Orchestrating multimodal resources in English language teaching: a critical study of an online English teaching video

ABSTRACT This study develops a framework that integrates multimodality and translanguaging to analyze meaning-making in an online English teaching video. We consider pedagogy as more than teaching approaches and methods, but as a process of design that is realized by the orchestration of multimodal semiotic resources. In terms of multimodal analysis, we systematically transcribed the configuration of resources used in different stages and moves of an online English teaching video on YouTube, and how they work together to achieve the objectives of the lesson. From a translanguaging perspective, we employ the notion of “orchestration” to understand how resources in the teacher’s repertoire work together. The analysis demonstrates how multimodal resources are intertwined to construct meaning that cannot be captured by studying them in isolation. A critical analysis of the video was conducted to determine the extent to which translanguaging pedagogy and raciolinguistic ideologies are found in the video. The study concludes that not only is it important to consider multimodal design of online videos; the social justice agenda of a translanguaging pedagogy that eschews native-speaker norms and raciolinguistic ideologies is equally important, especially for learners from diverse linguacultural backgrounds.