Abstract
When people draw on the available modal resources (e.g. gestures) in specific contexts over time, those resources come to display regularities. The more a community uses and regulates those resources, the more fully and finely articulated their regularities and patterns become. Modes, organised by regular means of representation, are constantly transformed by users, depending on what the community needs. This paper discusses the way semiotic resources and practices, i.e. social actions with a history, used by sign language signers in visually oriented communities, as well as the research in such domains, have been marginalised. The paper reflects some of the main reasons for such marginalisation and argues how marginalisation is a result of some crucial misunderstandings in relation to (signed) languages, language learning, deafness, and disability. Research into human interaction, in general, has taken a multimodal turn. This paper suggests, through practical examples, how multimodally oriented research could enrich its view by recognising communication-practices inside visually oriented domains, as well as research in the area, instead of considering D/deaf and sign language related research as a specialised area of research.
About the author
Elina Tapio is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä, the Department of Languages, the Sign Language Centre. She is teaching curriculum courses and doing ethnographic research on signed interaction with a particular interest on space, multimodality, and multilingualism.
Acknowledgements
This paper builds on the findings of my PhD research A nexus analysis of English in the everyday life of FinSL signers – a multimodal view on interaction (Tapio 2013). The project was affiliated with both the University of Oulu, Faculty of Humanities as part of the Multimodal action and interaction in networked learning and work (MAILL) research project, and the University of Jyväskylä, Department of Languages, Sign Language Centre. Supports from various institutions are acknowledged in Tapio (2013). I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on the previous version of this article and the Multimodal Research Centre for providing an inspirational environment for writing.
References
Agar, M. (1995). Ethnography. In: Handbook of Pragmatics, J.Verschueren, J.Östman, and J.Blommaert (Eds.), 583–590. Amsterdam: Benjamins.10.1075/hop.m.eth3Search in Google Scholar
Bagga-Gupta, S. (1999). Visual language environments. Exploring everyday life and literacies in Swedish Deaf bilingual schools. Visual Anthropology Review, 15(2):95–120.Search in Google Scholar
Bagga-Gupta, S. (2004). Visually oriented language use: discursive and technological resources in Swedish deaf pedagogical arenas. In: To the Lexicon and Beyond: Sociolinguistics in European Deaf Communities, M. V.Herreweghe and M.Vermeerbergen (Eds.), 171–207. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Bagga-Gupta, S. (2007). Aspects of diversity, inclusion and democracy within education and research. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 51(1):1–22.Search in Google Scholar
Bauman, H. L. (2008a). Introduction: listening to deaf studies. In: Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking, H. L.Bauman (Ed.), 1–32. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Search in Google Scholar
Bauman, H. L. (Ed.). (2008b). Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Search in Google Scholar
Blommaert, J., and Rampton, B. (2011). Language and superdiversity. www.unesco.org/shs/diversities/vol13/issue2/art1edn.UNESCOSearch in Google Scholar
Corballis, M. C. (2002). From hand to mouth: The origins of language. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9780691221731Search in Google Scholar
Davis, L. J. (1995). Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness, and the Body. London: Verso.Search in Google Scholar
Davis, L. J. (2008). Postdeafness. In: Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking, H. L.Bauman (Ed.), 314–325. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Search in Google Scholar
Dufva, H. (2010). Reclaiming the mind. Dialogism, language learning and the importance of considering cognition. In: Proceedings from the Second International Interdisciplinary Conference on Perspectives and Limits of Dialogism, M.Bakhtin, K.Junefelt, and P.Nordin (Eds.), 41–48. Stockholm: Stockholm University.Search in Google Scholar
Dufva, H. (2013). Language learning as dialogue and participation. In: Problem-Based Learning for the 21st Century, E.Christiansen, L.Kuure, A.Mørch and B.Lindström (Eds.), 51–72. Aalborg: Aalborg University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Firth, A. and Wagner, J. (1997). On discourse, communication, and (some) fundamental concepts in SLA research. The Modern Language Journal, 81(3):285–300.Search in Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (2003). Abnormal. New York: Picador.Search in Google Scholar
Goodwin, C. (2000). Action and embodiment within situated human interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 32(10):1489–1522.Search in Google Scholar
Gutiérrez, K., Baquedano-López, P., and Tejeda, C. (1999). Rethinking diversity: hybridity and hybrid language practices in the third space. Mind, Culture and Activity, 6(4):286–303.Search in Google Scholar
Gynne, A., and Bagga-Gupta, S. (2013). Young people’s languaging and social positioning. Chaining in “bilingual” educational settings in Sweden. Linguistics and Education, 24(4):479–496.Search in Google Scholar
Haualand, H. (2008). Sound and belonging: what is a community? In: Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking, H. L.Bauman (Ed.), 111–123. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Search in Google Scholar
Heller, M. (2008). Doing ethnography. In: Guide to Research Methods in Bilingualism and Multilingualism, W.Li and M.Moyer (Eds.), 249–262. Oxford: Blackwell.10.1002/9781444301120.ch14Search in Google Scholar
Humphries, T. and MacDougall, F. (1999). “Chaining” and other links: Making connections between American Sign Language and English in two types of school settings. Visual Anthropology Review, 15(2):84–94.Search in Google Scholar
Iedema, R. (2003). Multimodality, resemiotization: Extending the analysis of discourse as multi-semiotic practice. Visual Communication, 2(1):29–57.Search in Google Scholar
Jewitt, C. (2008). Multimodality and literacy in school classrooms. Review of Research in Education, 32(1):241–267.Search in Google Scholar
Jewitt, C. (2009). The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Jewitt, C. (2013). Multimodality and digital technologies in the classroom. In: Multilingualism and Multimodality. Current Challenges for Educational Studies, I.De Saint-Georges and J.Weber (Eds.), 141–152. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.10.1007/978-94-6209-266-2_8Search in Google Scholar
Johnson, R. E. (2006). Cultural constructs that impede discussion about variability in speech-based educational models for deaf children with cochlear implants. Perspectiva, 24:29–80.Search in Google Scholar
Johnson, R. E., and Liddell, S. K. (2011). Toward a phonetic representation of hand configuration: the fingers. Sign Language Studies, 12(1):5–45.Search in Google Scholar
Jokinen, M. (2001). “The sign language person” – A term to describe us and our future more clearly? In: Looking Forward: EUD in the 3rd Millennium – The Deaf Citizen in the 21st Century, L.Leeson (Ed.), 50–63. Coleford: Maclean.Search in Google Scholar
Kramsch, C. (2002a). Introduction: “How can we tell the dancer from the dance?” In: Language Acquisition and Language Socialization: Ecological Perspectives, C.Kramsch (Ed.), 1–30. London: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar
Kramsch, C. (Ed.). (2002b). Language Acquisition and Language Socialization: Ecological Perspectives. London: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar
Kravchenko, A. V. (2009). The experiential basis of speech and writing as different cognitive domains. Pragmatics and Cognition, 17(3):527–548.Search in Google Scholar
Kress, G., and Van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal Discourse. The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Kuure, L., and McCambridge, E. (2007). Networks and place – A study of online activities in two focus groups. In: Kieli Oppimisessa – Language in Learning. AFinLA Yearbook, O.Salo and T.Nikula (Eds.), 137–155. Publications de l’association finlandaise de linguistique appliquée (AFinLA) 65.Search in Google Scholar
Ladd, P. (2003). Understanding Deaf Culture: in Search of Deafhood. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.10.21832/9781853595479Search in Google Scholar
Lantolf, J. P. (Ed.). (2000). Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Lemke, J. L. (2002). Language development and identity: multiple timescales in the social ecology of learning. In: Language Acquisition and Language Socialization: Ecological Perspectives, C. J.Kramsch (Ed.), 68–87. London: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar
Liddell, S. K., and Johnson, R. E. (1989). American Sign Language: the phonological base. Sign Language Studies, 64:195–277.Search in Google Scholar
Liddell, S. K. (2003). Grammar, gesture, and meaning in American Sign Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511615054Search in Google Scholar
McIlvenny, P. (1995). Seeing conversations: analysing sign language talk. In: Situated Order: Studies in the Social Organisation of Talk and Embodied Activities, P. TenHave and G.Psathas (Eds.). Washington, DC: University Press of America.Search in Google Scholar
McNeill, D. (2012). How Language Began: Gesture and Speech in Human Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139108669Search in Google Scholar
Niederberger, N. (2008). Does the knowledge of a natural sign language facilitate deaf children’s learning to read and write? Insights from French Sign Language and written French data. In: Sign Bilingualism: Language Development, Interaction, and Maintenance in Sign Language Contact Situations, C.Plaza Pust and E.Morales Lo´pez (Eds.), 29–50. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/sibil.38.05nieSearch in Google Scholar
Norris, S. (2004). Analyzing Multimodal Interaction: A Methodological Framework. London: Taylor & Francis Group.10.4324/9780203379493Search in Google Scholar
Padden, C. A., and Gunsauls, D. C. (2003). How the alphabet came to be used in a sign language. Sign Language Studies, 4(1):10–33.Search in Google Scholar
Padden, C., and Humphries, T. (1988). Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture. London: Harvard University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Padden, C. and Ramsey, C. (2000). American sign language and reading ability in deaf children. In: Language Acquisition by Eye, C.Chamberlain, J. P.Morford, and R. I.Mayberrry (Eds.), 165–189. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Search in Google Scholar
Patrie, C. J., and Johnson, R. E. (2011). Fingerspelled Word Recognition Through Rapid Serial Visual Presentation. San Diego, CA: DawnSignPress.Search in Google Scholar
Pennycook, A. (2007). Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Rainò, P. (2001). Mouthings and mouth gestures in Finnish sign language (FinSL). In: The Hands Are the Head of the Mouth, P.Boyes-Braem and R.Sutton-Spence (Eds.), 41–49. Hamburg: Signum-Verlag.Search in Google Scholar
Rainò, P. and Seilola, I. (2008). Matemaattisen diskurssin kielioppia suomalaisessa viittomakielessä. In: Viittomakielisen luokanopettajakoulutuksen 10-vuotisjuhlakirja. Tutkiva Opettaja, Journal of Teacher Researcher, 6:59–65.Search in Google Scholar
Salmi, E. (2010). Linguistic Turns in Teaching of the Deaf in Finland. Helsinki: HUMAK University of Applied Sciences.Search in Google Scholar
Scollon, R. (1998). Mediated Discourse as Social Interaction: A Study of News Discourse. London: Longman.Search in Google Scholar
Scollon, R. (2001). Mediated Discourse: The Nexus of Practice. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Scollon, R. (2008). Discourse itineraries: nine processes of resemiotization. In: Advances in Discourse Studies, V. K.Bhatia, J.Flowerdew, and R. H.Jones (Eds.), 233–244. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Scollon, R. and Scollon, S. W. (2004). Nexus Analysis – Discourse and the Emerging Internet. New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780203694343Search in Google Scholar
Takkinen, R. (2008). Kuvailevat verbit suomalaisessa viittomakielessä. Puhe ja kieli, 28(1):17–40.Search in Google Scholar
Tapio, E. (2013). A Nexus Analysis of English in the Everyday Life of FinSL Signers – A Multimodal View on Interaction. Jyväskylä: Jyväskylä University Printing House.Search in Google Scholar
Tapio, E. (2014). Changing discourses and practices through participatory research “nexus analysis”. In: A paper presented in AILA World Congress 2014, Brisbane, Australia, 10–15 August, 2014.Search in Google Scholar
Tapio, E., and Takkinen, R. (2012). When one of your languages is not recognized as a language at all. In: Dangerous Multilingualism – Northern Perspectives on Order, Purity and Normality, J.Blommaert, S.Leppänen, P.Pahta, and T.Virkkula (Eds.), 284–308. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Search in Google Scholar
Van Leeuwen, T. (2005). Introducing Social Semiotics. London: Taylor & Francis Group.Search in Google Scholar
Van Lier, L. (2000). From input to affordance: social-interactive learning from an ecological perspective. In: Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning, J. P.Lantolf (Ed.), 245–259. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Van Lier, L. (2004). The Ecology and Semiotics of Language Learning: A Sociocultural Perspective. London: Kluwer Academic.10.1007/1-4020-7912-5Search in Google Scholar
Wertch, J. V. (1991). Voices of the Mind. A Sociocultural Approach to Mediated Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Wilcox, S. (1992). The Phonetics of Fingerspelling. Amsterdam: Benjamins.10.1075/sspcl.4Search in Google Scholar
Zheng, D., and Newgarden, K. (2012). Rethinking language learning: Virtual worlds as a catalyst for change. International Journal of Learning and Media, 3(2):13–36.Search in Google Scholar
©2014 by De Gruyter Mouton