Languaging and translanguaging are very important concepts in science classrooms when considering their role as mediational tools for supporting emergent bilingual students' needs. Languaging, including translanguaging, has to do with how people perceive, connect, and understand the activities and utterances around them through verbal and non-verbal communication in any language. This study positions languaging and translanguaging as mediational tools that can be used for supporting the use of science terms and overcoming second language challenges with them. Emergent bilingual students can benefit from the implementation of languaging characteristics that promote classroom discourse spaces where all their repertoire for responding, and learning can occur. Using a sociocultural-ecological theoretical perspective and mediational analysis, this qualitative study provides descriptive evidence identifying important concepts and characteristics that emerged during languaging and translanguaging moments during naturally occurring classroom discourse among students and teacher. Findings demonstrated that when participants changed their participation and identity roles, extended their talk to negotiate meaning, used background knowledge, and applied language play with the scientific terms (i.e., biology vocabulary), it supported the participants in understanding and using those terms during biology lessons. This study discusses how the above language characteristics, as mediational means during languaging and translanguaging discourse, provided important paths for making meaning of scientific terms. Conclusions and implications include how lessons should provide spaces that welcome such characteristics for their meaningful roles in supporting emergent bilingual students.

This thesis approaches classroom interaction in association with Bakhtin and conversation analysis (CA). The four studies presented in this thesis seek to highlight different aspects of classroom interactional encounters between the students and teachers of a secondary school class. Through these studies, the thesis addresses the following challenges: How can analysts account for ‘multilingual’ communicative practices in a way which respects the views and orientations of the participants? How may dialogism be relevant for classroom interaction? How can we move beyond the representational (in)sufficiency of an oral language focus on (classroom) communication for analysis of human meaning making practices? The studies arise from ethnographic fieldwork at an independent secondary school with a ‘bilingual’ educational profile where data of everyday instructional life was generated through participant observation and video recordings. Methodologically, the studies have been enabled by Bakhtinian concepts and conversation analytic conventions amplified for analysis of the complex range of modalities composing classroom interaction. Study 1 examines the way participants’ use of two (or more) languages in a ‘foreign’ language classroom throw light on each other in processes of lexical orientation which challenge the privileging or the subordination of any one language in language learning. Study 2 demonstrates the consequences for understanding the participants’ sense-making efforts of making representationally (in)visible integral aspects of their multimodal cooperations. Study 3 focuses on whole-class task instructions as interactionally complex by showing some of the mutual orientations through which teacher and students coordinate each other’s stances and consequently craft instructions collaboratively. Study 4 examines the concept of languaging critically in the light of Bakhtin’s penetrating perception of the utterance and underscores that while we may be able to language when communicating, we are also languaged communicators. / <p>The research is a part of Swedish Research Council project LISA-21</p>

The overall aim of the thesis is to examine young people’s languaging, including literacy practices, and its relation to meaning-making and social positioning. Framed by sociocultural and dialogical perspectives, the thesis builds upon four studies that arise from (n)ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two different settings: an institutional educational setting where bilingualism and biculturalism are core values, and social media settings. In the empirical studies, micro-level interactions, practices mediated by languaging and literacies, social positionings and meso-level discourses as well as their intertwinedness have been explored and discussed. The data, analysed through adapted conversational and discourse analytical methods, include video and audio recordings, field notes, pedagogic materials, policy documents, photographs as well as (n)ethnographic data. Study I illuminates the doing of linguistic-cultural ideologies and policies in everyday pedagogical practices and focuses on situated and distributed social actions as nexuses of several practices where a number of locally and nationally relevant discourses circulate.  In Study II, the focus is on everyday communicative practices on the micro and meso levels and the interrelations of different linguistic varieties and modalities in the bilingual-bicultural educational setting. Study III highlights young people’s languaging, including literacies, in everyday learning practices that stretch across formal and informal learning spaces. Study IV examines social positioning and identity work in informal and heteroglossic literacy practices across the offline-online continuum. Consequently, the four studies map the kinds of languaging practices young people are engaged in both inside and outside of what are labelled as bilingual school settings. Furthermore, the studies highlight the kinds of social positions they perform and are oriented towards in the course of their everyday lives. Overall, the findings of the thesis highlight issues of bilingualism as pedagogy and practice, the (un)problematicity of multilingualism across space and time and multilingual-multimodal languaging as a premise for social positioning. Together, the studies and the thesis form a descriptive-analytical illustration of “multilingual” young people’s everyday lives in and out of school in late modern societies of the global North. Overall, the thesis provides insights concerning the education and lives of a large, yet sparsely documented minority group in Sweden, i.e. the Sweden Finns. / Denna avhandling fokuserar på ungdomars språkande, inklusive literacy-praktiker, och dess relation till deras meningsskapande och social positionering. Avhandlingen tar avstamp i sociokulturell och dialogisk teoribildning och bygger på fyra studier som blivit till genom (n)etnografiskt fältarbete i två olika sammanhang: inom en skola där tvåspråkighet och bikulturalitet är viktiga värderingar, och sociala medier. I de empiriska studierna undersöks hur interaktion, språkande och literacy-praktiker och sociala positioneringar görs på mikronivå. Dessa fenomen studeras vidare i anslutning till och som en del av diskurser som drivs på meso-nivå. Avhandlingens data har analyserats med tillämpade samtals- och diskursanalytiska metoder och inkluderar video- och audioinspelningar, fältanteckningar, pedagogiska material, policy-dokumentation, fotografier samt (n)etnografiskt skapad data. I Studie I undersöks hur lingvistisk-kulturella ideologier och policys görs i vardagliga pedagogiska praktiker. Den fokuserar på situerade och distribuerade sociala handlingar som praktiknexus där flera lokalt och nationellt relevanta diskurser cirkulerar. Studie II intresserar sig för vardagliga kommunikativa praktiker på mikro- och meso-nivåer samt för samspelet av språkliga varieteter och modaliteter i den tvåspråkiga-bikulturella skolan. I Studie III studeras ungdomars språkande, inklusive literacies, i vardagliga lärandepraktiker som sträcker sig över tid och rum i formella och informella lärandemiljöer. Studie IV fokuserar på social positionering och identitetsarbete i informella och heteroglossiska literacy-praktiker både offline och online. Tillsammans kartlägger de fyra studierna olika slags språkandepraktiker som ungdomarna deltar i och bidrar till både inom och utanför vad som kallas för tvåspråkiga skolsammanhang. Vidare illustrerar studierna vardagslivets görande av olika slags sociala positioneringar och identitetsperformanser. Resultaten visar på hur tvåspråkigheten i skolans värld kan ses som både pedagogik och praktik, att flerspråkigheten är (o)problematisk för ungdomarna och för skolan och att språkandets karaktär som flerspråkig och multimodal är central för social positionering. Studierna och avhandlingen bildar tillsammans en deskriptiv-analytisk illustration av ”flerspråkiga” ungdomars vardag i och utanför skolan i ett senmodernt nordiskt samhälle. Vidare bidrar avhandlingen till kunskapsbasen gällande utbildningsfrågor och vardag för en av Sveriges nationella minoriteter, sverigefinländare. / LIMCUL / DIMuL

As digital games have grown into a global cultural force during the last few decades, computer-assisted language learning (CALL) researchers and second and foreign language (L2) educators have begun reconsidering games as potential L2 teaching and learning (L2TL) resources (Reinhardt, in press). One particular game genre, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) have gained particular attention among CALL researchers and L2 educators. MMORPGs distinguished themselves from earlier game genres in their ability to allow players to cooperate and compete with each other on a large scale, even around the world. They are perceived to offer the opportunity for a great deal of contextualized interaction in a learner's target language, including interaction with native speakers (Peterson, 2010). Participating in MMORPG playing could promote social-interactional language use (e.g. Peterson, 2012a, 2012b; Rama et al., 2012; Zheng et al. 2012), sometimes even intercultural interactions (e.g. Thorne, 2008), and L2 learner's willingness to communicate (Reinders & Wattana, 2014). In addition to player-to-player communication, the texts embedded in MMORPGs and the texts circulated in the player communities online illustrate multiple genres, complex structures, and features of interactive discourse (Thorne, Fischer & Lu, 2012). MMORPGs seem to present a diverse and linguistically complex environment for L2 learners. However, empirical research on how L2 learners engage with a variety of game discourses in MMORPG playing is still limited. In an attempt to better understand how MMORPG playing can be used to enhance L2TL, this dissertation examines L2 learners' engagement with game discourses within and around a MMORPG. Grounded within an ecological framework of language learning (van Lier, 2004), this dissertation investigates the interaction of game-learner-context through a mixed method approach, including quantitative (e.g. survey) and qualitative (e.g. case study) methods. Through analysis of the languaging patterns of eight ESL learners who played a MMORPG for eight weeks, the study seeks to understand how game mechanics, learner agency, and practices of the player community influence L2 learner-players' engagement with a variety of game discourses. Findings show that these L2 learner-players, with diverse backgrounds in language learning and digital gaming, engaged with a variety of game discourses as they played the MMORPG. Their engagement with game discourses was greatly influenced by the game mechanics and their personal goals in the game. Comparison of the languaging patterns of two learner-players further reveals the individual variations of game-mediated L2 languaging, which can be attributed to learner-player's L2 ability, gaming experience, gaming preference, L2 learner status, and the social norms of the player community. Taken as a whole, the study points to the significance of game-learner-context interplay in shaping game-mediated L2 language learning and use. It has implications for using MMORPGs in L2LT, designing MMORPGs for language learning, and the nascent field of game-mediated L2LT research.

The present research focuses on students' attitudes and preferences towards English language learning at Czech private language schools. In essence, the thesis focuses on unearthing the relationship and attitudes of students towards language mistakes, goals, and creativity. The study approaches language learning from more and less norm-bound perspectives and the English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) paradigm is introduced. In connection with the main focus of the research the intention is also to detect tendencies that could hint at the suitability of integrating knowledge about ELF into English Language Teaching (ELT). To obtain original data from the selected target group I conducted a mixed-method research (a questionnaire survey and in-class observations). The key concepts discussed are: mistakes, learner goals, learner needs, accuracy and language creativity (or 'languaging'). Key words: EFL, ELF, learner goals, accuracy, language creativity, languaging.

O fenômeno metafórico, caro às ciências da linguagem, tem recentemente adentrado também os estudos cognitivos, visto que se tem advogado que a metáfora não ocorre apenas na linguagem, mas constitui processos do pensamento. Argumento aqui que a metaforização articula singularidades que operam na contiguidade entre linguagem e cognição e, nela, na invenção de si e do mundo. Para tanto, um projeto de pesquisa-intervenção foi cartografado, através da criação de um método com retalhos, denominado pat(c)hwork. No projeto, desenvolvido pelo Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ecologias e Políticas Cognitivas (NUCOGS-UFRGS), um jogo digital móvel baseado em localização foi produzido para ser jogado no Parque Jardim Botânico de Porto Alegre, em um contexto não formal de aprendizagem. O jogo foi testado por estudantes do 4º e 5º ano do ensino fundamental de uma escola pública conveniada com o parque e com o grupo de pesquisa, através de oficinas. O foco cartográfico enfatizou o linguajar como agir humano na linguagem, com especial atenção à hipótese de que o mesmo caracteriza-se também pela metaforicidade O referencial teórico apóia-se na teoria autopoiética, por meio da concepção de linguagem como linguajar, entrelaçada ao emocionar e ao conversar, compondo redes de conversação; na teoria da enação, mediante a noção de cognição incorporada; na linguística cognitiva, especialmente na teoria da metáfora conceitual, como processo de fabricação e organização que pressupõe a corporeidade; e na cognição inventiva, pela costura dos conceitos de políticas, ecologias e tecnologias cognitivas. Ao cartografarmos retalhos linguageiros de conexões entre os domínios físico e digital, necessários à jogabilidade de um jogo móvel de localização, esperamos contribuir para uma compreensão do fenômeno metafórico como modulador da linguagem e da cognição como ações corporificadas, emergentes e acentradas, processos e produtos de recorrências e recursões operadas no entrelaçamento linguajar-conhecer ao longo do viver. / The metaphorical phenomenon, dear to the sciences of language, has also recently entered the cognitive studies, since it has been argued that metaphor does not occur only in language, but constitutes processes of thought. I argue here that metaphorization articulates singularities that operate in the contiguity between language and cognition and, within it, in the invention of oneself and of the world. For this, a research-intervention project was mapped through the creation of a patchwork method, called pat(c)hwork. In the project, developed by the research group Núcleo de Ecologias e Políticas Cognitivas (NUCOGS-UFRGS), a location-based mobile game was produced to be played at the Botanical Garden of Porto Alegre, in a non-formal learning context. The game was tested by students from the 4th and 5th grades of an elementary public school that entered a partnership with the park and the research group, through workshops. The cartographic focus emphasized languaging as human action in language, with special attention to the hypothesis that it is also characterized by metaphoricity The theoretical research framework is based on autopoietic theory, through the conception of language as languaging, intertwined with emotion and conversation, composing conversation networks; on enactivism, through the notion of incorporated cognition; on cognitive linguistics, especially on the theory of conceptual metaphor, as a process of fabrication and organization that presupposes corporeality; and on inventive cognition, by sewing the concepts of cognitive policies, ecologies and technologies. By mapping patches of connections between the physical and the digital domains, necessary for the gameplay of a location-based mobile game, we hope to contribute to an understanding of the metaphorical phenomenon as a modulator of embodied, emerging and decentralized language and cognition as modes of actions, processes and products of recurrences and recursions operated in the intertwining of languaging and knowing along living.

Since the mid 90s, an increasing number of researchers have adopted a sociocultural theory (SCT) of mind to investigate the social and cognitive functions of language during learner-learner interaction (Lantolf & Thorne, 2007). Researchers from an SCT perspective have identified that first languages (L1s) serve important cognitive functions (Alegría de la Colina & García Mayo, 2009; Storch & Aldosari, 2010). Swain and colleagues (Swain, 1995; Swain & Lapkin, 1995, 1998) have also illustrated that languaging, a form of verbalization, facilitates the completion of complex linguistic tasks which leads to second language (L2) development (Swain, Brooks, & Tocalli-Beller, 2002). Moreover, researchers have found that task type impacts language development (Storch & Aldosari, 2010; Storch & Wigglesworth, 2003; Swain & Lapkin, 2001). Due to the growing number of multilingual learners in the world today (Hammarberg, 2010), researchers need to expand the scope of the research to include the role(s) of native and nonnative languages on third language (L3) development. Thus, the purpose of the current multiple case study was to investigate the specific mediating functions of multilingual learners’ languages during four types of collaborative tasks and to explore the relationship between languaging and L3 development. A 16-week classroom-based study was conducted in a university French as a foreign language classroom in Mexico with four focal participants. The language produced during learner-learner interaction was examined using three types of analysis: (1) each turn was coded for language and for their specific functions; (2) each Language-Related Episode (LRE) was coded for type and for resolution; and (3) accuracy on individual tailor-made posttest items. Findings uncovered a complex picture of task type effects on the specific mediating functions of language as well as complementary functions of L1 and L3 mediation. Results from the analysis of LREs show that task type impacts the occurrence and resolution of LREs. Accuracy scores from the posttests suggest that L1 and L3 mediation promotes L3 development. Findings are in line with the focal participants’ beliefs. The findings that languages serve various social and cognitive functions during task completion are discussed in light of current ideas from an SCT perspective.

O fenômeno metafórico, caro às ciências da linguagem, tem recentemente adentrado também os estudos cognitivos, visto que se tem advogado que a metáfora não ocorre apenas na linguagem, mas constitui processos do pensamento. Argumento aqui que a metaforização articula singularidades que operam na contiguidade entre linguagem e cognição e, nela, na invenção de si e do mundo. Para tanto, um projeto de pesquisa-intervenção foi cartografado, através da criação de um método com retalhos, denominado pat(c)hwork. No projeto, desenvolvido pelo Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ecologias e Políticas Cognitivas (NUCOGS-UFRGS), um jogo digital móvel baseado em localização foi produzido para ser jogado no Parque Jardim Botânico de Porto Alegre, em um contexto não formal de aprendizagem. O jogo foi testado por estudantes do 4º e 5º ano do ensino fundamental de uma escola pública conveniada com o parque e com o grupo de pesquisa, através de oficinas. O foco cartográfico enfatizou o linguajar como agir humano na linguagem, com especial atenção à hipótese de que o mesmo caracteriza-se também pela metaforicidade O referencial teórico apóia-se na teoria autopoiética, por meio da concepção de linguagem como linguajar, entrelaçada ao emocionar e ao conversar, compondo redes de conversação; na teoria da enação, mediante a noção de cognição incorporada; na linguística cognitiva, especialmente na teoria da metáfora conceitual, como processo de fabricação e organização que pressupõe a corporeidade; e na cognição inventiva, pela costura dos conceitos de políticas, ecologias e tecnologias cognitivas. Ao cartografarmos retalhos linguageiros de conexões entre os domínios físico e digital, necessários à jogabilidade de um jogo móvel de localização, esperamos contribuir para uma compreensão do fenômeno metafórico como modulador da linguagem e da cognição como ações corporificadas, emergentes e acentradas, processos e produtos de recorrências e recursões operadas no entrelaçamento linguajar-conhecer ao longo do viver. / The metaphorical phenomenon, dear to the sciences of language, has also recently entered the cognitive studies, since it has been argued that metaphor does not occur only in language, but constitutes processes of thought. I argue here that metaphorization articulates singularities that operate in the contiguity between language and cognition and, within it, in the invention of oneself and of the world. For this, a research-intervention project was mapped through the creation of a patchwork method, called pat(c)hwork. In the project, developed by the research group Núcleo de Ecologias e Políticas Cognitivas (NUCOGS-UFRGS), a location-based mobile game was produced to be played at the Botanical Garden of Porto Alegre, in a non-formal learning context. The game was tested by students from the 4th and 5th grades of an elementary public school that entered a partnership with the park and the research group, through workshops. The cartographic focus emphasized languaging as human action in language, with special attention to the hypothesis that it is also characterized by metaphoricity The theoretical research framework is based on autopoietic theory, through the conception of language as languaging, intertwined with emotion and conversation, composing conversation networks; on enactivism, through the notion of incorporated cognition; on cognitive linguistics, especially on the theory of conceptual metaphor, as a process of fabrication and organization that presupposes corporeality; and on inventive cognition, by sewing the concepts of cognitive policies, ecologies and technologies. By mapping patches of connections between the physical and the digital domains, necessary for the gameplay of a location-based mobile game, we hope to contribute to an understanding of the metaphorical phenomenon as a modulator of embodied, emerging and decentralized language and cognition as modes of actions, processes and products of recurrences and recursions operated in the intertwining of languaging and knowing along living.

O fenômeno metafórico, caro às ciências da linguagem, tem recentemente adentrado também os estudos cognitivos, visto que se tem advogado que a metáfora não ocorre apenas na linguagem, mas constitui processos do pensamento. Argumento aqui que a metaforização articula singularidades que operam na contiguidade entre linguagem e cognição e, nela, na invenção de si e do mundo. Para tanto, um projeto de pesquisa-intervenção foi cartografado, através da criação de um método com retalhos, denominado pat(c)hwork. No projeto, desenvolvido pelo Núcleo de Pesquisas em Ecologias e Políticas Cognitivas (NUCOGS-UFRGS), um jogo digital móvel baseado em localização foi produzido para ser jogado no Parque Jardim Botânico de Porto Alegre, em um contexto não formal de aprendizagem. O jogo foi testado por estudantes do 4º e 5º ano do ensino fundamental de uma escola pública conveniada com o parque e com o grupo de pesquisa, através de oficinas. O foco cartográfico enfatizou o linguajar como agir humano na linguagem, com especial atenção à hipótese de que o mesmo caracteriza-se também pela metaforicidade O referencial teórico apóia-se na teoria autopoiética, por meio da concepção de linguagem como linguajar, entrelaçada ao emocionar e ao conversar, compondo redes de conversação; na teoria da enação, mediante a noção de cognição incorporada; na linguística cognitiva, especialmente na teoria da metáfora conceitual, como processo de fabricação e organização que pressupõe a corporeidade; e na cognição inventiva, pela costura dos conceitos de políticas, ecologias e tecnologias cognitivas. Ao cartografarmos retalhos linguageiros de conexões entre os domínios físico e digital, necessários à jogabilidade de um jogo móvel de localização, esperamos contribuir para uma compreensão do fenômeno metafórico como modulador da linguagem e da cognição como ações corporificadas, emergentes e acentradas, processos e produtos de recorrências e recursões operadas no entrelaçamento linguajar-conhecer ao longo do viver. / The metaphorical phenomenon, dear to the sciences of language, has also recently entered the cognitive studies, since it has been argued that metaphor does not occur only in language, but constitutes processes of thought. I argue here that metaphorization articulates singularities that operate in the contiguity between language and cognition and, within it, in the invention of oneself and of the world. For this, a research-intervention project was mapped through the creation of a patchwork method, called pat(c)hwork. In the project, developed by the research group Núcleo de Ecologias e Políticas Cognitivas (NUCOGS-UFRGS), a location-based mobile game was produced to be played at the Botanical Garden of Porto Alegre, in a non-formal learning context. The game was tested by students from the 4th and 5th grades of an elementary public school that entered a partnership with the park and the research group, through workshops. The cartographic focus emphasized languaging as human action in language, with special attention to the hypothesis that it is also characterized by metaphoricity The theoretical research framework is based on autopoietic theory, through the conception of language as languaging, intertwined with emotion and conversation, composing conversation networks; on enactivism, through the notion of incorporated cognition; on cognitive linguistics, especially on the theory of conceptual metaphor, as a process of fabrication and organization that presupposes corporeality; and on inventive cognition, by sewing the concepts of cognitive policies, ecologies and technologies. By mapping patches of connections between the physical and the digital domains, necessary for the gameplay of a location-based mobile game, we hope to contribute to an understanding of the metaphorical phenomenon as a modulator of embodied, emerging and decentralized language and cognition as modes of actions, processes and products of recurrences and recursions operated in the intertwining of languaging and knowing along living.

Magister Artium - MA / South Africa is a diverse, multilingual country with a majority of its youth owning or using cellular phone technologies. The cell phone interaction between multilingual individuals from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds suggests that a range of multilingual styles are being developed in the electronic domain, particularly when sending SMSes (Short Message Service messages). This study uses the Systemic Functional Linguistics Perspective (SFL) to analyse how English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa are being transformed through the medium of text messaging at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). In using methods such as thematic analysis and SFL this research is interested in the linguistic choices individuals make when engaging in SMS/Mxit messages to express themselves. The study aims to look at the effects of concepts such as globalization, stylization, polylingual languaging and transidiomatic practices on text messaging itself; and in turn to see how these text messages are typified by the mixing and blending of languages and their multimodal aspects are then considered to be a coherent and cohesive social practice among the youth. In addition, considering new developments in language studies, particularly the notions of language as social practice and hybrid languaging practices, it also looks at SMS/Mxit messages and examines them against the ‘traditional’ monolingual concepts of codeswitching and code-mixing. The linguistic analysis of this text based data presents a framework for exploring how members of the youth portray their identities as it allows the researcher to deal with interpersonal dimensions of language in texts in a systematic manner. These interpersonal dimensions view the relationships between participants in relation to their performance of identity. Drawing on SMS/Mxit data from 60 third year university students, the focus of this thesis is to investigate if the languages used during SMS/Mxit interactions are being modified and transformed by this medium of communication. It simultaneously looks at these student communicators performing a range of identity options. The study concludes that English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa are not used as separate language entities but are instead used as one language resource. It highlights how speakers use features of any language as linguistic options for a communicative event. Ultimately, the study demonstrates that SMS speak is not seen as an alternative language used within a third space but has instead become a norm in terms of language practices among the youth.