Integrating semiotic resources in CALL activity designs

Abstract

Grounded in the three-tiered transdisciplinary SLA framework of the Douglas Fir Group (2016), we explore how the concept of ‘semiotic resources’ may be integrated into CALL activity designs. Starting at the macro level, we discuss how language ideology may influence where to situate semiotic resources within initial design considerations. We next move to the meso level, the site of community and social negotiation, to look at how the departmental culture and personal orientation may influence design choices. Our attention then turns to the micro level where we define the roles semiotic resources may play through concepts used in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Moving from theory to practice, we describe how 14 pre-service ESL/EFL teachers in a graduate-level course designed CALL activities. Based on an analysis of their CALL activity designs and research-informed commentaries, we show how students were concerned with designs that highlighted textual aspects of semiotic resources. Such results, not surprisingly, point to the ways macro and meso levels may influence how semiotic resources surface within micro-level activity designs. We conclude by discussing the importance of taking a transdisciplinary approach to promoting language learning as semiotic learning in CALL designs and propose several areas for future research.