Trakulchang, Ruethairat; (2022) Linguistic, multimodal and cultural code-meshing: Exploring adolescents’ language and literacy practices in social networking sites. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis will explore language and literacy practices in social networking sites (SNSs) that both draw on and expand beyond traditional principles of composition. Particularly, it will examine how adolescent participants are engaging with SNSs in ways that extend their learning and life opportunities beyond what is typically accessible in their rural province of Chiang Rai. Despite considerable research on language and literacy, there remains a limited body of research focused on adolescent literacy in Thailand and in rural contexts, such as Chiang Rai. There is also limited research in this area that provides a combined framework to account for the social, cultural, multimodal and linguistic repertoires of adolescents as materialised in their SNS practices. This thesis will draw from sociolinguistic and sociocultural theories of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and intertextuality to analyse adolescent participants’ linguistic and multimodal texts and how they shape and are shaped by a range of discourses in SNSs. However, both of these theories cannot provide a systematic account of adolescent participants’ multimodal texts in depth. Therefore, this thesis will also draw from multimodality as an analytical framework to account for participants’ multimodal texts (e.g., images, colours and layout). As key findings will demonstrate, the complexity of participants’ language and literacy practices in SNSs involves the blending of not only different languages and modes but also cultural resources (e.g., textual conventions and genres) – or what I refer to as linguistic, multimodal and cultural code-meshing practices. This study will set out a critical perspective on how such practices on SNSs are shaped by Chiang Rai adolescents to make new kinds of meanings, negotiate identities and relationships, and establish belongingness within both local and transnational SNS communities. Evidence from empirical data collected will include surveys and online observations.

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