Peer-reviewed Journal Articles by James Z Ma
Language and Semiotic Studies, 2023
The importance of argumentation in academic writing, while historically recognised, has arguably ... more The importance of argumentation in academic writing, while historically recognised, has arguably lost prominence alongside the rapid expansion of higher education since the early 1990s in the UK. This has been exacerbated by an increasingly prevalent technological intervention in teaching and learning processes. With this as a background, this article presents a semiotic analysis of student dissertation extracts to illustrate the role of intertextuality in governing interpretative, evaluative, and concluding propositions in argumentation. Each proposition is perceived as indexed to syntactical compositionality by which a previous proposition elicits a present one that awaits a future one, thus forming a line of argument. The analysis teases out what is at stake concerning the interdependence of signifying codes in textual relations and functions. This brings into view a network of sign actions that lends itself to instances of signification in mediating and coordinating propositions in argumentation. The article concludes with reflection on the medium of English as a lingua franca for studies in higher education, highlighting a semiotic understanding of the intertextuality of argumentation in academic writing.
Language and Sociocultural Theory, 2021
This article explores the applicability of a Peircean approach to the intersubjectivity of adult-... more This article explores the applicability of a Peircean approach to the intersubjectivity of adult-child shared reading. Peirce's semiosis serves as an analytical device for ways in which intersubjectivity transcends social interaction. By scrutinising instances of signification, i.e., the production and interpretation of signs constitutive of meaning making in the reading of a dual-language picturebook, the analysis reveals that the word-image complementarity renders an unfolding of intersubjective nuances in collaborative learning and intervention. This provides impetus for furthering Vygotsky's sign mediation to embrace the notion of 'intersemiosis' as indexed to the interdependence of signifying codes in communication and representation, thus theorising how the signification of such codes elicits, invites, and empowers social interaction. Resonant with edusemiotics, increasingly a reference point in the philosophical foundation of learning and development, this article offers pedagogical implications for teachers.
Social Semiotics, 2017
This article presents a semiotic analysis of the student perception of learning outcomes in Briti... more This article presents a semiotic analysis of the student perception of learning outcomes in British higher education. It centres on three annotated images in Frank Furedi’s article, ‘The Unhappiness Principles’, published in Times Higher Education in 2012. Drawing upon Peircean semiosis and iconicity, it provides a rhetoric-infused interpretation of the word-image complementarity exhibited in student participants’ written commentaries on the three images. This leads to a dialectical perspective on formative and summative assessment, in which process and product create each other through the same continuum of learning and teaching. In highlighting intellectualism as central to the ethnography of university life, this article argues that learner autonomy and the potential for transformation is deemed essential to the student experience in higher education.
Keywords: Peircean semiotics, word-image complementarity; learning outcomes; learner autonomy; higher education
Mind, Culture, and Activity: An International Journal, 2014
The ontological resonance between Peirce and Vygotsky is an area of increasing interest within cu... more The ontological resonance between Peirce and Vygotsky is an area of increasing interest within cultural-historical activity theory, arguably deserving of considered scrutiny and elucidation. Premised on conceptual pluralism and variance in sociolinguistic and sociocultural perspectives, this article proposes a Peirce–Vygotsky synergy for multimodal analysis. Following a discussion of its theoretical basis, the logical fusion of deduction and abduction is designated to authorise this synergy. Through the word-image complementarity in a storybook, it exemplifies how this synergy can afford a profound account of semiotic mediation. Exploratory as it is, the article accentuates the Peirce–Vygotsky confluence in research into communication and representation.
Social Semiotics, 2013
This article explores the methodological value of post-structuralism for sociocultural theory. Th... more This article explores the methodological value of post-structuralism for sociocultural theory. The Peircean notion of knowledge serves as a rationale for incorporating a post-structuralist perspective of discourse into Vygotsky-inspired sociocultural approach to conceptual development. Central to this incorporation is an analytic frame of reference devised to examine how knowledge construction is mediated through the use of language and other semiotic tools. The article provides an interpretive analysis of mother–child interaction in the reading of dual-language picture books, interwoven with a post-structuralist exposition of knowledge, power and discourse. It is suggestive of what sociocultural theory would need to consider in terms of power relations when theorising the role of semiotic mediation in transforming the human mind and activity.
Education 3-13, 2008
This article presents a socio-cultural study of parental involvement in reading by examining the ... more This article presents a socio-cultural study of parental involvement in reading by examining the reciprocal mediation between a Chinese mother and her daughter in the reading of a dual-language storybook. The findings reveal a child learning in the ‘interplay of her contexts’ that reflects dynamics of collaborative involvement in meaning making. With the aid of the dual-language storybook, the mother, not literate in English, is enabled to scaffold her child's learning in ways that enhance both the child's understanding of the English text and her knowledge of their heritage language, while the child herself assists her mother's learning of English. The article provides detailed explanations of ways in which inter-subjectivity (mutual understanding) arises from interpersonal communication, i.e. how ‘reading’ becomes transformed into a meaning-making activity from what can be a de-contextualised task. The article includes implications for developing approaches that minority-ethnic parents can use when reading with their children, alongside reading strategies that can be adapted for use by monolingual teachers and bilingual assistants in mainstream schools.
Invited Seminars by James Z Ma
The epistemology of Peircean pragmatics emphasises the life of the mind as integral to the making... more The epistemology of Peircean pragmatics emphasises the life of the mind as integral to the making of human existence -in particular, the social, perceptual and logical nature of knowledge that determines the meaning of intellectual concepts by virtue of cooperative and open-ended endeavours. In challenging the methods of tenacity, authority and apriority, a Peircean vision of scientific inquiry elicits a new discourse upon the affordance of public meaning in knowledge construction. This, in turn, provides a rationale for developing further insights into Peircean semiotics, with specific reference to the self-perpetuating function of semiosis and its implication for addressing the cross-over of diverse modes of meaning in modern-day communication and representation. Premised on the fusion of deduction and abduction as a conceptual primer, it is argued that the intertwining of icon, index and symbol within Peircean secondness can come into play in Vygotskian semiotic mediation. This brings with it a tour d'horizon for the semiotic connectivity of language, meaning and consciousness -a central tenet of cultural-historical activity theory for understanding human interactions with the world. The presentation thus offers a fresh perspective on advocating semiotic methodology gleaned from the epistemological confluence of Peirce and Vygotsky.
Semiotic mediation has long been a central focus of sociocultural psychology and allied approache... more Semiotic mediation has long been a central focus of sociocultural psychology and allied approaches under the cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) paradigm. It has also been studied in sociolinguistics within the tradition of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) (Halliday, 1978). In these two domains, the mediational, transformative functions of signs are highlighted. Although scholarship has alluded to the methodological implications of Peircean semiotics for CHAT (Edwards, 2007; Holland & Lachicotte Jr., 2007; Prawat, 1999; Valsiner & van der Veer, 2000), there has been scant attention to the cyclical, generative properties of signs identified by Peirce. The ever-changing and evolving landscape of human interactions with the world necessitates a more nuanced understanding of communicative and representational acts. This provides a rationale for sociolinguists and sociocultural theorists to forge ahead with the notion of multimodality by exploring new vistas for the centrality of semiotic mediation in sociolinguistic and sociocultural studies beyond linguistic imperialism.
This seminar is based on recent research into the co-articulation of Peirce and Vygotsky on signs (Ma, 2014). It sets out with an overview of conceptual plurality and variance within sociolinguistic and sociocultural perspectives on semiotic mediation. These perspectives advocate for a paradigmatic shift in emphasis from the SFL tradition to the multimodal framework for communication and representation. Arguably, they will continue to complement and interact, configuring a new synthesis through dialectical relationships. Premised on this, the Peirce-Vygotsky synergy is introduced as an analytical approach to the multimodality of semiotic mediation. Following a discussion of its theoretical basis, the logical fusion of deduction and abduction is explained as authorising this synergy. Through the interplay of words and images exhibited in mother-child shared reading of storybooks, the seminar exemplifies how this synergy can afford a nuanced semiotic account of meaning making, interspersed with insights from the notion of “intersemiotic complementarity” (Royce, 2007). Exploratory as it is, this seminar seeks to inform current debates on the methodological relevance of Peircean semiotics for CHAT by bringing the confluence of Peirce and Vygotsky to bear on the study of communication and representation.
References
Edwards, A. (2007). An interesting resemblance: Vygotsky, Mead, and American pragmatism. In H. Daniels, M. Cole & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 77-100). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London, UK: Arnold.
Holland, D. & Lachicotte Jr., W. (2007). Vygotsky, Mead, and the new sociocultural studies of identity. In H. Daniels, M. Cole & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 102-135). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Ma, J. (2014). The synergy of Peirce and Vygotsky as an analytical approach to the multimodality of semiotic mediation. Mind, Culture, and Activity.
Prawat, R. S. (1999). Social constructivism and the process‐content distinction as viewed by Vygotsky and the pragmatists. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 6(4), 255-273.
Royce, T. D. (2007). Intersemiotic complementarity: A framework for multimodal discourse analysis. In T. D. Royce & W. L. Bowcher (Eds.), New directions in the analysis of multimodal discourse (pp. 63-109). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Valsiner, J. & van der Veer, R. (2000). The social mind: Construction of the idea. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
PhD Thesis Abstract by James Z Ma
This thesis presents a sociocultural study of mother-child shared reading of illustrated dual-lan... more This thesis presents a sociocultural study of mother-child shared reading of illustrated dual-language storybooks. Permeating the work of Lev Vygotsky is the notion of contextualism, particularly in his perception of cognitive development as a derivation of social interaction. Learning, by all means, is internalisation and transformation of culture through participation in the practices of community. Sociocultural theorists have sought to extend Vygotsky's thinking by advocating a synthesis of his theory and their own empirical work on explicating the cultural foundations and contextual nature of human learning and development.
Refereed Conference Papers by James Z Ma
This presentation derives from a manuscript prepared for the ISCAR-affiliated journal Mind, Cultu... more This presentation derives from a manuscript prepared for the ISCAR-affiliated journal Mind, Culture, and Activity. It concerns the author's research project on the Peirce-Vygotsky co-articulation of signs, the first phase of which was reported in 2014 in this journal (21/4, " The synergy of Peirce and Vygotsky as an analytical approach to the multimodality of semiotic mediation "). The epistemology of Peircean pragmatics emphasises the life of the mind as integral to the making of human existence, in particular, the social, perceptual and logical nature of knowledge that determines the meaning of intellectual concepts by virtue of cooperative and open-ended endeavours. In challenging the methods of tenacity, authority and apriority, a Peircean vision of scientific inquiry elicits a new discourse upon the affordance of public meaning in knowledge construction. This, in turn, provides a rationale for developing further insights into Peircean semiotics, with specific reference to the self-perpetuating function of semiosis and its implication for addressing the cross-over of diverse modes of meaning in modern-day communication and representation. Premised on the fusion of deduction and abduction as a conceptual primer, it is argued that the intertwining of icon, index and symbol within Peircean secondness can come into play in Vygotskian semiotic mediation. This brings with it a tour d'horizon for the semiotic connectivity of language, meaning and consciousness – a central tenet of cultural-historical activity theory for understanding human interactions with the world. The presentation thus offers fresh perspectives on advocating semiotic methodology gleaned from the epistemological confluence of Peirce and Vygotsky.
The ontological resonance between Peirce and Vygotsky is an area of increasing interest within cu... more The ontological resonance between Peirce and Vygotsky is an area of increasing interest within cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), arguably deserving of considered scrutiny and elucidation. Premised on conceptual pluralism and variance within sociolinguistic and sociocultural perspectives on semiotic mediation, this paper proposes the synergy of Peirce and Vygotsky as an analytical approach to the multimodality of semiotic mediation. Following a discussion of its theoretical basis, the logical fusion of deduction and abduction is designated to authorise this synergy. Through the interplay of words and images exhibited in mother-child collaboration in the reading of a picture-book, the paper demonstrates how this synergy can afford a profound semiotic account of meaning making, interspersed with insights from the notion of “intersemiotic complementarity” (Royce, 2007). Exploratory as it is, this paper seeks to inform current debates on the methodological relevance of Peircean semiotics for CHAT, by bringing the confluence of Peirce and Vygotsky to bear on the study of communication and representation.
Background:
The debate on what counts as critical thinking has been perpetually orientated throu... more Background:
The debate on what counts as critical thinking has been perpetually orientated through changing societal values and beliefs. What underpins critical thinking may thus become an unceasing enigma that deserves scrutiny and enunciation. Rather than merely conceptualising the notion within the rhetoric of learning and education, this paper premises the accountability of critical thinking on an epistemological seizure of the capacity for inspecting, challenging assumptions and ideals through an involvement with logicality in academic writing.
Focus of the enquiry:
As the notion of critical thinking is incessantly formed anew by knowledge-based economy, neither do grand narratives juxtapose the entrenched culture with emerging perspectives, nor enrich the human conceptual repertoire aimed to transcend the interrelations of culture and mind. Over the past decades research studies in the UK have sought to promote student writing development (e.g., Lea & Street, 1998; Ganobcsik-Williams, 2004). Though it is vital to higher education, critical thinking appears to be tutor-induced if ascribed to students predominantly as a task-based activity. Critical engagement is often channelled to particular directions with tutors’ consistent or contingent intervention, rather than students’ own commitment and deliberation. This paper argues that critical thinking can be fostered as a conscious, proactive act by attending to the interplay of thoughts and words in essay composition.
Methodology:
The methodology features an interpretive a priori evaluation endowed with “intertextuality” (Kristeva, 1986) as an explanatory tool. Thus, the dialogical properties of discourse are prioritised in terms of coordination and interdependency of meaning across texts (Fairclough, 1992). The paper takes an ontological position that dialogicality is epistemically implicative of heightened registration with a sense of logical connectivity required in the construction of semantic and pragmatic meanings in argumentation.
Analytic framework:
The analytic framework foregrounds critical thinking as involving intertextual processes of reference making in terms of the blending of previous texts into present texts and that of present texts into future texts. The dynamics of homogeneity engender a fusion of thoughts, words and the culture within which language users find themselves. The paper provides detailed analysis of students’ essay examples, focusing on the reciprocation of textual definitions, references and relations.
Contributions to knowledge:
There has been little research into the role of intertextuality in critical thinking in higher education. The implications of this paper would be heuristic to the discourse upon how critical thinking can be voluntarily actualised rather than simply being mediated or induced through external forces.
Sociocultural theory has, to a varying extent, moved beyond recapitulating Vygotsky’s notion of i... more Sociocultural theory has, to a varying extent, moved beyond recapitulating Vygotsky’s notion of interpsychological functioning by inquiring into wider social, historical and other contextual milieus in which human development unfolds. However, as standing on the principles of non-classical psychology that purports to complement and transcend classical psychology, sociocultural theory is confronted with methodological challenges. There has recently been a shift of interest from the perspective of activity theory to that of semiotics. The notion of semiotic mediation, together with those of higher psychological functioning and mediational means, has been raised to prominence in that it encapsulates a sociogenetic vision of human acculturation and transformation. This may implicate the need for an extended paradigm for sociocultural research capable of explicating human propensity for using signs and symbols in social interaction. By examining ways in which semiotic mediation affords a productive, constructive means of communication, the intertextuality of meaning making alongside the internalisation of social experience as self-regulatory behaviour may be accentuated.
Post-structuralism continues instigating a plurality of perspectives on the nature of changing social, economic and political conditions. Whilst it can be conceived as controversial, post-structuralism has arguably provided sociocultural psychology with stimulating paradigmatic constructs worthy of methodological exploration. Rooted in the epistemology of sociogenesis, Vygotskian sociogenetic analysis addresses the historical and psychological origins of human consciousness. Foucauldian discourse analysis takes a deconstructionist view of social discourse in order to reveal identity and power relations within it. Channelling these two ontological currents into a conceptual unity, a Foucault-Vygotskian approach may be devised to further theorise the nature of semiotic mediation and its role in communication. Focussing on the fusion of discourse-in-context and context-for-discourse as the unit of analysis, the Foucault-Vygotskian approach brings itself into close contact with semiotics, discourse and multimodal communication and representation. To this end, this paper explores the conceptual and epistemological relationships between Foucauldian and Vygotskian assumptions that may shed light on the heterogeneity of semiotic mediation as a social, cultural and historical process. The paper exemplifies the methodological fusion of Foucault and Vygotsky, drawing upon critical discourse analysis of mother-child interaction in the reading of illustrated dual-language books. It is argued that this approach is of instrumental value for theorising the interplay of textual definitions, references and relations inherent in human communication.
Keywords: Foucault-Vygotskian approach, discourse-context dynamic, semiotic mediation, intertextuality, power relations, critical discourse analysis
This paper presents a methodological account of the synergy of Foucauldian discourse analysis and... more This paper presents a methodological account of the synergy of Foucauldian discourse analysis and Vygotskian sociogenetic analysis as an analytic approach to semiotic mediation. Sociocultural theory has moved beyond recapitulating Vygotsky’s interpsychological category to include wider cultural, historical and other contexts within which human development unfolds. However, as an emerging school of psychological thought, sociocultural theory is increasingly confronted with methodological challenges in terms of, e.g. how the complexity of human mind and activity can be best illustrated. Recently, there has been a shift of interest within sociocultural psychology from the perspective of activity theory to that of semiology (Valsiner & Rosa 2007). The rise of philosophical postmodernism in the 1960s has continued to instigate a plurality of perspectives on the nature of ever-changing social, economic and political conditions. Whilst it can be perceived as controversial, postmodernism has arguably provided sociocultural psychology with a more stimulating and compensatory paradigmatic framework worthy of meticulous exploration.
Foucauldian discourse analysis foregrounds a deconstructionist perspective on text in order to reveal the power relationship within it. Rooted in sociogenetic epistemology, Vygotskian sociogenetic analysis addresses historical and psychological origins of the human mind. These two theoretical edifices serve as a paradigmatic primacy that channels key ideas and notions into a methodological unity for a Foucauldian-Vygotskian approach, rather than simply drawing the concepts from each of the edifices. Based on examples of linguistically expressed propositions evidenced in mother-child shared reading of storybooks, this paper details how a Foucauldian-Vygotskian approach can be used to articulate the dynamics of semiotic mediation in terms of the interplay between discourse and context. It is argued that the nature of discourse-context intertwinement requires the positioning and repositioning of the researcher’s perspective in analysing and interpreting the text.
Minority-ethnic parents speaking a language other than English can be marginalised in schools. Ma... more Minority-ethnic parents speaking a language other than English can be marginalised in schools. Many schools work to involve them, but the full potential of the role they might play has arguably not been well-explored. The 'reading books' children take home can raise obvious difficulties for such parents, and the assistance they can thus offer their children is perceived as limited. The importance of social inclusion of minority-ethnic parents as core collaborators in mainstream education provides the rationale for a sociocultural approach to early years reading development on which this presentation reports. By examining mother-child reciprocal mediation during shared reading of dual-language storybooks, the study reveals that, with the mother's intervention, the child is enabled to read in two languages and therefore assisted in maintaining her first language. The mother is also able to develop her awareness of English mediated by the child. It is argued thereby that schools providing children with dual-language as well as mono-language storybooks will help facilitate parental involvement in home reading as a support for school learning.
Resonating with ‘equitable and inclusive education in the early years’, one of the main themes of the 18th EECERA Annual Conference, this presentation will offer detailed explanations of how 'reading1 becomes transformed into a meaning-making activity from what can be a decontextualised task. It will also provide implications for developing approaches that minority-ethnic parents can employ when reading with their children, alongside reading strategies that can be adapted for use by monolingual teachers and bilingual assistants in mainstream schools.
This presentation concerns a sociocultural study of parental involvement in reading. Two cases of... more This presentation concerns a sociocultural study of parental involvement in reading. Two cases of Chinese children in British primary schools are examined – focusing on patterns of mother-child interaction in association with contextualisation of joint-participation in language and literacy practices.
Child development is viewed as changing participation in sociocultural activity and contextually embedded, progressing from an interpersonal level to a level of self-regulation and ultimately to the realisation of appropriation of knowledge and skills in new situations. A major thrust of the study is an exploration of the developmental process of guided participation, and it also touches on the importance of two other developmental processes – apprenticeship and participatory appropriation. These processes are mutually constituted and defined as a whole in the analysis of sociocultural activity (Rogoff 1995). Video-data demonstrates an example of a child learning from guided participation with her mother in the reading of a dual-language book, in which figurative speeches, e.g., metaphor, symbolism and embellishment, are used in creating a context for making sense of meaning and experience.
The study reveals that, with the help of the dual-language book, the mother is enabled to participate in her child’s learning in ways not otherwise available to her. The mother is able to develop her awareness of English, mediated by the child. The child is helped to maintain her first language. It is suggested that schools providing children with dual-language as well as mono-language books will help facilitate active parental engagement in home learning as a support for children’s schooling.
This paper is based on the assumption that children’s development in literacy involves cognitive,... more This paper is based on the assumption that children’s development in literacy involves cognitive, social and cultural factors. Pre-school children gradually acquire a language while being read to by their parents. In school they learn to read more systematically by interacting with teachers and peers. In the home, parental involvement plays a role in helping the child as a ‘social being’ to read the text meaningfully (Bruner & Haste 1987) – by constructing together the meanings to be found in the text. As a result of ‘guided participation’ (Rogoff 1990), cognitive processes are internalised and transformed from the ‘interpsychological’ to the ‘intrapsychological’ plane (Vygotsky 1962).
The present research hypothesises that, when exposed to dual language books, parent and child access two language versions of the print, and the use of home language as a cultural tool initiates and facilitates the meaning-making process because there exists a shared base of cultural knowledge which underpins the learning environment. Put another way, the home language provides a ‘common framework for the coordination of information’ (Rogoff & Gardner 1984), and children’s experience with language and literacy is built upon ‘the joint construction of understanding’ (Wood 1988:16). In this process, a transition from decoding the print to making sense of it is seen to take place, and a repertoire of shared knowledge and experience enriches, and is enriched by, the negotiation and construction of meanings. Children therefore become more sensitive to the contexts and uses of language and to the subtlety of nuances displayed in the books.
This paper investigates an implementation of a mediational model of reading in the home context of 5 Chinese children in Britain. It reports on a pilot study of patterns of mother-child interaction in the reading of dual-text (Chinese-English) and mono-text (English) storybooks. The pilot data was analysed in terms of patterns of verbal interaction and non-verbal interaction. The coding categories were first derived from an inspection of the video data, and then tested against one of the data selected at random. The findings suggest that the quality of mother-child interaction appears to be higher when a dual-text rather than a mono-text book is used, and, in addition, that the child tends to scaffold the mother when they read a mono-text book together. The study suggests that schools providing children with dual language as well as mono language books will help facilitate parents’ more active engagement and assistance in their children’s home reading as a support for school learning.
References
Bruner, J and Haste, H (1987) Making Sense London: Methuen
Rogoff, B and Gardner, W (1984) Adult guidance of cognitive development. In Rogoff, B and Lave, J (eds) Everyday Cognition: Its Development in Social Context London: Harvard University Press
Rogoff, B (1990) Apprenticeship in thinking: Cognitive development in social context London: Oxford University Press
Rogoff, B (1995) Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship In Wertsch, J V; Rio, P D and Alvarez, A (eds) Sociocultural Studies of Mind Cambridge: CUP
Vygotsky, L S (1962) Thought and Language. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Wood, D (1988) How Children Think and Learn London: Blackwells
Book Reviews by James Z Ma
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Peer-reviewed Journal Articles by James Z Ma
Keywords: Peircean semiotics, word-image complementarity; learning outcomes; learner autonomy; higher education
Invited Seminars by James Z Ma
This seminar is based on recent research into the co-articulation of Peirce and Vygotsky on signs (Ma, 2014). It sets out with an overview of conceptual plurality and variance within sociolinguistic and sociocultural perspectives on semiotic mediation. These perspectives advocate for a paradigmatic shift in emphasis from the SFL tradition to the multimodal framework for communication and representation. Arguably, they will continue to complement and interact, configuring a new synthesis through dialectical relationships. Premised on this, the Peirce-Vygotsky synergy is introduced as an analytical approach to the multimodality of semiotic mediation. Following a discussion of its theoretical basis, the logical fusion of deduction and abduction is explained as authorising this synergy. Through the interplay of words and images exhibited in mother-child shared reading of storybooks, the seminar exemplifies how this synergy can afford a nuanced semiotic account of meaning making, interspersed with insights from the notion of “intersemiotic complementarity” (Royce, 2007). Exploratory as it is, this seminar seeks to inform current debates on the methodological relevance of Peircean semiotics for CHAT by bringing the confluence of Peirce and Vygotsky to bear on the study of communication and representation.
References
Edwards, A. (2007). An interesting resemblance: Vygotsky, Mead, and American pragmatism. In H. Daniels, M. Cole & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 77-100). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London, UK: Arnold.
Holland, D. & Lachicotte Jr., W. (2007). Vygotsky, Mead, and the new sociocultural studies of identity. In H. Daniels, M. Cole & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 102-135). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Ma, J. (2014). The synergy of Peirce and Vygotsky as an analytical approach to the multimodality of semiotic mediation. Mind, Culture, and Activity.
Prawat, R. S. (1999). Social constructivism and the process‐content distinction as viewed by Vygotsky and the pragmatists. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 6(4), 255-273.
Royce, T. D. (2007). Intersemiotic complementarity: A framework for multimodal discourse analysis. In T. D. Royce & W. L. Bowcher (Eds.), New directions in the analysis of multimodal discourse (pp. 63-109). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Valsiner, J. & van der Veer, R. (2000). The social mind: Construction of the idea. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
PhD Thesis Abstract by James Z Ma
Refereed Conference Papers by James Z Ma
The debate on what counts as critical thinking has been perpetually orientated through changing societal values and beliefs. What underpins critical thinking may thus become an unceasing enigma that deserves scrutiny and enunciation. Rather than merely conceptualising the notion within the rhetoric of learning and education, this paper premises the accountability of critical thinking on an epistemological seizure of the capacity for inspecting, challenging assumptions and ideals through an involvement with logicality in academic writing.
Focus of the enquiry:
As the notion of critical thinking is incessantly formed anew by knowledge-based economy, neither do grand narratives juxtapose the entrenched culture with emerging perspectives, nor enrich the human conceptual repertoire aimed to transcend the interrelations of culture and mind. Over the past decades research studies in the UK have sought to promote student writing development (e.g., Lea & Street, 1998; Ganobcsik-Williams, 2004). Though it is vital to higher education, critical thinking appears to be tutor-induced if ascribed to students predominantly as a task-based activity. Critical engagement is often channelled to particular directions with tutors’ consistent or contingent intervention, rather than students’ own commitment and deliberation. This paper argues that critical thinking can be fostered as a conscious, proactive act by attending to the interplay of thoughts and words in essay composition.
Methodology:
The methodology features an interpretive a priori evaluation endowed with “intertextuality” (Kristeva, 1986) as an explanatory tool. Thus, the dialogical properties of discourse are prioritised in terms of coordination and interdependency of meaning across texts (Fairclough, 1992). The paper takes an ontological position that dialogicality is epistemically implicative of heightened registration with a sense of logical connectivity required in the construction of semantic and pragmatic meanings in argumentation.
Analytic framework:
The analytic framework foregrounds critical thinking as involving intertextual processes of reference making in terms of the blending of previous texts into present texts and that of present texts into future texts. The dynamics of homogeneity engender a fusion of thoughts, words and the culture within which language users find themselves. The paper provides detailed analysis of students’ essay examples, focusing on the reciprocation of textual definitions, references and relations.
Contributions to knowledge:
There has been little research into the role of intertextuality in critical thinking in higher education. The implications of this paper would be heuristic to the discourse upon how critical thinking can be voluntarily actualised rather than simply being mediated or induced through external forces.
Post-structuralism continues instigating a plurality of perspectives on the nature of changing social, economic and political conditions. Whilst it can be conceived as controversial, post-structuralism has arguably provided sociocultural psychology with stimulating paradigmatic constructs worthy of methodological exploration. Rooted in the epistemology of sociogenesis, Vygotskian sociogenetic analysis addresses the historical and psychological origins of human consciousness. Foucauldian discourse analysis takes a deconstructionist view of social discourse in order to reveal identity and power relations within it. Channelling these two ontological currents into a conceptual unity, a Foucault-Vygotskian approach may be devised to further theorise the nature of semiotic mediation and its role in communication. Focussing on the fusion of discourse-in-context and context-for-discourse as the unit of analysis, the Foucault-Vygotskian approach brings itself into close contact with semiotics, discourse and multimodal communication and representation. To this end, this paper explores the conceptual and epistemological relationships between Foucauldian and Vygotskian assumptions that may shed light on the heterogeneity of semiotic mediation as a social, cultural and historical process. The paper exemplifies the methodological fusion of Foucault and Vygotsky, drawing upon critical discourse analysis of mother-child interaction in the reading of illustrated dual-language books. It is argued that this approach is of instrumental value for theorising the interplay of textual definitions, references and relations inherent in human communication.
Keywords: Foucault-Vygotskian approach, discourse-context dynamic, semiotic mediation, intertextuality, power relations, critical discourse analysis
Foucauldian discourse analysis foregrounds a deconstructionist perspective on text in order to reveal the power relationship within it. Rooted in sociogenetic epistemology, Vygotskian sociogenetic analysis addresses historical and psychological origins of the human mind. These two theoretical edifices serve as a paradigmatic primacy that channels key ideas and notions into a methodological unity for a Foucauldian-Vygotskian approach, rather than simply drawing the concepts from each of the edifices. Based on examples of linguistically expressed propositions evidenced in mother-child shared reading of storybooks, this paper details how a Foucauldian-Vygotskian approach can be used to articulate the dynamics of semiotic mediation in terms of the interplay between discourse and context. It is argued that the nature of discourse-context intertwinement requires the positioning and repositioning of the researcher’s perspective in analysing and interpreting the text.
Resonating with ‘equitable and inclusive education in the early years’, one of the main themes of the 18th EECERA Annual Conference, this presentation will offer detailed explanations of how 'reading1 becomes transformed into a meaning-making activity from what can be a decontextualised task. It will also provide implications for developing approaches that minority-ethnic parents can employ when reading with their children, alongside reading strategies that can be adapted for use by monolingual teachers and bilingual assistants in mainstream schools.
Child development is viewed as changing participation in sociocultural activity and contextually embedded, progressing from an interpersonal level to a level of self-regulation and ultimately to the realisation of appropriation of knowledge and skills in new situations. A major thrust of the study is an exploration of the developmental process of guided participation, and it also touches on the importance of two other developmental processes – apprenticeship and participatory appropriation. These processes are mutually constituted and defined as a whole in the analysis of sociocultural activity (Rogoff 1995). Video-data demonstrates an example of a child learning from guided participation with her mother in the reading of a dual-language book, in which figurative speeches, e.g., metaphor, symbolism and embellishment, are used in creating a context for making sense of meaning and experience.
The study reveals that, with the help of the dual-language book, the mother is enabled to participate in her child’s learning in ways not otherwise available to her. The mother is able to develop her awareness of English, mediated by the child. The child is helped to maintain her first language. It is suggested that schools providing children with dual-language as well as mono-language books will help facilitate active parental engagement in home learning as a support for children’s schooling.
The present research hypothesises that, when exposed to dual language books, parent and child access two language versions of the print, and the use of home language as a cultural tool initiates and facilitates the meaning-making process because there exists a shared base of cultural knowledge which underpins the learning environment. Put another way, the home language provides a ‘common framework for the coordination of information’ (Rogoff & Gardner 1984), and children’s experience with language and literacy is built upon ‘the joint construction of understanding’ (Wood 1988:16). In this process, a transition from decoding the print to making sense of it is seen to take place, and a repertoire of shared knowledge and experience enriches, and is enriched by, the negotiation and construction of meanings. Children therefore become more sensitive to the contexts and uses of language and to the subtlety of nuances displayed in the books.
This paper investigates an implementation of a mediational model of reading in the home context of 5 Chinese children in Britain. It reports on a pilot study of patterns of mother-child interaction in the reading of dual-text (Chinese-English) and mono-text (English) storybooks. The pilot data was analysed in terms of patterns of verbal interaction and non-verbal interaction. The coding categories were first derived from an inspection of the video data, and then tested against one of the data selected at random. The findings suggest that the quality of mother-child interaction appears to be higher when a dual-text rather than a mono-text book is used, and, in addition, that the child tends to scaffold the mother when they read a mono-text book together. The study suggests that schools providing children with dual language as well as mono language books will help facilitate parents’ more active engagement and assistance in their children’s home reading as a support for school learning.
References
Bruner, J and Haste, H (1987) Making Sense London: Methuen
Rogoff, B and Gardner, W (1984) Adult guidance of cognitive development. In Rogoff, B and Lave, J (eds) Everyday Cognition: Its Development in Social Context London: Harvard University Press
Rogoff, B (1990) Apprenticeship in thinking: Cognitive development in social context London: Oxford University Press
Rogoff, B (1995) Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship In Wertsch, J V; Rio, P D and Alvarez, A (eds) Sociocultural Studies of Mind Cambridge: CUP
Vygotsky, L S (1962) Thought and Language. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Wood, D (1988) How Children Think and Learn London: Blackwells
Book Reviews by James Z Ma
Keywords: Peircean semiotics, word-image complementarity; learning outcomes; learner autonomy; higher education
This seminar is based on recent research into the co-articulation of Peirce and Vygotsky on signs (Ma, 2014). It sets out with an overview of conceptual plurality and variance within sociolinguistic and sociocultural perspectives on semiotic mediation. These perspectives advocate for a paradigmatic shift in emphasis from the SFL tradition to the multimodal framework for communication and representation. Arguably, they will continue to complement and interact, configuring a new synthesis through dialectical relationships. Premised on this, the Peirce-Vygotsky synergy is introduced as an analytical approach to the multimodality of semiotic mediation. Following a discussion of its theoretical basis, the logical fusion of deduction and abduction is explained as authorising this synergy. Through the interplay of words and images exhibited in mother-child shared reading of storybooks, the seminar exemplifies how this synergy can afford a nuanced semiotic account of meaning making, interspersed with insights from the notion of “intersemiotic complementarity” (Royce, 2007). Exploratory as it is, this seminar seeks to inform current debates on the methodological relevance of Peircean semiotics for CHAT by bringing the confluence of Peirce and Vygotsky to bear on the study of communication and representation.
References
Edwards, A. (2007). An interesting resemblance: Vygotsky, Mead, and American pragmatism. In H. Daniels, M. Cole & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 77-100). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London, UK: Arnold.
Holland, D. & Lachicotte Jr., W. (2007). Vygotsky, Mead, and the new sociocultural studies of identity. In H. Daniels, M. Cole & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 102-135). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Ma, J. (2014). The synergy of Peirce and Vygotsky as an analytical approach to the multimodality of semiotic mediation. Mind, Culture, and Activity.
Prawat, R. S. (1999). Social constructivism and the process‐content distinction as viewed by Vygotsky and the pragmatists. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 6(4), 255-273.
Royce, T. D. (2007). Intersemiotic complementarity: A framework for multimodal discourse analysis. In T. D. Royce & W. L. Bowcher (Eds.), New directions in the analysis of multimodal discourse (pp. 63-109). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Valsiner, J. & van der Veer, R. (2000). The social mind: Construction of the idea. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
The debate on what counts as critical thinking has been perpetually orientated through changing societal values and beliefs. What underpins critical thinking may thus become an unceasing enigma that deserves scrutiny and enunciation. Rather than merely conceptualising the notion within the rhetoric of learning and education, this paper premises the accountability of critical thinking on an epistemological seizure of the capacity for inspecting, challenging assumptions and ideals through an involvement with logicality in academic writing.
Focus of the enquiry:
As the notion of critical thinking is incessantly formed anew by knowledge-based economy, neither do grand narratives juxtapose the entrenched culture with emerging perspectives, nor enrich the human conceptual repertoire aimed to transcend the interrelations of culture and mind. Over the past decades research studies in the UK have sought to promote student writing development (e.g., Lea & Street, 1998; Ganobcsik-Williams, 2004). Though it is vital to higher education, critical thinking appears to be tutor-induced if ascribed to students predominantly as a task-based activity. Critical engagement is often channelled to particular directions with tutors’ consistent or contingent intervention, rather than students’ own commitment and deliberation. This paper argues that critical thinking can be fostered as a conscious, proactive act by attending to the interplay of thoughts and words in essay composition.
Methodology:
The methodology features an interpretive a priori evaluation endowed with “intertextuality” (Kristeva, 1986) as an explanatory tool. Thus, the dialogical properties of discourse are prioritised in terms of coordination and interdependency of meaning across texts (Fairclough, 1992). The paper takes an ontological position that dialogicality is epistemically implicative of heightened registration with a sense of logical connectivity required in the construction of semantic and pragmatic meanings in argumentation.
Analytic framework:
The analytic framework foregrounds critical thinking as involving intertextual processes of reference making in terms of the blending of previous texts into present texts and that of present texts into future texts. The dynamics of homogeneity engender a fusion of thoughts, words and the culture within which language users find themselves. The paper provides detailed analysis of students’ essay examples, focusing on the reciprocation of textual definitions, references and relations.
Contributions to knowledge:
There has been little research into the role of intertextuality in critical thinking in higher education. The implications of this paper would be heuristic to the discourse upon how critical thinking can be voluntarily actualised rather than simply being mediated or induced through external forces.
Post-structuralism continues instigating a plurality of perspectives on the nature of changing social, economic and political conditions. Whilst it can be conceived as controversial, post-structuralism has arguably provided sociocultural psychology with stimulating paradigmatic constructs worthy of methodological exploration. Rooted in the epistemology of sociogenesis, Vygotskian sociogenetic analysis addresses the historical and psychological origins of human consciousness. Foucauldian discourse analysis takes a deconstructionist view of social discourse in order to reveal identity and power relations within it. Channelling these two ontological currents into a conceptual unity, a Foucault-Vygotskian approach may be devised to further theorise the nature of semiotic mediation and its role in communication. Focussing on the fusion of discourse-in-context and context-for-discourse as the unit of analysis, the Foucault-Vygotskian approach brings itself into close contact with semiotics, discourse and multimodal communication and representation. To this end, this paper explores the conceptual and epistemological relationships between Foucauldian and Vygotskian assumptions that may shed light on the heterogeneity of semiotic mediation as a social, cultural and historical process. The paper exemplifies the methodological fusion of Foucault and Vygotsky, drawing upon critical discourse analysis of mother-child interaction in the reading of illustrated dual-language books. It is argued that this approach is of instrumental value for theorising the interplay of textual definitions, references and relations inherent in human communication.
Keywords: Foucault-Vygotskian approach, discourse-context dynamic, semiotic mediation, intertextuality, power relations, critical discourse analysis
Foucauldian discourse analysis foregrounds a deconstructionist perspective on text in order to reveal the power relationship within it. Rooted in sociogenetic epistemology, Vygotskian sociogenetic analysis addresses historical and psychological origins of the human mind. These two theoretical edifices serve as a paradigmatic primacy that channels key ideas and notions into a methodological unity for a Foucauldian-Vygotskian approach, rather than simply drawing the concepts from each of the edifices. Based on examples of linguistically expressed propositions evidenced in mother-child shared reading of storybooks, this paper details how a Foucauldian-Vygotskian approach can be used to articulate the dynamics of semiotic mediation in terms of the interplay between discourse and context. It is argued that the nature of discourse-context intertwinement requires the positioning and repositioning of the researcher’s perspective in analysing and interpreting the text.
Resonating with ‘equitable and inclusive education in the early years’, one of the main themes of the 18th EECERA Annual Conference, this presentation will offer detailed explanations of how 'reading1 becomes transformed into a meaning-making activity from what can be a decontextualised task. It will also provide implications for developing approaches that minority-ethnic parents can employ when reading with their children, alongside reading strategies that can be adapted for use by monolingual teachers and bilingual assistants in mainstream schools.
Child development is viewed as changing participation in sociocultural activity and contextually embedded, progressing from an interpersonal level to a level of self-regulation and ultimately to the realisation of appropriation of knowledge and skills in new situations. A major thrust of the study is an exploration of the developmental process of guided participation, and it also touches on the importance of two other developmental processes – apprenticeship and participatory appropriation. These processes are mutually constituted and defined as a whole in the analysis of sociocultural activity (Rogoff 1995). Video-data demonstrates an example of a child learning from guided participation with her mother in the reading of a dual-language book, in which figurative speeches, e.g., metaphor, symbolism and embellishment, are used in creating a context for making sense of meaning and experience.
The study reveals that, with the help of the dual-language book, the mother is enabled to participate in her child’s learning in ways not otherwise available to her. The mother is able to develop her awareness of English, mediated by the child. The child is helped to maintain her first language. It is suggested that schools providing children with dual-language as well as mono-language books will help facilitate active parental engagement in home learning as a support for children’s schooling.
The present research hypothesises that, when exposed to dual language books, parent and child access two language versions of the print, and the use of home language as a cultural tool initiates and facilitates the meaning-making process because there exists a shared base of cultural knowledge which underpins the learning environment. Put another way, the home language provides a ‘common framework for the coordination of information’ (Rogoff & Gardner 1984), and children’s experience with language and literacy is built upon ‘the joint construction of understanding’ (Wood 1988:16). In this process, a transition from decoding the print to making sense of it is seen to take place, and a repertoire of shared knowledge and experience enriches, and is enriched by, the negotiation and construction of meanings. Children therefore become more sensitive to the contexts and uses of language and to the subtlety of nuances displayed in the books.
This paper investigates an implementation of a mediational model of reading in the home context of 5 Chinese children in Britain. It reports on a pilot study of patterns of mother-child interaction in the reading of dual-text (Chinese-English) and mono-text (English) storybooks. The pilot data was analysed in terms of patterns of verbal interaction and non-verbal interaction. The coding categories were first derived from an inspection of the video data, and then tested against one of the data selected at random. The findings suggest that the quality of mother-child interaction appears to be higher when a dual-text rather than a mono-text book is used, and, in addition, that the child tends to scaffold the mother when they read a mono-text book together. The study suggests that schools providing children with dual language as well as mono language books will help facilitate parents’ more active engagement and assistance in their children’s home reading as a support for school learning.
References
Bruner, J and Haste, H (1987) Making Sense London: Methuen
Rogoff, B and Gardner, W (1984) Adult guidance of cognitive development. In Rogoff, B and Lave, J (eds) Everyday Cognition: Its Development in Social Context London: Harvard University Press
Rogoff, B (1990) Apprenticeship in thinking: Cognitive development in social context London: Oxford University Press
Rogoff, B (1995) Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship In Wertsch, J V; Rio, P D and Alvarez, A (eds) Sociocultural Studies of Mind Cambridge: CUP
Vygotsky, L S (1962) Thought and Language. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Wood, D (1988) How Children Think and Learn London: Blackwells