This presentation is an introduction to semiotics as a basis for teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). It makes a case for semiotics as a inter-cultural language learning theory. Main theorists in the field are explained and a connection to the mechanics of English teaching is made.

1. SEMIOTICS AND TEFL
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DAVID R. COLE
WESTERN SYDNEY UNIVERSITY

2. WHAT IS SEMIOTICS?
1. the study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behaviour; the analysis of systems of
communication, as language, gestures, or clothing.
2. a general theory of signs and symbolism, usually divided into the branches of pragmatics, semantics, and
syntactics

3. HOW IS SEMIOTICS RELATED TO TEFL?
• The teaching and learning of English (and every language) happens within the context of the study of
signs and symbols
• The specifics of language acquisition come about due to the platform of semiotics
• Teachers can background focused language interactions through the investigation of signs and symbols/
modes of language
• Language is a code for cultural meanings/interactions (semantics)
• Language learning always happens in the context of the exchange of signs

4. HISTORY OF SEMIOTICS
ΣΗΜΕΙΩΤΙΚΌΣ SĒMEIŌTIKOS, "OBSERVANT OF SIGNS”
• Plato looked upon representation with signs with caution. He recognised that literature is a
representation of life, yet also believed that representations create worlds of illusion leading one away
from the "real things". For Plato, representation, like contemporary media, intervenes between the
viewer and the real, creating illusions that lead one away from "real things". Plato believed that
representation needs therefore, to be controlled and monitored due to the possible dangers resulting in
its ability to foster antisocial emotions or encourage the imitation of evil.
• Aristotle considered each mode of representation, verbal, visual or musical, as being natural to human
beings. Therefore, what distinguishes humans from other animals is their ability to create and
manipulate signs. Aristotle deemed mimesis as natural to man, therefore considered representations as
necessary for people's learning and being in the world …

5. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
• How do you perceive the representation (of signs)?
• What modes are there for representation?
• What modes of representation require the best/most agile manipulation of signs?
• What the relationship between the different modes of representing signs?
• Can one mode of representing a sign dominate another?

6. JOHN LOCKE
• All that can fall within the compass of human understanding, being either, first, the nature of things, as
they are in themselves, their relations, and their manner of operation: or, secondly, that which man
himself ought to do, as a rational and voluntary agent, for the attainment of any end, especially
happiness: or, thirdly, the ways and means whereby the knowledge of both the one and the other of
these is attained and communicated; I think science may be divided properly into these three sorts
• Nor is there any thing to be relied upon in Physick, but an exact knowledge of medicinal physiology
(founded on observation, not principles), semeiotics, method of curing, and tried (not excogitated, not
commanding) medicines

8. WHAT TYPE OF SIGN?
ICON-SYMBOL-INDEX

9. HOW DO YOU USE SEMIOTICS IN TEFL?
• Identify signs
• Discuss what they mean
• What are the inter-cultural aspects of the signs?
• Do the signs mean the same in L1 & L2?
• How do we use and interpret the signs?
• How do they relate to specific language use?

10. MICHAEL HALLIDAY – SOCIAL SEMIOTICS
• ‘Language is a social fact’
• ‘We shall not come to understand the nature of language if we pursue only the kinds of question about
language that are formulated by linguists’
• ‘Language is as it is because of the functions it has evolved to serve in people’s lives’
• There are three functions, or ‘metafunctions’, of language: 1) ideational (‘about something’), 2)
interpersonal (’doing something’) and 3) textual (‘the speaker’s text-forming potential’)
• Language is constituted as ‘a discrete network of options’

12. SOCIAL SEMIOTIC PROCESS

13. SOCIAL SEMIOTICS FOR TEFL
• Create authentic contexts for the exchange of signs
• Understand the different processes involved with the exchange of signs
• Examine what is genuinely social and how/why specific social contexts are the generator of signs (and
others are not)
• Discern different social contexts and the production/exchange of signs in these contexts
• How social is contemporary life?
• Is schooling social?

14. VYGOTSKY AND SLA (SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION)
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD):
The distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential
development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers
Mediation:
Learning and development depend on how objects and others in the environment mediate, or negotiate through, their experiences
Internalization:
As learners undertake tasks in the ZPD they proceed through stages of regulation.
Regulation:
As learners accomplish tasks by means of interaction with others and/or objects in the environment on the external plane, they achieve
self-regulation, and task procedures become internalized (go underground) as a mental representation of task performance.
Intersubjectivity:
Learners performing tasks in pairs or groups need to ‘be on the same page’ regarding the procedures they use to accomplish the task. This
is called establishing intersubjectivity.

16. SEMIOTICS, SLA AND TEFL
• Language learning is a combination of cognitive /affective and interactive processes
• TEFL needs to take opportunities to develop these processes
• Semiotics is an aspects of these developing/inter-related processes
• SLA is a social-mental process involving the comprehension of signs (often inter-culturally)
• How do you redesign your classroom to be a language learning opportunity?
• How do you integrate the teaching and learning about signs into SLA?

17. SEMIOTICS AND GLOBALISATION
• What is a brand?
• How can you identify it?
• What does it mean?
• How are we affected by/through globalisation?
• What affect has globalisation and branding had on TEFL?

19. FURTHER READING
• Halliday, M. A. K. (2007). Language and education (Vol. 9). London: Continuum.
• Kress, G. (2012). Thinking about the notion of ‘cross-cultural’ from a social semiotic perspective.
Language and Intercultural Communication, 12(4), 369-385. doi:10.1080/14708477.2012.722102
• Leeds-Hurwitz, W. (2012). Semiotics and communication: Signs, codes, cultures: London: Routledge.
• Romaine, S. (2000). Language in society: An introduction to sociolinguistics: Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
• Suhor, C. (1984). Towards a Semiotics‐based Curriculum. Curriculum Studies, 16(3), 247-257.
doi:10.1080/0022027840160304
• Wilson, A. A. (2011). A social semiotics framework for conceptualizing content area literacies. Journal of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(6), 435-444. doi:10.1598/JAAL.54.6.5