Taking orchestration further in the digital materiality of EMI learning

Övrigt konferensbidrag, 2023

“Orchestration” as a core concept of translanguaging theories postulates a collaborative effort of all interlocutors to communicate through reciprocating each other’s linguistic and semiotic systems (Zhu et al., 2020). Drawing on new materialism (Canagarajah, 2018), this study argues for an expanded view of orchestration beyond human-centrism, incorporating the agency of materiality (i.e., objects, artefacts, technologies) to constitute communication. The study reports on a linguistic ethnography research of university students’ communicative practices for English-Medium Instruction (EMI) at a Swedish university committed to digitalisation and blended learning. Based on interviews and observations (video-recorded learning activities), the analysis shows digital multimodalities and AI-language tools are essential features of spatial repertoires embedded in EMI learning contexts and enabling academic communication. Moreover, assemblages of personal and spatial repertoires for academic communication in the examined EMI context manifest unequal indexical values of digital resources, which could impact power relations among the students with different experiences and accessibility of digitalised learning. The findings have practical implications for language and communication education in EMI settings, emphasizing cultivating the ability to orchestrate, which is to align with all human and non-human (digital) resources as well as to negotiate normativity in digitality for positive interaction and learning outcomes.