Co-constructing orthographic mediated space through Sinographic visualization in Hong Kong Chinese-as-an-additional-language classroom interactions

Despite the extensive research on literacy practices in classroom interaction, research on the context of logographic language learning remains scarce. This paper investigates the sequential and embodied organization of creating learning opportunities through Sinographic writing in Chinese-as-an-additional-language classrooms in Hong Kong. Using multimodal conversation analysis, this study specifically focuses on how teachers make use of Sinographic visualization in post-expansion sequences to create orthographic mediated space for achieving pedagogical goals. This paper demonstrates that the use of Sinographic visualization is a mediator for developing literacy, which involves orthographic, phonetic, and semantic knowledge. It also reveals that Sinographs can be used to activate students’ visual-spatial memory in Sinographic recognition and its written production in two different sequential environments: (i) Sinographic explanation sequences for checking understanding and (ii) corrective feedback sequences after students display trouble in writing. The findings argue that Sinographs could be potentially shaped and visualized for creating learning opportunities to promote intersubjective understanding of orthographic knowledge. The pedagogical implications for teaching logographic languages are also discussed.