Nexus analysis in the study of the changing field of language learning, language pedagogy and language teacher education

Abstract

Nexus analysis is becoming increasingly employed in a variety of research fields. It is seen to be particularly suited to exploring complex and changing phenomena. It entails a mediated discourse perspective to social action and interaction. In discourse studies, this involves switching the perspective from language to social semiotic meaning making in its full spectrum not only here and now but at the same time reaching across more distant spatial and temporal orientations. As the tradition of nexus analysis is still young there are no established interpretations of how to conduct research with an interest in such complexities in flux. This paper presents a review of studies in which nexus analysis or mediated discourse analysis has been applied in research related to language pedagogy and language teacher education. The review shows how research in the field is in emergence and the interpretations concerning the theoretical-methodological underpinnings vary to some extent.

“Let's keep this video as real as possible”: young video bloggers constructing cognitive authority through a health-related information creation process

“…Video bloggers constructing cognitive authority analysis (see also mediated discourse analysis, Scollon and Scollon, 2004) can be understood as both a form of ethnography and an action-oriented approach to discourse analysis (Scollon and Scollon, 2004). This multidisciplinary methodology has roots in research traditions such as interactional sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology and critical discourse analysis (Lane, 2014;Hult, 2017;Kuure et al, 2018), and its primary focus is on the complex relation between social action and discourse (Scollon and de Saint-Georges, 2011;Lane, 2014). Several research traditions focus on studying social action, but in practice, they often tend to foreground spoken or written discourse and consider everything else to be merely "context" (Scollon, 2001).…”

Nexus Analysis as an Approach to Navigate Change

“…The second level of discourse is called Interaction Order and represents the community scale. When developing this approach, Scollon and Scollon (2004) pulled heavily from the work of Goffman ( 1983) who focused on the power dynamics or mutual relations between individuals over different social situations (Goffman, 1983;Kuure et al, 2018). An example of this might be observed when a group of instructors discuss a challenging classroom lesson.…”

“…ELPAs who provide the time and support for teacher professional development find NA can support change and explore the intersection of the individual, beliefs, and practice (Hult, 2018;Koivistoinen et al, 2016;Kuure et al, 2018;Räisänen & Korkeamäki, 2015). Many ELPAs find themselves intrinsically involved with introducing or implementing a new curriculum without much guidance on how to support the individual needs of the faculty.…”

“…Current classroom practices embodied by ELSP faculty are challenged by all new technology and class delivery (Dooly & Sadler, 2013;Kuure et al, 2018) brought on by COVID-19. Providing time for instructors to engage in professional development through journaling or analyzing video is not that uncommon, but ELPAs can take this process a step further through observing and listening to what discourses may be mediating the instructors' experience of teaching in the current context.…”

Navigating complexities, exploiting shortcuts: Talking about culture as researchers and university educators

“…To analyze my data, I adopt ideas developed in the tradition of mediated discourse analysis and its research strategy, nexus analysis. As an interdisciplinary endeavor that has its roots in anthropological linguistics, interactional sociolinguistics, and critical discourse analysis, it focuses on social actions carried out by material or symbolic means, for example, language, and aims at identifying the discourses which intersect in these social actions (Kuure, Riekki, & Tumelius, 2018;Scollon & Wong Scollon, 2004;Wong Scollon & de Saint-Georges, 2012). At the core of nexus analysis lies the idea that broader social issues are grounded in the micro-actions of social interaction, and that social interaction is a 'nexus through which the largest cycles of social organization and activity circulate' (Scollon & Wong Scollon, 2004, p. 8).…”