A Multimodal Approach To The Ecology Of Early First Language Learning

The fast development of modern technologies not just affords better living conditions but also gives rise to accumulated tensions between man and the environment.Consequently,people begin to see things from an ecological perspective and come to realize the interaction between human activity and the environment.An ecological view understands language learning as intimately related to the individual's personal experience and as a way of thinking and acting in a contextualized manner.Meanwhile,the emergence and development of multimedia technology and the expansive use of internet create a multimodal environment constituted by multiple semiotic resources,which reinforces and enhances the multimodal language learning that engages multiple sensory systems and action systems of the learner.An ecological and multimodal language learning refers to an embodied learning situation where language learning is perceived as a meaning-making activity that occurs in and interacts with the environment and that involves the use of various semiotic resources.So far,studies on language learning mainly investigate the ecological and multimodal nature of language learning in a separative way while ignore the fact that the ecology and multimodality in language learning activity go hand in hand.In the language learning activity,the ecology and multimodality are integrated as a unified and inseparable whole so they should be investigated in a holistic way instead of a monolithic one.Furthermore,most of the existing studies investigate the interactions between language learning process and the multimodal environment without examining how the environment is changed by the learners once they master language skills.Previous studies argue that language learning is afforded by the multimodal environment while this research proposes it is equally significant to study how language learning exerts its influence on the environment likewise.As children's language learning activity is more likely to be affected by and interactive with the multimodal environment,this thesis select their language learning activity presented in the documentary Kindergarten as the research subject in an attempt to illustrate the ecological and multimodal features in their first language learning simultaneously.This thesis employs the systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis approach to investigate how dynamic and interactive participation in natural,social and cultural environments has cognitive and social influence on language learning and how the learner in turn employs language to change the environments.To be exact,this research answers three questions:(1)how multimodal elements in the environment affect children's language leanring and how children employ multimodal means to learn language as well as change the environment in turn?(2)how texts and visual images in the process of language learning function jointly to express meaning and convey learner's needs from the environment?(3)what are the suggestions for early first language learning ?This research employs a qualitative multimodal analysis approach to interpret how environments and language learning are mutually influential to each other via the joint analysis of texts and images presented in the dynamic process of language learning.Drawing on sociocultural theory,activity theory and systemic functional theory,this study proposes an integrative framework that accounts for the ecology and semiotics of language learning and then conducts a qualitative multimodal analysis of early language learning activities presented in the documentary Kindergarten released in 2002.The analyses substantiate that children's first language learning is not limited to educating at institutional school but expanded to every aspects of their personal experiences including their interaction with their parents,peers as well as the society in general.Various cultural,social and family values have already carved into the minds of the young learners before the commencement of standard learning activity.These values construct and are reconstructed throughout the language learning process.Moreover,the language learning activity is affected by various semiotic resources as manifested in the paintings in the classroom,the music,the body movements and gestures of the teacher,etc.These multiple environmental factors will evoke the multisensory systems of the learners and lead to a multimodal learning experience.When learners acquire language,they do not just acquire the linguistic forms but also the functions language performs,that is,they know how to do things with words.The environment is transformed by language learners who employ language to construe experience,enact social relationships and organize messages.On this basis,the present research suggests that early language learning should be richly contextualized with meticulous guidance and supervision.Also it should involve the use of multiple semiotic resources in an interactive context.The research model has the potential to inform the ecological and multimodal analysis of language learning in general.By demonstrating the ecological and miltimodal nature of language learning,the scope of language learning research is also expanded.However,the present research can be further enhanced via the inclusion of the systemic analysis of auditory modes and the use of quantitative corpus analysis.