2019). Previous scholarship emphasizes the need to offer learners the opportunity to develop meaning-making abilities concerning different types of artistic texts. They also emphasized the educational value of establishing communication with and by means of such texts. This paper argues the educational value of acquiring artistic literacy in school education in the context of digital culture. We consider this acquisition process as the development of meaning-making abilities in relation to artistic texts and fostering learners’ ability to use artistic literacy as a symbolic psychological tool (Vygotsky 1978). We address this question by accentuating the role of semiotic mediation of artistic literacy. At the same time, we argue that artistic literacy acquisition can be established through intersemiotic translation among various multimodal artistic texts. In a practical sense, the paper attempts to develop a methodological framework for acquiring artistic literacy, conceptualized in terms of contemporary educational skills and competences. This paper also analyses the process of acquiring artistic literacy in relation to mediation in learning, the representation of texts, artistic work, and educational assessment. The analysis keeps account of the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic school framework and Lev Vygotsky’s theoretical framework, especially in addressing artistic work in education (Vygotsky 1971, 1978, 1991).

Culture in Language and Cognition

This Handbook chapter provides an overview of the interdisciplinary field of language, cognition and culture. The chapter explores the historical background of research from anthropological, psychological and linguistic perspectives. The key concepts of linguistic relativity, semiotic mediation and extended embodiment are explored and the field of cultural linguistics is outlined. Research methods are critically described. The state of the art in the key research topics of colour, space and time, and self and identities is outlined.

INTERACTIVE TOOLS FOR LINEAR ALGEBRA: GEOUNIUD

GeoUniud is a user-friendly platform built-in interactive tutors which allow students to investigate specific tasks by selecting their own input values and working through a problem in a step-by-step fashion together with immediate feedback at each step. Lessons and exercises are stored and organized with a careful use of randomized controlled contents as exercises, geometrical pictures and abstract reasoning. The lessons are augmented by a virtually infinite collection of examples, and by interactive representations of concepts. As example we show the design of two interactive tools about linear transformation and change of basis in order to develop students’ sense-making in a dynamic geometry environment (DGE) within the perspective of semiotic mediation.

The Multimodal Mediation of Knowledge: Instructors’ Explanations in a Scientific Café

In this paper, we present an in depth study of the interplay between various semiotic modes in the specific instructional setting of a scientific café. We analyzed the multimodal performance of five female instructors delivering a monologue explanation during instruction on the following dimensions: speech, gesture (hand gestures, head orientation and gaze) and use of written didactical material. Results first point out the crucial role played by referential hand gesture together with gaze-body behavior both in representing new concepts (conceptual mediation) and in building bridges between information displayed in several modes (semiotic mediation). They also show cross-individual differences in instructors’ multimodal performance, that we propose to interpret as three diverse modes of mediating knowledge, guiding being the only one providing both conceptual and semiotic mediation.

Navigating a multimodal ensemble: Learners mediating verbal and non-verbal turns in online interaction tasks

Research into the multimodal aspects of language is increasingly important as communication through a screen plays a greater role in modern society than ever before (Liou, 2011). Multimodality has been explored from a number of angles relating to computer-mediated communication (CMC), such as its affordances and impact on language learners, highlighting its relevance and importance in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). Because CMC scenarios require attending to both peers and the screen, learners can be seen as positioned as “semiotic initiators and responders” (Coffin & Donohue, 2014). Increasingly, researchers are highlighting a need for a methodological “turn” to analyse this scenario from a “language” focus to a more holistic understanding of the interactions (Flewitt, 2008; Hampel & Hauck, 2006; Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001; Lamy, 2006). Along these lines, this case study explores how the action of task completion is mediated between six dyads (and individuals within the dyads) during an online peer-to-peer audioconferencing event. Drawing on notions from multimodal (inter)actional analysis (Norris, 2004, 2006) and the notion of “semiotic initiators and responders”, it investigates semiotic mediation with screen-based resources through analysis of audio recordings, screenshots, log files, task simulation and reconstruction. Results highlight oral and screen-based initiations and responses that take place during task completion, which is presented as a framework.