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A multimodal analysis of the online translanguaging practices of international students studying Chinese in a Chinese university

  • Jian Tao ORCID logo , Ke Zhao ORCID logo EMAIL logo and Wenjuan Dong
Published/Copyright: November 10, 2022
Applied Linguistics Review
From the journal Applied Linguistics Review Volume 15 Issue 4

Abstract

Previous research has recognised the value of translanguaging in Chinese language teaching but has focused primarily on using English as the medium of instruction. However, teachers and students may not share a common language with which to communicate in a multilingual class, which is a significant challenge in Chinese learning and teaching. This study incorporates translanguaging into the pedagogical design by implementing a translanguaging-based task, perceiving Chinese learners as creative agents orchestrating numerous semiotic resources in meaning-making. The participants were a cohort of beginner-level Chinese learners with diverse ethnolinguistic backgrounds taking an online Chinese course at a Chinese university. Data sources included the participants’ video-recorded oral presentations and their reflective journals. Drawing on social semiotic theory, analysis of the video recordings shows that the learners moved creatively between modalities (written and spoken, visual and auditory, gesture and drawing) that worked together as an assemblage to make meaning beyond their linguistic capacity while ensuring audience comprehension. The reflective journals, however, reveal ambivalent attitudes: using multilingual resources eased concerns about the audience’s reception of the participants’ meaning-making, but also generated guilt among the participants. Based on these findings, this study argues for the transformative power of translanguaging-based pedagogy and highlights the communicative affordance of semiotic resources including cultural artefacts and knowledge. The pedagogical implications of designing translanguaging-based tasks in the teaching of Chinese and other Asian languages are discussed.

Keywords: Chinese as a foreign language; multimodality; translanguaging-based pedagogy; translanguaging space
Corresponding author: Ke Zhao, School of Foreign Studies, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China, E-mail:

Funding source: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics

Award Identifier / Grant number: 2020110925

Appendix A: Transcription convention

[ ] translation
( ) Non-linguistic signs
(2″) Measured pause
underline Emphatic stress
. End of intonation unit

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Received: 2022-09-29
Accepted: 2022-10-17
Published Online: 2022-11-10
Published in Print: 2024-07-26

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Special Issue: Power, Linguistic Discrimination and Inequality in English Language Teaching and Learning (ELTL): Reflection and Reform for Applied Linguistics from the Global South; Guest Editors: Fan Gabriel Fang and Sender Dovchin
  3. Editorial
  4. Reflection and reform of applied linguistics from the Global South: power and inequality in English users from the Global South
  5. Research Articles
  6. Translingual English discrimination: loss of academic sense of belonging, the hiring order of things, and students from the Global South
  7. Applied linguistics from the Global South: way forward to linguistic equality and social justice
  8. English high-stakes testing and constructing the ‘international’ in Kazakhstan and Mongolia
  9. The mundanity of translanguaging and Aboriginal identity in Australia
  10. Multimodal or multilingual? Native English teachers’ engagement with translanguaging in Hong Kong TESOL classrooms
  11. Epistemic injustice and neoliberal imaginations in English as a medium of instruction (EMI) policy
  12. Commentary
  13. Transidiomatic favela: language resources and embodied resistance in Brazilian and South African peripheries
  14. Special Issue: Translanguaging Outside the Centre: Perspectives from Chinese Language Teaching; Guest Editor: Danping Wang
  15. Editorial
  16. Translanguaging outside the centre: perspectives from Chinese language teaching
  17. Research Articles
  18. Translanguaging as a decolonising approach: students’ perspectives towards integrating Indigenous epistemology in language teaching
  19. Translanguaging as sociolinguistic infrastructuring to foster epistemic justice in international Chinese-medium-instruction degree programs in China
  20. Translanguaging as a pedagogy: exploring the use of teachers’ and students’ bilingual repertoires in Chinese language education
  21. A think-aloud method of investigating translanguaging strategies in learning Chinese characters
  22. Translanguaging pedagogies in developing morphological awareness: the case of Japanese students learning Chinese in China
  23. Facilitating learners’ participation through classroom translanguaging: comparing a translanguaging classroom and a monolingual classroom in Chinese language teaching
  24. A multimodal analysis of the online translanguaging practices of international students studying Chinese in a Chinese university
  25. Special Issue: Research Synthesis in Language Learning and Teaching; Guest Editors: Sin Wang Chong, Melissa Bond and Hamish Chalmers
  26. Editorial
  27. Opening the methodological black box of research synthesis in language education: where are we now and where are we heading?
  28. Research Article
  29. A typology of secondary research in Applied Linguistics
  30. Review Articles
  31. A scientometric analysis of applied linguistics research (1970–2022): methodology and future directions
  32. A systematic review of meta-analyses in second language research: current practices, issues, and recommendations
  33. Research Article
  34. Topics, publication patterns, and reporting quality in systematic reviews in language education. Lessons from the international database of education systematic reviews (IDESR)
  35. Review Article
  36. Bilingual education in China: a qualitative synthesis of research on models and perceptions
  37. Regular Issue Articles
  38. An interactional approach to speech acts for applied linguistics
  39. “Church is like a mini Korea”: the potential of migrant religious organisations for promoting heritage language maintenance
https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2022-0139
Keywords for this article
Chinese as a foreign language; multimodality; translanguaging-based pedagogy; translanguaging space

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Special Issue: Power, Linguistic Discrimination and Inequality in English Language Teaching and Learning (ELTL): Reflection and Reform for Applied Linguistics from the Global South; Guest Editors: Fan Gabriel Fang and Sender Dovchin
  3. Editorial
  4. Reflection and reform of applied linguistics from the Global South: power and inequality in English users from the Global South
  5. Research Articles
  6. Translingual English discrimination: loss of academic sense of belonging, the hiring order of things, and students from the Global South
  7. Applied linguistics from the Global South: way forward to linguistic equality and social justice
  8. English high-stakes testing and constructing the ‘international’ in Kazakhstan and Mongolia
  9. The mundanity of translanguaging and Aboriginal identity in Australia
  10. Multimodal or multilingual? Native English teachers’ engagement with translanguaging in Hong Kong TESOL classrooms
  11. Epistemic injustice and neoliberal imaginations in English as a medium of instruction (EMI) policy
  12. Commentary
  13. Transidiomatic favela: language resources and embodied resistance in Brazilian and South African peripheries
  14. Special Issue: Translanguaging Outside the Centre: Perspectives from Chinese Language Teaching; Guest Editor: Danping Wang
  15. Editorial
  16. Translanguaging outside the centre: perspectives from Chinese language teaching
  17. Research Articles
  18. Translanguaging as a decolonising approach: students’ perspectives towards integrating Indigenous epistemology in language teaching
  19. Translanguaging as sociolinguistic infrastructuring to foster epistemic justice in international Chinese-medium-instruction degree programs in China
  20. Translanguaging as a pedagogy: exploring the use of teachers’ and students’ bilingual repertoires in Chinese language education
  21. A think-aloud method of investigating translanguaging strategies in learning Chinese characters
  22. Translanguaging pedagogies in developing morphological awareness: the case of Japanese students learning Chinese in China
  23. Facilitating learners’ participation through classroom translanguaging: comparing a translanguaging classroom and a monolingual classroom in Chinese language teaching
  24. A multimodal analysis of the online translanguaging practices of international students studying Chinese in a Chinese university
  25. Special Issue: Research Synthesis in Language Learning and Teaching; Guest Editors: Sin Wang Chong, Melissa Bond and Hamish Chalmers
  26. Editorial
  27. Opening the methodological black box of research synthesis in language education: where are we now and where are we heading?
  28. Research Article
  29. A typology of secondary research in Applied Linguistics
  30. Review Articles
  31. A scientometric analysis of applied linguistics research (1970–2022): methodology and future directions
  32. A systematic review of meta-analyses in second language research: current practices, issues, and recommendations
  33. Research Article
  34. Topics, publication patterns, and reporting quality in systematic reviews in language education. Lessons from the international database of education systematic reviews (IDESR)
  35. Review Article
  36. Bilingual education in China: a qualitative synthesis of research on models and perceptions
  37. Regular Issue Articles
  38. An interactional approach to speech acts for applied linguistics
  39. “Church is like a mini Korea”: the potential of migrant religious organisations for promoting heritage language maintenance
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