Multilingualism, Translanguaging and Multimodality in Language Learning: A case study of self-directed Chinese learning

Online language learning platforms are now highly popular. These platforms allow learners to learn a new language in an unprecedented way. Not only are language learners not bounded by place and time, they are now able to make learning decisions by themselves by drawing on their own learning resource – their multilingual and multimodal repertoires. While the role of multilingualism to language learning has already been widely discussed in the literature (e.g. García & Li Wei, 2014; Blommaert & Backus, 2013; Cenoz, 2013), more empirical research is needed to show how languages and other semiotic resources act as resources for language learning in different kinds of language learning contexts. This presentation reports on how two multilingual, English-speaking learners used their repertoires to learn Chinese characters in an online, self-directed context. Through the use of screen-recording and semi-structured interviews, I produce detailed accounts of the process of how learners made use of their repertoires and materials created by other learners to design multimodal texts that serve pedagogical purposes, which are then shared with other learners in the online learning community. Through analysing these multimodal texts, I illustrate how the online language learning platform provides a “translanguaging space” (Li Wei, 2011) for multilingual learners to learn Chinese characters by creating multimodal texts. These texts not only go between different linguistic structures and systems, but also transcend them. Furthermore, by incorporating frameworks of social semiotic multimodality and translanguaging to analyse online language learning, this study aims to show how a multiperspectival approach can be used to research language learning which is increasingly multilingual and multimodal in nature.