Chapter

Chapter 3:
3: Mediation,
Mediation,
Multimodality
Multimodality and
and
Multiliteracies
Multiliteracies
Group 3: Estela Vale, Filipe Duarte,
Maria Cecilia Villaça & Nelson Rezende
 Mediation = Being in the
Middle
• The construct of mediation in
education has its roots in the
socialcultural theory of learning, and
particularly in the work of Vygotsky
(1978), Leontiev (1981) and Wertsch
(1991). 
Mediation also refers to
interaction and negotiation.
• The Sociocultural approaches present us
the central role of social interaction in the
learning process; once every human being
who is learning is mediated through or
shaped by interaction with others, through
mediational tools:
 Mediational Tools:
• The language that humans use;
• The cultural Assumptions that they bring to the
event (their belief system);
• The social institutions within which the event is
taking place (e.g. school, park, market, etc);
• The software or hardware humans have at their
disposal (The Internet, newspaper, abacus, etc);
• The time structure that frames their encounter
(continuous in  a real-time frame, interrupted in
a time-delayed one);
A model of mediation in
CMCL:
Language is the main mediational
tool in all social human learning,
particularly in language learning,
where it constitutes the end as
well as the means.
 The Concept of
Affordance
• According to Gibson (1979 – 127), “the
affordance of the environment are
what it offers the animal, what it
provides or furnishes, either for good
or ill. “
 Some technical functionalities that
the new online media offer:

• Browsing;

• Artefact creation and manipulation;

• Shared textual/visual/graphic tools;

• Clickable icons for interaction;

• Asynchronous sending/receiving (e.g. chat);

• Voice-over Internet (e.g. audio conferencing);

 These functionalities and

material characteristics have

affordances which in turn

impact on interaction.
 The Concept of Mode

• “We define mode as semiotic resources which allow

the simultaneous realization of discourses and types
of (inter)action (Kress and van Leeuwen). Further,
each mode involve(s) a system with an underlying
grammar that embodies the organization of the
system and the uses to which it can be put”
(Chanier and Velter, 2006:3)
• Computers can provide access to environments
bringing together a number of modes, including
those based on text, speech, gestures, images and
icons. Even the spatial organization of the screen
plays a role in how meaning is made, so in that
sense the choices made by designers in how the
screen space is used, also constitutes a mode.
Combining these in multimodal software allows for
an “orchestration of meaning” (Kress).
 “Language is not a “domain” of human
knowledge. Language is the essential
condition of knowing the process by which
experience ‘becomes” knowledge.
(Halliday)
 New Literacies

• Literacy “is the ability to understand and

employ printed information in daily
activities, at home, at work and in the
community – to achieve one’s goals, and to
develop one’s knowledge and potential.”
(OECD, 2000)
• The impact of technological
developments on literacy in recent
years can be summarised as a
“revolution in the uses and effects of
literacy and of associated means of
representing and communicating at
every level and in every domain”
(KRESS, 2003: 1)
 Multiliteracies: practical
challenges for CMCL users

(p. 45)
 Multiliteracies: Implications for
teachers who follow a sociocultural
approach

• Multiliteracies are much more than

simply dealing with the technical
aspect of the electronic medium;
• They include engaging with others
through the new technologies and
using these CREATIVELLY as well as
CRITICALLY.
 Implications for
designers
• They are interested in developing
softwares that offer affordances
potentially able to create social
presence in a virtual, “disembodied”
environment; where interaction might
be limited to one or two modes (e.g.
buddyspace).
 Implications for
Institutions
• They may be more or less supportive of
CMCL users;
• Online activity may be restricted to one
platform only, due to economic and
security factors;
• Cultural factors also play a major role in
the development or inhibition of CMCL.
How we can use the tools available to
learners in a critical and creative way
is a key issue to CMCL, and for
education in general; it definitely
needs further in-depth research.