Sociotechnical structures, materialist semiotics, and online language learning

Files

27_02_10125-73502.pdf (442.2 KB)

Date

2023-02-13

Authors

Contributor

Advisor

Department

Instructor

Depositor

Speaker

Researcher

Consultant

Interviewer

Narrator

Transcriber

Annotator

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center
Center for Language & Technology

Volume

27

Number/Issue

2

Starting Page

28

Ending Page

45

Alternative Title

Abstract

Based on a study of the digital literacy practices of immigrant Filipino students in Vancouver, this paper focuses on how learners with unequal access to resources engage with different tools to locate information and find opportunities for language learning online. Data was collected through interviews and observations of participants as they used YouTube, Google Search, and Google Translate to decode unfamiliar words and find resources for learning. Framed through a materialist semiotic lens, this study examined how the students negotiated their resources on these platforms to achieve different intentions. Findings show that the way learners navigate these spaces can vary based on the devices they use (laptop vs. mobile phone), the user interface (browser vs. app), and the orientation they choose (landscape vs. portrait). The material dimensions of the screen determine the arrangement of semiotic forms, and varying configurations of devices, interfaces, and orientations shape the information made available to the learner and the digital literacy practices of scrolling, clicking, and shifting tabs. Recognizing how the online environment of a platform can shift across these layers of mediation, this paper conceptualizes the linguistic and semiotic forms that constitute design as sociotechnical structures which provide various learning affordances and constraints.

Description

Keywords

Digital Literacy, Materiality, Semiotics, Equity

Citation

Darvin, R. (2023). Sociotechnical structures, materialist semiotics, and online language learning. Language Learning & Technology, 27(2), 28–45. https://hdl.handle.net/10125/73502

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/10125/73502

Extent

Format

Geographic Location

Time Period

Related To

Related To (URI)

Table of Contents

Rights

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

Rights Holder

Local Contexts

Collections

Volume 27 Number 2, February 2023 Special Issue: Semiotics in CALL
Email libraryada-l@lists.hawaii.edu if you need this content in ADA-compliant format.