Critical semiotic awareness in virtual exchange using digital cultural artefacts

Abstract

Virtual Exchange (VE) is a technology-enabled, people-to-people interaction (EVOLVE, n.d.). It can facilitate the digital-intercultural turn in language education, where multiliteracies is an important pedagogical goal. One key focus of multiliteracies is developing critical semiotic awareness (CSA) through reflections on relations between forms and meanings in contexts of use (Kern, 2015). Despite emerging research on how to foster semiotic awareness in the physical classroom (Lim et al., 2022), our understanding of how language learners construct CSA in VE remains limited. To address this gap, a qualitative case study was designed involving one pair of volunteer higher education language learners in the UK and Saudi Arabia (KSA). Data were collected over a six-week multiliteracies-informed VE, where participants engaged with digital cultural artefacts via videoconferencing. Synchronous video-mediated interactions were analysed using social semiotics. This involved a two-step analysis of: (1) the representation of signifiers on the artefacts participants talked about and (2) how the signifier’s meaning potentials were taken up and/or extended. Findings demonstrated participants’ evaluation of signs as they constructed meanings beyond what is available on the artefacts. We discuss the role of multiliteracies training, digital cultural artefacts, and VE interaction (intercultural communication) in the construction of CSA.