4:15pm - Ideological and Implementational Spaces for Multilingualism: Lessons on Policy Making from China
Qi Shen (Tongji University, China) qishen@tongji.edu.cn
In this paper, I draw on Ruiz’ s (1984) metaphorical representations of language to outline the ideological and implementational spaces for language policy making in Greater China. In particular, the papers highlights how the ‘resource’ orientation allows different stakeholders to negotiate the development of language policies that may help preserve linguistic diversity within a tradition of seeing linguistic unity as foundational to national unity. To illustrate this, this paper presents an analysis of media texts on a major language policy initiative in mainland China and examine relevant discussions in other Chinese contexts. It contends that this ‘resource’ orientation has a significant role in defining the implementational space for language policy making in Greater China, despite the critique that may be levelled at it.
4:30pm - Multimodal Metaphors in Public Service Advertisement: A Case Study of CCTV Advertisement of Lantern Festival "Lantern Riddles"
Lina CHEN, Tongji University, Shanghai (chenlina19950118@qq.com)
Multimodal metaphor analysis has become one of the hotspots in an enlarged view of linguistics extended to semiotic features. Most analyses focus on commercial advertisements and there exist just a few of studies on public service advertisements. Clarifying the ways in which multimodal metaphors appear and exist in public service advertisements is of certain significance to broaden research horizon and analyze dynamic video. Based on the 2017 CCTV public service advertisement of Lantern Festival "Lantern Riddles", this analysis explores the types of multimodal metaphors in the advertisement, concludes the relationship between modes and metaphors and analyzes the ways this advertisement uses to spread socialist core values, which is hoped to shed lights on analyzing public service advertisements with multimodal metaphors.
4:45pm - Instructor Wardrobe: Messages Sent and Received
Anna Nesterchouk, University of Wisconsin-Madison (nesterchouk@wisc.edu)
Colors, styles, and dress norms are some of the non-verbal signs used to construct meaning about one’s complex identity. This process of signification is situated within the historical, cultural, and institutional context. I intend to explore the communicative role of professional dress in U.S. education, its evolution, and significance in the perception of ‘a teacher’. I will examine how the visual rhetoric has reflected and supported the power relations as well as the changing role of an educator. The explicit and implicit policies of a normed semiotic language of instructor clothing established by schools and districts will be discussed.
5:00pm - The construction of national images through media translation: agenda-setting in Qiushi JournalEnglish Edition
Bin GAO, Tongji University, Shanghai (kevingao6688@tongji.edu.cn)
This paper discusses the construction of China’s national images for an international audience, as presented in the English version of Qiushi Journal. It uses the concept of agenda-setting put forward by Maxwell Mccombs in his studies of mass media. Agenda setting “may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about”. The existence of agenda-setting function suggests that national images can be constructed through setting agendas in a country’s international discourse. Qiushi Journal (English Edition) is based on its Chinese version of the same name, which serves as the political organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on China’s governance and perspectives. But it is not a complete translation. Instead, only a small number of articles from the Chinese version are selected and translated into English for an international audience. The selecting process is an agenda-setting process. In this process, China’s national images are constructed. The paper analyzes a corpus of 37 issues of Qiushi Journal (English Edition) from its creation in 2009 to 2018 to precisely consider what has been selected by the political discourse producer to construct what images about China on the basis of the corpus.
5:15pm - Understanding the Semiotics of Religion to Manufacture a Culturally Inclusive Atmosphere in U.S. Classrooms
Asmahan Sandokji, University of Wisconsin-Madison (sandokji@wisc.edu)
Schools across the U.S, today are witnessing an increasing number of linguistically and culturally diverse children. With the substantially increase of immigration and migration waves, schools need to take a critical stance in welcoming the unique cultures of all their children. The paper argues that enhancing the status of the students’ unique cultures requires an understanding of symbolic elements of each culturally diverse group. It investigates Islamic religion and looks into how educators gather resources that would help them in supporting their Muslim students. The study includes how educators represent the Islamic religion within their classroom through the use of symbols in creating visual signs and artifacts in the classroom. Besides, examining the cultural symbols will allow educators to understand the characteristics of his/her Muslim students’ religious practices and beliefs. Therefore, through understanding the unique features of Islam, the educator will be able to create an inclusive atmosphere for his/her students where they feel understood and supported by their teacher. The significance of the study lays in the fact that Islam is one of the most misunderstood religions in the world. Therefore, creating a platform to help educators understand the Islamic faith through recognizing its symbols will create a stronger compassion for their Muslim students and their families.
5:30pm - Exploring Dental Fear and Anxiety among Kids:
A Sino-U. S. Comparative Research on Multimodal Interactions in Pediatric Dentistry
Enhua GUO , Tongji University, Shanghai (657648920@qq.com)
The prevalence of dental fear and anxiety (DFA) among child patients has been well documented (Milgrom et al., 1988; Oosterink, 2009; Shim et al., 2015). Research has shown that DFA can not only augment the bodily sensation of dental pain, but can lead to dental treatment avoidance (Shim et al., 2015). Despite a large body of quantitative studies on DFA, thus far, little research has been conducted on how DFA among young patients is being managed interactionally, moment by moment, to enable the completion of dental treatment. This study applies a multimodal interaction analysis to the naturallyoccurring multi-party communication among pediatric dentists, dental assistants, child patients, and child guardians. Usingvideo-recorded data gathered from dental clinics both in China and the United States, we focus on three interactional moments between the dentist and the patient: (1) orienting the patient to dental tools, (2) persuading and manipulating the patient to open his or her mouth, and (3) injecting anesthesia. Our research questions include: (1) How do young patients express their DFA and how their DFA is taken up by dental practitioners (including their guardians), moment by moment, in and through multimodal practices? (2) What is the role of touch in scaffolding the intercorporeal participation framework(Goffman, 1981; Goodwin & Goodwin, 2004) of the dental treatment? And (3) how is agency distributed among patient, dentist, dental assistant, and guardians via the way in which they control and comfort the patient’s body?
5:45pm - Construction and Development of Shared Language Community against the Backdrop of “Belt and Road” Initiative
Shuxia ZHOU, Tongji University, Shanghai (18360917992@163.com)
Language is the pivotal link for culture communication. Countries along “belt and road” enjoy different languages and diverse culture. Language communication lays a solid foundation for the “Five Communications” in the “Belt and Road” Initiative and it is a prerequisite for community of shared future for mankind; accordingly, “Belt and Road” Initiative needs language communication. This paper, probing into macroenvironment of countries along “belt and road” from social and cultural perspective with the assistance of PEST framework in economics, attempts to analyze opportunities and challenges for community of shared future for mankind and community of language, with an eye to providing reference for multilingual construction.
