Weninger, Csilla

This paper introduces a Peircean semiotic approach to analysing the cultural content of EFL textbook materials. It argues that while traditional content analyses may provide valuable insights, they fail to provide a comprehensive picture of the cultural meaning potential of textbooks since they ignore a key element: how language learners interact with texts and visuals imbedded in the framework of a pedagogic task. We demonstrate how cultural meanings can emerge through processes of unguided semiosis, supported by sharing and reflection in a complex, non-linear and essentially dynamic learning environment. For this to happen, however, teachers may need to reconsider their current approaches to teaching culture, embrace complexity, and allow order to emerge from chaos in their classrooms. The paper suggests that collaboratively negotiated and shared (re)presentations of cultural meaning contribute to the development of the learners’ global cultural awareness and prepares them for intercultural citizenship in our globalized world.

We report on the Phase 2 research activities and findings of the NIE/OER Educational Research Funding Programme and MOE CORE 3 project titled 'Integrating Multiliteracies into the English Language Classroom'. The project has two Phases: Phase 1 from March 2019 to December 2019 and Phase 2 from January 2020 to December 2021.

The purpose of this project is first to understand how multiliteracies, specifically multimodal literacy, are currently taught in the English Language subject classroom in Singapore schools and then second, to develop an instructional approach, informed by Systemic Functional Theory, multiliteracies, and multimodality studies, to teach multimodal literacy for upper primary and lower secondary students.

The study adopts a design-based research approach which involved the team of researchers working closely with the teacher-participants in the co-design of lesson packages. The goal of design-based research is to develop contextually-sensitive pedagogical practices and instructional strategies with a focus on the teacherparticipants’ professional learning and growth in the process.

This study's goal is to explore how secondary school English teachers in Singapore develop 21st century competencies in their lessons. Specifically, the research project has two key objectives: 1) to explore how secondary English language teachers in Singapore facilitate their learners' acquisition of cross-cultural skills in the teaching of writing and representing; 2) to create data-driven principles and strategies for the successful development of cross-cultural skills in the teaching of writing and representing. This research is significant given the introduction of the Framework for 21st Century Competencies and Student Outcomes by the Ministry of Education Singapore (MOE, 2010a, 2010b) which highlights the need to develop skills necessary for living in today's globalized world and in Singapore's multicultural context. Cross-cultural skills are part of the framework's core competencies, along with civic literacy and global awareness, and aim to enable learners to develop a ''broader worldview, and the ability to work with people from diverse cultural backgrounds'' (MOE, 2010a). Interestingly, despite the existence of extensive literature on 21st century skills and intercultural education, empirical research which investigates how teachers work in everyday settings with these concepts is painfully scarce (see e.g. Halualini, 2011). Most published work present conceptual guidelines on how to develop cross-cultural competencies and global awareness. Research that investigates classrooms is therefore lacking and it is this gap that the present research project aims to address. In addition, the results of the project will provide practical, classroom-based guidelines for English language teachers on how to implement the Framework for 21st century Competencies and Student Outcomes and facilitate cross-cultural learning in their lessons. A multi-case study approach is chosen as the methodological framework to gain in-depth understanding of how teachers incorporate (or not) cross-cultural skills in their writing instruction. The case study approach is selected as ''case studies are the preferred method when [...] 'how or why' questions are being posed'' (Yin, 2009, p.2) and they do not require any control, or manipulation, of events and variables within the research context. We define the 'case' as the process of developing cross cultural skills in a unit of work that primarily aims to teach English writing skills in Singapore Secondary 1 and 2 classrooms. The key figure in the research is the classroom teacher as they are the ones who make decisions that facilitate the process that we explore in our project. Therefore, when selecting cases, we focus on the teacher. Six teachers from three secondary schools will be selected as the participants of the research, based on their teaching experience (minimum three years) and their willingness to participate. The research questions investigate the interplay of three key facets of classroom practice: a) teachers' choice and exploitation of teaching materials to develop cross-cultural skills; b) what teachers actually do in the classroom in terms of strategies and techniques used; and c) teacher cognition, i.e. teachers' thinking and beliefs about developing cross-cultural skills. Data will come from three major sources: 1) teaching materials, including the unit and lesson plans any accompanying materials; 2) lesson observation (video recording and field notes); 3) interviews and focus group discussions with teachers. The key deliverable of the project will be the document 'Principles and strategies for the development of cross-cultural skills in the writing classroom'. This will be disseminated to educators through local workshops and conference presentations. Furthermore, project will lead to a follow-up intervention research project which will see the implementation of the principles and strategies outlined in the document.

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the connections between and across Goffman’s sociological theories of social life and sociolinguistic theories of language use as communicative action. That there should be numerous points of convergence is quite obvious; Goffman’s scholarly attention was focused on the social organization of everyday life, which he conducted largely through detailed explorations of mundane interactional encounters. Sociolinguistics, particularly in the tradition of interactional sociolinguistics and the ethnography of communication, is also centrally concerned with how language use is tied to elements of social organization. In this chapter, we elucidate links between how Goffman and sociolinguistic scholars have approached the study of everyday social behaviour with reference to two aspects of social life that seem central both to (micro)sociology as well as sociolinguistics: selves/identities and situations/contexts. First, we review Goffman’s dramaturgical approach to the study of the social self and link it to how the concept of identity has developed within sociolinguistics as a relational orientation expressed through speakers’ linguistic-semiotic acts. Second, we draw connections between the microsociological concern with situations, Goffman’s development of frame analysis and sociolinguists’ long-standing interest in the significance of context. Our discussion will touch on the scholarly trajectory of these concepts in microsociology and sociolinguistics and draw out similarities and differences among them. Overall, the chapter will argue that although Goffman maintained a ‘principled refusal’ (Becker 2003:660) to discuss issues of method to guard against inevitable misinterpretations of any proposed approach, sociolinguists in the last four decades have drawn enough inspiration from his theories to develop analytic constructs as well as methodological tools for the empirical study of communicative action.

Drawing on scholarship on affective-discursive practice and employing a critical multimodal analytic approach, this paper examines how an official vaccination campaign video from Singapore affectively engages with audiences through the construction of various social relationships and identities. Analysis of the multimodal images identifies four salient themes in the video: (1) a harmonious neighborhood comprising inter-ethnic friendships, (2) a paternalistic father-child relationship, (3) a male-dominant family model, and (4) a nostalgic past-present relationship. The analysis shows that affect is discursively mobilized in the orchestration of embodied modes, auditory, and visual modes via strategic filming and editing techniques. Based on the analysis, the authors argue that the video not only functions to subtly persuade the public to get vaccinated but should also be seen as part of a broader move toward an ‘affective politics’ which aims to mobilize the public, reinforce social cohesion and manage the global pandemic crisis in contemporary Singapore.