Using Visual Methodology and Discourse Analysis to Uncover Adult Immigrant English Language Learner Identity Negotiation in Multimodal Discourse

Presenter Information

Andrea Lypka

Location

2081

Format Type

Paper

Start Date

January 2015

End Date

January 2015

Abstract

Adult immigrant English language learners (ELLs) with limited literacy skills in their first language (L1) have largely been overlooked as research participants in English as a second language (ESL) and image-based research. In this study, I discuss how visual methodologies, including photovoice (giving participants cameras to document their lived experiences), photo elicitation interviews (discussing about learner-created artwork) in combination with microanalysis approaches (positioning analysis) can be a tool for researchers to examine the lived experiences of adult immigrants whose second language acquisition (SLA) process is less understood. I show how the combination of discourse analysis and visual analysis can be a methodological framework to analyze interactional aspects of identity and layered narratives language acquisition in interview talks and learner-created multimodal projects. Through the examples provided, I argue that multilevel analyses of learner-created visuals and texts offer a way for researchers to identify linguistic and visual features through which speakers/creators position their identities in relation to other characters, audience, and wider discourses. Student-created multimodal discourses, such as photo essays and paintings transcend linguistic boundaries and open possibilities for ELLs to contest dominant ideologies on language and immigration that marginalize them, constitute a transnational, hybrid identity, and develop oral communication skills in English and Spanish in a community-based, arts-applied ESL program. Their layered narratives of identity highlight the importance of being able to articulate self as part of the SLA process.

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Using Visual Methodology and Discourse Analysis to Uncover Adult Immigrant English Language Learner Identity Negotiation in Multimodal Discourse

2081

Adult immigrant English language learners (ELLs) with limited literacy skills in their first language (L1) have largely been overlooked as research participants in English as a second language (ESL) and image-based research. In this study, I discuss how visual methodologies, including photovoice (giving participants cameras to document their lived experiences), photo elicitation interviews (discussing about learner-created artwork) in combination with microanalysis approaches (positioning analysis) can be a tool for researchers to examine the lived experiences of adult immigrants whose second language acquisition (SLA) process is less understood. I show how the combination of discourse analysis and visual analysis can be a methodological framework to analyze interactional aspects of identity and layered narratives language acquisition in interview talks and learner-created multimodal projects. Through the examples provided, I argue that multilevel analyses of learner-created visuals and texts offer a way for researchers to identify linguistic and visual features through which speakers/creators position their identities in relation to other characters, audience, and wider discourses. Student-created multimodal discourses, such as photo essays and paintings transcend linguistic boundaries and open possibilities for ELLs to contest dominant ideologies on language and immigration that marginalize them, constitute a transnational, hybrid identity, and develop oral communication skills in English and Spanish in a community-based, arts-applied ESL program. Their layered narratives of identity highlight the importance of being able to articulate self as part of the SLA process.