The previous discussion described how what the students wished to express is placed in the world
through the interaction order. The following section will now explore the ways in w hich the
interaction order is represented through images, signs and objects in the data. This aspect o f how
voice is expressed online is described by the visual order (Scollon and Scollon, 2003, p. 83).
4.2.1 Modality
The way in which the students quickly recontextualise the school m odelled language and behaviour
patterns relating to the primary “question and answ er” genre has been discussed above. The ease
with which they collectively engage in task based discourse can be further explained by
considering the effect of the visual order at the m acro level o f the data set. The ways in w hich the
Nicholas Austin Y 2872156 Video Conferencing and Multimodal Expression of Voice
pupils engage with the task is also influenced by the visual suborder of modality (or colour).
Certain colours and colour schemes emphasise the primary school setting. Hat primary colours are mixed together to create eye catching tones. In nature colours rarely appear in their pure, primary form. A high degree of correspondence with what we see in nature with the naked eye is considered high modality. High modality is modulated colour. In contrast the colours of the Primary classroom are predominantly flat colours which may be perceived as pure, simplified and bold. They express colour as an elementary quality of things and are considered low modality (Kress, 2011, p. 358).
The low modality (flat characteristic colours) of the classroom is similarly reflected in the uniforms worn by the children. These features index the space as being an ‘in school’ context rather than an out of school ‘home’ one. For anyone familiar with such settings these colours help index the type of social encounter that might be expected to take place in this environment. In addition, the high illumination of both spaces indexes their function as a place of work and learning. Modality is therefore connected to the relationship between the learning task and voice. Throughout the data the bright lighting and display of primary colours encourages the ‘on-task’ behaviour of the students by setting a spirit of classroom activity. At the beginning of the micro segment of data used in this analysis the ways in which the visual order is represented through Skype video conferencing technology support the ‘in-class’ behaviour of the students (such as raising hands and sitting in rows) which helped to maintain the IRF discourse structure.
4.2.2 Location, visual signs and objects
Nevertheless, 20’ 12” seconds into the Skype session the nature of the discourse has changed from task based activity to talk that grows around the central topic of Anna’s teddy bear. How this change is orchestrated is visible in the visual order from a closer (micro level) analysis. At 20’07”
seconds Anna runs into the screen shot from the right hand side (the position indexing something new), she leans in to the camera and then exits again from the right. This action signals to the English children where to look next (Figure 5). A teddy bear then appears in the right hand margin of the screen signalling a new topic for discussion. The appearance of the bear seemingly by itself provokes increased noise and movement from the children which suggests their captured interest.
The bear, therefore, acts as a tool to offer further interaction between the children. Anna is able to
m anipulate semiotic resources and engineer a change in the type o f conversation. The im aginative
way in which this is achieved points to her strong sense of personal agency. This is further
illustrated when Anna brings the bear to the forefront of the webcam, displaying the sym bol o f the
English flag on its jum per and asks ‘can you read his belly?’ (Table 13). The bear is positioned to
the side of A nna indexing new inform ation; an attem pt by A nna to establish an area o f shared
experience with her English Skype partners. A nna’s resourceful m anoeuvring o f signs and objects
shows how the culturally acknow ledged tools of a teddy bear and a flag are individually shaded and
toned when they are used to express A nna’s voice.
Table 13. Example from the analysis of the visual order
belly’)
to5»prcp»
f c r e f r o r t s c th a t fla g ar.i Er.aiar.i b e c o m e v i a b l e as n e v r i c f o n n a r i O E or.
± e le ft o f t h e s c r e e n A i s \ e s t a b l i s h i n g c c r o r a c r . g r o i x d
1 -.th 5 k v p e p a n r .e r s
The screen through which the children express their voices when using Skype reflects both the
tools for its expression as well as the background in which voices engage. Skype provides a visual
Nicholas Austin Y 2872156 Video Conferencing and Multimodal Expression of Voice
medium for voice that allows children to represent objects, actions and feelings with something that stands for them. Depending on their level of development, such ability may or may not be paralleled by children’s corresponding ability to represent these in language (Cassell and Ryokai, 2001). In this situation the material means for expressing a voice is expanded to include the silent language (Hall, 1959) of paralinguistic or concrete objects that may be selected by a communicator to express their thoughts. The example above shows how a teddy bear is used to represent a Portuguese child’s connection to England and to establish common ground with the other students.
Figures 21 to 27 highlight other examples from the data in which the children use their symbolic imagination to voice their ideas with others. In the first screen shot (Figure 21) the boy on the right of the screen is holding up a scarecrow that he has made in school. The boy on the left mimes terror to represent his notion that scarecrows should be scary. Figure 22 shows John holding up a rectangle to help Ethan, his English Skype partner, think of four facts about the shape. These facts are used a clues to help Lee, in the middle of the screen shot (35b), to guess what the shape is. In the next example (Figure 23) the Portuguese children are using word cards to play a word game in which they must give four facts about a particular word so that their English Skype partner (36b) can try to guess the word they are thinking of. In Figure 24 the Portuguese children use large plastic Euro coins to help them to explain how money is different in Portugal to the money the English children use. Figure 25 shows children trying to clarify what a firework is. They use their hands and fingers to signal an explosion and so represent the action, illustrating the verb
‘explodes.’ Similarly, John, in Figure 26, uses his hands and fingers, this time to mime a pair of glasses. He is trying to explain that it is hard to see what is happening on the screen in front of him.
The final screen shot (Figure 27) shows Wendy holding a book with a picture of Justin Bieber on the front of it. Here the book signals the girl’s interest in, and experience of, the popular musician.
Through gesture and the use of objects the children learn about representational relationships (i.e.
X stands for Y in context Z) (Hall et al., 2013). By using objects and gestures to represent words in the conversation the children are able to extend their voice to communicate things that they might not be able to using words from their L2 alone. This capacity for making meaning motivates the children to share their experiences with their social partners. Gestures and objects can fill the
lexical gaps that children have or help to clarify things that are expressed in words, subsequently
leading to further developm ents in spoken language.
Figure 21. Paul gesturing in response to the scarecrow
22a E than is giving clues for Lee so that he can guess w hat shape is being held up behind his head
22b John, on the left, is holding a shape behind Lee, w ho is sat in the m iddle. L ee m ust guess the shape from the clues supplied by Ethan, his E nglish Skype p artner (22a)
Figure 22 Children collaborating online to play a maths game
N icholas A ustin Y 2 8 7 2 1 5 6 Video C onferencing and M ultim odal E xpression o f Voice
23a Portuguese children show w ords on plastic bricks and give four clues about one o f the w ords. T hat w ord is the ‘word w all w o rd .’ T heir Skype partner m ust try to guess the w ord after each clue
h J M J
‘Cart you guess our word wall word? It has a silent K... ’
23b E than is trying to guess the ‘w ord w all w o rd ’ (23a)
Figure 23 Children collaborating online to play a spelling game
‘This is not the real money. This... this is ju st plastic ’
Figure 24. Portuguese children showing large plastic euro and cent coins
Is it the thing that explodes?
Figure 25. Children using gesture and verbal speech
Figure 26. John (on the left of the screen) using gesture and words to communicate
Figure 27. A book is used as a visual aid (taken from the pilot study)
M icro analysis of the data would, therefore, suggest that the orchestration of resources in the visual
order does im pact on the nature of what is said and done by the conversationalists. W hat and how
meanings are negotiated in this environm ent are contingent on how visual semiotic resources are
represented through Skype and the way in which this enables ways of being together to be achieved
through the interaction order.