A Comparative Multimodal Analysis Of Language Museum Websites

With the development of globalization,“language diversity” has become a widely discussed phenomenon in current sociolinguistic study.Meanwhile,many recently built language museums have provided ideal platforms for the promotion of language diversity and the Internet has become increasingly vital in facilitating linguistic and cultural exhibitions and communications in the Post-Pandemic Era.Although language museums continue to upgrade their websites,few multimodal researches have been conducted concerning language museum websites.By combining Pauwels’ Multimodal Framework for Analyzing Websites with Ben-Rafael’s Structuration Principles for Linguistic Landscapes,this comparative study focuses on the virtual linguistic landscapes of four language museums affiliated to different universities in China and Europe respectively and aims to examine the roles and interactions of various multimodal resources,including the visual,verbal,audio and layout signifiers.This study has the following findings:(1)It suggests that the using of multimodal resources differentiates between Chinese and European language museum websites and proves that multimodal resources are significant towards communicating language diversity online.Compared with Chinese language museum websites,European language museum websites display more multimodal resources with higher degrees of interactivity.(2)It also manifests the applicability of the proposed theoretical framework and reveals that different self-identities are constructed involving Chinese and European language museum websites.In general,Chinese language museum websites appear to be more institutional and academic to mainly engage the professionals,while their European counterparts tend to be more educational and popularized to attract more diverse audiences.(3)It further interprets contextual elements including museum ideologies,target audiences,university identities and culture structures corresponding to the Principle of Presentation of Self,the Principle of Good Reasons,the Principle of Collective Identity and the Principle of Power Relations and proposes relevant suggestions concerning museum constructions and international communications for domestic digital language museums in the future.