Orchestrating multimodal corrective feedback in teaching Chinese as a foreign language classrooms
How teachers deploy gesture and speech to construct ideational meaning
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12346367 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Siyuan Xing (0009-0002-7428-8281, Macau University of Science and Technology), Jing Zhang (0000-0002-6431-9286, Macau University of Science and Technology, corresponding author), Luxi Zhang (0000-0001-8895-3006, Zhejiang Gongshang University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-25 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-04 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Semiotics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1035-0330 • E-ISSN: 1470-1219 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/10350330.2025.2608064 |
| OpenAlex | W7118195775 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 35 |
Corrective feedback (CF) is central to second language learning, yet most research focuses on verbal exchanges or learner uptake, overlooking how teachers use multiple modes of speech, hand gestures, and head gestures to construct meaning during error correction. This study examines how teachers of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language strategically orchestrate these multimodal resources to make linguistic forms perceptually salient and support learners’ understanding. Drawing on twelve 45-minute classroom video recordings and using Systemic Functional-Multimodal Discourse Analysis, we identify 106 CF sequences across three classrooms. The analysis demonstrates that teachers consistently combine verbal recasts with gesture-based signals that mark tonal contours, highlight morphemic units, or clarify referential meaning. These co-instantiated resources construct structured interdependencies like paratactic, hypotactic, comparative, and additive relations that lead to semantic convergence. The findings reveal that multimodal orchestration provides a powerful explanatory lens for understanding how CF works and how it can be better designed in teaching Chinese as a foreign language.
Chinese as a foreign language · Construct (python library · Corrective Feedback · Gesture · Meaning (existential · Multimodality · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Hearing Impairment and Communication · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies
Investigating Classroom Discourse
Social Interaction and L2 Classroom Discourse
Sociocultural Theory and the Pedagogical Imperative in L2 Education
Corrective Feedback and Teacher Development
Differential Effects of Prompts and Recasts in Form-Focused Instruction
Lectures on Conversation
An Introduction to Functional Grammar
The influence of sensory-motor components of handwriting on Chinese character learning in second- and fourth-grade Chinese children
A Vygotskian Perspective on Corrective Feedback in L2
A Teacher’s Multimodal Corrective Feedback
Researching the Effects of Form-Focussed Instruction on L2 Acquisition
Investigating intersemiosis
Systemic functional-multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA)
Intersemiotic Texture
Analysing the teachers’ use of gestures in the classroom
Gestures that co‐occur with speech as a systematic resource
Classroom Interaction Research
Corrective Feedback and Learner Uptake
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |