Zengning Hu (Beijing Foreign Studies University, China)
Abstract
Transition is considered essential in learning, serving as a critical turning point for learners to encounter new challenges, opportunities, and environments. Due to the lack of understanding of adult learners’ transitions, I focus on the transitions of this target group within the framework of Schlossberg's Transition Theory. Drawing on a multiple data sets including assignments, interviews, reflections, and observations, I explore the types of transitions learners experienced during a year-long multimodal writing project and how the transitions were constructed. Aided by discourse analysis and visual semiotics, I try to demonstrate how adult learners constructed the meaning of transition using various modalities and offer a nuanced understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the learners’ transition journeys in the EFL context. This multimodal writing project was beneficial for tracing the dynamic trajectories of students' first-year learning experiences as well as their linguistic development.
Research Paper (Video; 25 minutes)
Multiliteracies / Multimodality
Primarily of interest to teachers of adult learners
About the Presenter
Zengning Hu, a PhD in applied linguistics, teaches English at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Dedicated to writing pedagogy, she was awarded Excellent Teacher for Quality Courses Construction by the Municipal Education Board in 2023. She publishes journal articles about CALL and teaching education.
