Emilia Djonov
Biographic Data
| ID | 761279 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Emilia Djonov |
| GIVEN NAMES | Emilia |
| FAMILY NAME | Djonov |
| SIGNATURE | DJONOV E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Macquarie University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1593-6365 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 67 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Van Leeuwen, theO
Theo van Leeuwen (1947– ) is a cofounder, alongside Gunther Kress, of multimodality as a discipline within applied linguistics, education, and media and cultural studies.
Multimodality and Software
In its broadest sense, the term “software” contrasts to “hardware” and applies to any computer features that cannot be physically manipulated. This includes features invisible to the average computer user such as algorithms, text files written by programmers in source code, and their translations into computer‐executable, binary, code.
Conceptualising Multilingual Infants’ Language Learning in Ecec Through a New Ecobehavioural Model
As the number of multilingual children attending early childhood settings continues to grow, there has been an increasing focus on how to support their language learning experiences in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. This article proposes an ecobehavioural model for supporting multilingual infants’ language development in ECEC settings, which is inspired by and builds on Vygotsky’s cultural–historical approach, Bronfenbrenner’…
Time matters: A critical multimodal study of an English learning app for children in China
Time and its management, as evident in the scheduling, sequencing and structuring of activities, is important in early childhood education (ECE). While ECE apps have been changing teaching and learning practices for over a decade, research has yet to examine how they represent and manage time. To address this gap, we analysed the representation and management of time in iHuman ABC, a popular English learning app for children in China. Adopting Dj…
Educators’ infant-addressed language and gestures during shared reading in Australian and Chinese early childhood settings: A comparative study
Shared reading has been encouraged in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings in many countries. While previous research has examined educators’ language use with infants during shared reading in Western contexts, little is known about whether and how shared reading is enacted in different cultures, nor how educators’ language use interacts with non-verbal communication modes during shared reading. Adopting a cross-cultural, multimodal…
Bioecological understanding of Korean Australian families’ heritage language maintenance
While Australia is a multilingual country, there is an accelerated shift from migrant heritage languages (HL) to English in migrant families. Korean migrants, however, reverse this trend, as they show a high level of HL maintenance. The maintenance of Korean can be attributed to the presence of well-established Korean-learning environments in the community. Focusing on the Korean communities in Australia, this study extends the knowledge about th…
Navigating the complexities of a virtual exchange with young language learners: Insights into language teacher agency through the lens of ecological systems theory
Although virtual exchange, or telecollaboration, is recognised as an effective language learning approach, little is known about in-service teachers’ perspectives on its implementation in primary and lower secondary school settings. Supporting language teachers in conducting virtual exchanges with young students requires an understanding of both immediate classroom dynamics and broader educational contexts. This one-year qualitative case study ex…
Evaluating English Learning Apps for Chinese Preschoolers: A Multimodal Case Study
English learning apps have been receiving steadily growing attention in research on educational technology. Yet, few studies have considered the evaluation of English learning apps for preschoolers as foreign language learners. This article examines the extent to which the design of two English learning apps for young children popular in China, iHuman ABC and Khan Academy Kids , and discourses around them reflect research evidence on how young ch…
The fragmentation and plasticity of space in film
This paper explores the plasticity of represented space in film by focusing on how space in film can be constructed out of fragments. Motivated by previous research suggesting that the fragmentation of space in film can be hidden from viewers, we propose a framework for analysing core features of space construction in terms of three main dimensions: 1. Explicitness, or whether a space is shown visually and explicit, or only implied through sound;…
From ‘what’ to ‘why’: Plotting the emergence and frequency of children's questions from 30 to 42 months of age
Children's ability to ask questions is a critical learning tool; allowing them to seek information from others in order to construct and refine their concepts and understandings. While family-based studies demonstrate that children are effective questioners by pre-school age, few studies have investigated children's question use in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. This longitudinal study followed 27 children from 30 to 42 month…
Shared reading of picturebooks for supporting preschool children’s multilingual learning: A scoping review
The shared reading of picturebooks, a practice in which an adult reads and talks about a picturebook with one or more children, has been well-documented for its potential to promote children’s early language development. The past two decades have witnessed increased scholarly attention on shared reading with multilingual children, yet the potential of this practice to facilitate children’s multilingual learning, or their learning of two or more l…
Young students learning German as a Foreign Language in primary school: A scoping review
Aims and objectives: This scoping review aims to provide an overview of empirical research on young students learning German as a Foreign Language (GFL) in primary school settings. Methodology: A systematic search was conducted across six databases in November 2023, following established scoping review methodology. The search included peer-reviewed empirical studies published between 1990 and 2023 in English or German, focusing on children aged 5…
What Factors are Associated with Young Children’s Language Learning Environment? A Systematic Review of Language Environment Analysis (Lena) Measures
Children’s comprehension of time and their interpretation of event relations in narrative film: The tangled case of flashbacks
Audiovisual narratives are widely adopted as a resource for promoting children’s learning and critical multimodal literacy, which involves considering the social themes presented in multimodal texts. Previous research reveals that storytelling that employs achronological sequencing challenges children’s temporal cognition and narrative comprehension. Little is known, however, about how children’s comprehension of events relates to their interpret…
Cultural impact on risk communication: A comparative multimodal study of institutional discourse from tight and loose cultures
Shared reading of wordless picturebooks for children’s multilingual and multimodal learning
Voices, visuals, and virtual connections: Young language learners forming and constructing multilingual identity in a virtual exchange project
Doing citizen sociosemiotics in the Covid-19 pandemic
In May 2020, in the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, we set up the transmedia space PanMeMic, and involved our social networks, in a snowball fashion, to exchange observations and reflections on the changes in communication and social interactions ensuing from the restrictions imposed. We adopted a citizen approach towards co-constructing knowledge about semiotic practices, by integrating tenets of social semiotics, ethnography and citizen soc…
“Church is like a mini Korea”: The potential of migrant religious organisations for promoting heritage language maintenance
Immigration from diverse countries of origin has brought to Australia a great linguistic diversity. Moving to Australia, many migrant communities tend to shift from their heritage languages (HLs) and shift to English. Korean migrant communities, however, buck this trend. Notable within the Korean communities are ethnic church congregations, which offer social networks to maintain Korean identity. Focusing on the Korean communities in Australia, t…
Translanguaging practices in infant rooms: Case studies of Chinese-Australian bilingual infant-educator interactions
Many bilingual infants attend early childhood education centres (ECEC) with their monolingual peers. However, recent evidence reveals that bilingual infants vocalise significantly less than monolingual infants in ECEC settings (Zheng et al. 2023) [Effects of Multilingualism on Australian Infants' Language Environments in Early Childhood Education Centers. Infant Behavior and Development, 70, 101799.], suggesting that educators may need to provide…
From my parents’ language to my language: Understanding language ideologies of young Australian Korean heritage language learners at the primary and secondary school level
The increasing influx into Australia of (im)migrants whose first language is not English has made Australia linguistically more diverse than ever. Despite this, Australia remains a strongly Anglocentric nation, and migrants, in response, tend to abandon their heritage languages (HL) and shift to English relatively quickly. Korean migrants in Australia buck this trend, as they show a relatively high level of language maintenance. The Australian Ko…
Children’s comprehension of time in audiovisual narratives: A multimodal discourse and empirical approach
“I want my children to become global citizens”: The role of a heritage language in appreciation of citizenship status in young Korean Australian children and their parents
Increasing globalisation has spurred a flow of migrants worldwide. These movements include exchanges of migrants’ linguistic repertoires across regions, transforming the ways in which they define themselves in a multilingual society. Unlike identity categories such as ethnic identity, the contested concept of citizenship identity has remained underexplored in heritage language (HL) research. Focusing on Korean migrant families in Australia, this …
Evaluating a children's television show as a vehicle for learning about historical artefacts: The Value of Multimodal Discourse Analysis
Television, like other media, can work as a platform for promoting learning. This article illustrates the value of multimodal discourse analysis for evaluating the potential of a children’s television show as a vehicle for fostering knowledge and skills in a specific subject area. Drawing on social semiotic principles and systemic functional genre theory, we examine the use of language and other modes in Teacup Travels – a show designed to introd…
Supporting multilingual development in early childhood education: A scoping review
Social media as semiotic technology and social practice: The case of ResearchGate’s design and its potential to transform social practice
This article addresses the need for critical approaches to social media by bridging the focus on language and other semiotic resources that characterises discourse studies with the broader perspective on social media as social, cultural, economic and technological constructs that dominates media and cultural studies. Specifically, we propose a model for analysing how social media as semiotic technologies, that is, technologies designed to enable …
The semiotics of texture: From tactile to visual
The term ‘texture’ is often applied beyond the tactile, to describe visual and aural qualities. While tactile, visual and aural texture have been studied separately in various fields, the relationships between them remain largely unexplored. To address this gap, this article proposes parameters for describing tactile surface texture and visual texture, and compares their meaning-making potential. The authors argue that, as new technologies increa…
Critical Multimodal Studies of Popular Discourse
David Byrne really does love PowerPoint”: Art as research on semiotics and semiotic technology
This article presents a reading of David Byrne's Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information, an art work created with MicroSoft's presentation software PowerPoint, as an instance of creative research on semiotics and semiotic technology. It reveals commonalities and differences between Byrne's ideas about PowerPoint and related ideas from linguistics and semiotics, and is intended as a contribution to research on PowerPoint, and on semioti…
From my parents’ language to my language: Understanding language ideologies of young Australian Korean heritage language learners at the primary and secondary school level
The increasing influx into Australia of (im)migrants whose first language is not English has made Australia linguistically more diverse than ever. Despite this, Australia remains a strongly Anglocentric nation, and migrants, in response, tend to abandon their heritage languages (HL) and shift to English relatively quickly. Korean migrants in Australia buck this trend, as they show a relatively high level of language maintenance. The Australian Ko…
Harnessing the potential of transmedia narratives for critical multimodal literacy
Literary narratives are well recognised for their power to foster engagement with complex social themes. Transmedia narratives, which present the same story in different media, can help advance both critical multimodal discourse studies and multiliteracies pedagogies. To harness this potential, we need to develop methods for systematically relating media affordances to discourse-semantic patterns and the broad social themes these patterns constru…
Images as a Resource for Supporting Vocabulary Learning: A Multimodal Analysis of Thai EFL Tablet Apps for Primary School Children
In 2011, the Thai government introduced a national project, One Tablet per Child (OTPC), with the aim of supporting students' learning in the digital world. The project commenced with Grade 1 in 2012 and Grade 2 in 2013. The applications embedded in the OTPC tablet given to each child feature multimedia teaching applications (apps) on various subjects, including English as a foreign language (EFL). Using the Grade 1 and 2 English apps as a case s…
Between the grid and composition: Layout in PowerPoint's design and use
Ubiquitous software such as PowerPoint has contributed to making layout an important semiotic resource in everyday professional communication. Drawing on developments in the visual arts, graphic design, and social semiotics, this paper presents two central and complementary principles for layout design and analysis: the grid and composition. These principles are then applied in a conceptualization of the template as an interface between the grid …
Shared reading of wordless picturebooks for children’s multilingual and multimodal learning
Reading aloud as performance and its representation on television programmes for children
The social practice of reading aloud picture books to children, or shared reading, has been represented on many televisions programmes broadcast across English-speaking countries. This article views shared reading as a performance, and explores its transformation on two television shows for children and the potential of such shows to promote reading engagement and literacy development. Taking a critical multimodal perspective, we analyse shared r…
The semiotics of texture: From tactile to visual
The term ‘texture’ is often applied beyond the tactile, to describe visual and aural qualities. While tactile, visual and aural texture have been studied separately in various fields, the relationships between them remain largely unexplored. To address this gap, this article proposes parameters for describing tactile surface texture and visual texture, and compares their meaning-making potential. The authors argue that, as new technologies increa…
Multimodality and Hypermedia
No longer reserved for hypertext that includes sound or video, nowadays the term “hypermedia“ refers to any hypertext featuring both typographic and non‐typographic elements and has become interchangeable with the term “hypertext.“ Hypertext consists of nodes and hyperlinks.
Critical Multimodal Studies of Popular Discourse
David Byrne really does love PowerPoint”: Art as research on semiotics and semiotic technology
This article presents a reading of David Byrne's Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information, an art work created with MicroSoft's presentation software PowerPoint, as an instance of creative research on semiotics and semiotic technology. It reveals commonalities and differences between Byrne's ideas about PowerPoint and related ideas from linguistics and semiotics, and is intended as a contribution to research on PowerPoint, and on semioti…
Between the grid and composition: Layout in PowerPoint's design and use
Ubiquitous software such as PowerPoint has contributed to making layout an important semiotic resource in everyday professional communication. Drawing on developments in the visual arts, graphic design, and social semiotics, this paper presents two central and complementary principles for layout design and analysis: the grid and composition. These principles are then applied in a conceptualization of the template as an interface between the grid …
Semiotic technology and practice: A multimodal social semiotic approach to PowerPoint
The ubiquitous software PowerPoint has significant influence on evaluations of professional and academic success, and has attracted considerable attention from both social commentators and researchers in various fields. Existing research on PowerPoint considers the software, slideshows created with it, and PowerPoint-supported presentations in isolation from each other and is therefore unable to promote better understanding of the interaction bet…
Notes towards a semiotics of kinetic typography
© 2015 Taylor & Francis. This paper traces the development of a new semiotic mode, kinetic typography. Kinetic typography began with the experiments of filmmakers like Len Lye and Norman McLaren. Later, film title designers like Saul Bass and Pablo Ferro drew on the shapes of letters with inventive metaphors – serifs, for instance could make letters walk, because they can stand for shoes as they are elongated horizontals on which something stands…
Reading aloud as performance and its representation on television programmes for children
The social practice of reading aloud picture books to children, or shared reading, has been represented on many televisions programmes broadcast across English-speaking countries. This article views shared reading as a performance, and explores its transformation on two television shows for children and the potential of such shows to promote reading engagement and literacy development. Taking a critical multimodal perspective, we analyse shared r…
Images as a Resource for Supporting Vocabulary Learning: A Multimodal Analysis of Thai EFL Tablet Apps for Primary School Children
In 2011, the Thai government introduced a national project, One Tablet per Child (OTPC), with the aim of supporting students' learning in the digital world. The project commenced with Grade 1 in 2012 and Grade 2 in 2013. The applications embedded in the OTPC tablet given to each child feature multimedia teaching applications (apps) on various subjects, including English as a foreign language (EFL). Using the Grade 1 and 2 English apps as a case s…
Social media as semiotic technology and social practice: The case of ResearchGate’s design and its potential to transform social practice
This article addresses the need for critical approaches to social media by bridging the focus on language and other semiotic resources that characterises discourse studies with the broader perspective on social media as social, cultural, economic and technological constructs that dominates media and cultural studies. Specifically, we propose a model for analysing how social media as semiotic technologies, that is, technologies designed to enable …
The construal of English as a global language in Korean EFL textbooks for primary school children
Reflecting the continued rise of English as a global language, English as a foreign language (EFL) has become a compulsory primary school subject across many non-English-speaking countries. This trend has been accompanied by publishers’ investment in the development of EFL teaching materials for young learners. Such materials rely heavily on images, with relatively sparse writing in English and the children’s first language. This study examines E…
Supporting multilingual development in early childhood education: A scoping review
Children’s experiences with a transmedia narrative: Insights for promoting critical multimodal literacy in the digital age
Harnessing the potential of transmedia narratives for critical multimodal literacy
Literary narratives are well recognised for their power to foster engagement with complex social themes. Transmedia narratives, which present the same story in different media, can help advance both critical multimodal discourse studies and multiliteracies pedagogies. To harness this potential, we need to develop methods for systematically relating media affordances to discourse-semantic patterns and the broad social themes these patterns constru…
Evaluating a children's television show as a vehicle for learning about historical artefacts: The Value of Multimodal Discourse Analysis
Television, like other media, can work as a platform for promoting learning. This article illustrates the value of multimodal discourse analysis for evaluating the potential of a children’s television show as a vehicle for fostering knowledge and skills in a specific subject area. Drawing on social semiotic principles and systemic functional genre theory, we examine the use of language and other modes in Teacup Travels – a show designed to introd…
Children’s comprehension of time in audiovisual narratives: A multimodal discourse and empirical approach
“I want my children to become global citizens”: The role of a heritage language in appreciation of citizenship status in young Korean Australian children and their parents
Increasing globalisation has spurred a flow of migrants worldwide. These movements include exchanges of migrants’ linguistic repertoires across regions, transforming the ways in which they define themselves in a multilingual society. Unlike identity categories such as ethnic identity, the contested concept of citizenship identity has remained underexplored in heritage language (HL) research. Focusing on Korean migrant families in Australia, this …
Doing citizen sociosemiotics in the Covid-19 pandemic
In May 2020, in the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, we set up the transmedia space PanMeMic, and involved our social networks, in a snowball fashion, to exchange observations and reflections on the changes in communication and social interactions ensuing from the restrictions imposed. We adopted a citizen approach towards co-constructing knowledge about semiotic practices, by integrating tenets of social semiotics, ethnography and citizen soc…
“Church is like a mini Korea”: The potential of migrant religious organisations for promoting heritage language maintenance
Immigration from diverse countries of origin has brought to Australia a great linguistic diversity. Moving to Australia, many migrant communities tend to shift from their heritage languages (HLs) and shift to English. Korean migrant communities, however, buck this trend. Notable within the Korean communities are ethnic church congregations, which offer social networks to maintain Korean identity. Focusing on the Korean communities in Australia, t…
Translanguaging practices in infant rooms: Case studies of Chinese-Australian bilingual infant-educator interactions
Many bilingual infants attend early childhood education centres (ECEC) with their monolingual peers. However, recent evidence reveals that bilingual infants vocalise significantly less than monolingual infants in ECEC settings (Zheng et al. 2023) [Effects of Multilingualism on Australian Infants' Language Environments in Early Childhood Education Centers. Infant Behavior and Development, 70, 101799.], suggesting that educators may need to provide…
From my parents’ language to my language: Understanding language ideologies of young Australian Korean heritage language learners at the primary and secondary school level
The increasing influx into Australia of (im)migrants whose first language is not English has made Australia linguistically more diverse than ever. Despite this, Australia remains a strongly Anglocentric nation, and migrants, in response, tend to abandon their heritage languages (HL) and shift to English relatively quickly. Korean migrants in Australia buck this trend, as they show a relatively high level of language maintenance. The Australian Ko…
The fragmentation and plasticity of space in film
This paper explores the plasticity of represented space in film by focusing on how space in film can be constructed out of fragments. Motivated by previous research suggesting that the fragmentation of space in film can be hidden from viewers, we propose a framework for analysing core features of space construction in terms of three main dimensions: 1. Explicitness, or whether a space is shown visually and explicit, or only implied through sound;…
From ‘what’ to ‘why’: Plotting the emergence and frequency of children's questions from 30 to 42 months of age
Children's ability to ask questions is a critical learning tool; allowing them to seek information from others in order to construct and refine their concepts and understandings. While family-based studies demonstrate that children are effective questioners by pre-school age, few studies have investigated children's question use in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. This longitudinal study followed 27 children from 30 to 42 month…
Shared reading of picturebooks for supporting preschool children’s multilingual learning: A scoping review
The shared reading of picturebooks, a practice in which an adult reads and talks about a picturebook with one or more children, has been well-documented for its potential to promote children’s early language development. The past two decades have witnessed increased scholarly attention on shared reading with multilingual children, yet the potential of this practice to facilitate children’s multilingual learning, or their learning of two or more l…
Young students learning German as a Foreign Language in primary school: A scoping review
Aims and objectives: This scoping review aims to provide an overview of empirical research on young students learning German as a Foreign Language (GFL) in primary school settings. Methodology: A systematic search was conducted across six databases in November 2023, following established scoping review methodology. The search included peer-reviewed empirical studies published between 1990 and 2023 in English or German, focusing on children aged 5…
Linguistics (20 works) · Psychology (17 works) · Computer Science (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Pedagogy (12 works) · Literacy, Media, and Education (11 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (11 works) · Semiotics (11 works) · Multimodality (9 works) · Language acquisition (8 works)