W hile we learn languages to communicate, language is not the only or even (at times) the primary mode of communication. These two simple understandings, which underlie the expanding interest of language educators and researchers in multimodality, and underpin shifts in our thinking about discourse, texts, and language pedagogies, are being reimagined to acknowledge the increasing prominence of nonlinguistic modes. This interest is broad-based, extends across international borders and linguistic communities, and entails much more than the simple addition of visual literacy to the crowded lists of skill sets demanded of English language learners. It is driven by more than two decades of research in education, in linguistics and semiotics, and in fields as diverse as Internet and communication studies; it has led those within the field of language education to more explicitly rethink how language is used in contemporary learning contexts and the world beyond. Our own interest in these issues predates the currency of the term multimodality, and is informed by our years as teachers and researchers across a range of geographic, institutional and cultural contexts; by our work with young children, adolescents, and adults; and by our work with learners privileged and those disadvantaged by contemporary socioeconomic and political conditions. We are very pleased, therefore, to be editing this special issue on multimodality.

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Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are often portrayed as offering a collaborative community space in which native and non-native language speakers reciprocally scaffold linguistic, cultural and content knowledge, a space which assists students in overcoming well-documented challenges encountered in traditional classrooms (Leki, 2001; Morita, 2000, 2004). However, recent studies point to the communicative disjunctures arising from variances in cultural capital and socio-technological histories in on-line dialogic encounters between student groups (see Belz, 2003; Kramsch & Thorne, 2002; Thorne, 2003, 2000). This article examines online community formation among participants in a graduate seminar on modern language education and the pedagogical design that facilitated the development of norms of joint construction of knowledge, reciprocity, and sharing. Drawing upon survey and interview data as well as on a descriptive statistical analysis of the bulletin board interaction, the study explores how design provided non-native speakers with opportunities to capitalize on their existing experiential and intellectual capital.

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When immersed in liquid 3He, the nanometer strands of aerogel are coated with a thin layer of solid 3He, forming a network of irregular nanotubes. Owing to its high purity and weak interactions, this system is ideal for studying fundamental processes. We report the first experiments on solid 3He in aerogel at ultralow temperatures, cooled by direct adiabatic demagnetization. Simultaneous nuclear magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity measurements indicate a magnetic phase transition.

Macrophage invasion in rabbits was elicited by intravitreal injection of trypan blue or latex particles; as after hemorrhage, there are two periods of macrophage invasion with elevated numbers of intravitreal cells at three and 21 days. Release of acid proteolytic activity by macrophages from both time periods was assayed by analysis of the cell-free vitreal supernate and of the medium of cultured cells. Lysates of freshly-isolated macrophages and of adjacent ocular tissues were also analyzed. Although some quantitative differences were observed, a similar profile of acid proteolytic activity toward hemoglobin at pH 2.0 to 6.5 was found in the vitreal supernate and in the cells from both periods. Most macrophages invade via the ciliary processes and during invasion elevated levels of acid proteolytic activity were found in this tissue. Although some macrophages transmigrate the retina, normal acid protease levels were low in sensory retina and essentially unchanged during macrophage invasion. Protease inhibitor studies indicated the presence of carboxyl, cysteinyl, serine and metallo proteases in macrophages and in macrophage-containing tissues. The inhibitor data also suggested qualitative differences in acid protease activities in macrophages from the two invasive periods. During macrophage invasion vitreal pH was reduced from 7.4 to 6.2 suggesting that some macrophage-derived acid proteases may be active in that compartment. Thus, although the phagocytic activity of macrophages aids vitreal clearing, action of macrophage proteases may also contribute to vitreal pathology by cleavage of vitreal proteins.