Bridging the digital divide

Abstract

Using Conversation Analysis (CA) and Multimodal Analysis (MMA), this ecological study examined how semiotic modes were employed at an institutional and individual level in order to affect student beliefs about issues of nationalism, culture, and patriotism. The study examined how adolescent Latino/a English Language Learners (ELLs) at two separate middle schools in the Southeastern United States negotiated the affordances of an electronic environment as they wrote in the target language (TL) of English to one another online. The study particularly investigated how the interactions and metalanguage around online posts affected the second language (L2) composition process. Data were collected using participant observation methods over a one-year period, digital video and audio recordings of participant interactions, digital images, archival, and interview data. Participant talk, modal communication, and interviews were transcribed and analyzed using CA and MMA methods. Three major findings included: a) the intentional deployment of semiotic means by the school to influence student beliefs about patriotism, nationalism, culture, and societal ideologies, b) the way that the use of gesture as a mediator in second language learning shifted as a result of a shift from text-based knowledge to the abstract concepts inherent in online writing, and 3) the role of metalanguage in online second language (L2) writing in the second language classroom. Using ecological theory, social semiotic analysis, and visual cultural studies the analysis of the school ecology showed how nation-state ideologies were transmitted through semiotic signification systems creating a specific cultural and political ecology through the use of school banners, signs, dress code, colors, and other regalia. Using social semiotic theory and system functional linguistics the analysis of participant metalanguage around the L2 composition of online posts revealed how transnational ELLs resisted the hegemonic stance sanctioned by the school and posited through teacher-student interactions. Analysis also showed the importance of maintaining tacit approval of one bilingual, technological proficient, Latino student who acted as unofficial peer- and teacher liaison in navigating classroom and technological discourses. Finally, the findings for this study had significant implications on issues of technological access and the school’s role in bridging the digital divide for Latino ELLs, the need for more nuanced paradigm shift in the face of transnational ELLs entering U.S. public schools, and the role of semiotic signification systems in the intentional shaping of student beliefs in regard to societal, national, and cultural ideologies.