Linguistic and Multimodal Resources within the Local–Global Interface of the Virtual Space: Critically Aware Youths in Bangladesh

Shaila Sultana

Virtual Space and its Significance

Virtual space or the computer-mediated multimodal environment, as a research context, has drawn the interest of applied linguists for a long time. There have been a significant number of research studies, addressing the meaning-making processes in virtual space. Various signs and symbols, such as emoticons, punctuation marks or abbreviations, specific ways of communication used by young adults in specific countries, Facebook statuses and their forms and functions, micro-blogging and individual stances, gamers and their strategies of making meaning in different gaming sites or typographic play have been explored in detail (Androutsopoulos, 2006, 2014; Leppänen & Piirainen-Marsh, 2009; Thurlow & Mroczek, 2011). These research studies allow us to understand the idiosyncrasies of virtual space, which are not solely dependent on linguistic resources, but also depend on other semiotic resources.

Drawing on insights from these research studies, this chapter explores the ways Bangladeshi youths engage with multimodal semiotic resources in virtual space. Virtual space has been chosen as the research context for three specific reasons. First, it has immense meaning potentiality in terms of linguistic and multimodal resources. Multimodal resources in addition to languages, such as images, music videos, photographs, links to online news and tag lines of characters from popular culture play a vital role in meaning-making processes. Interlocutors, even when they have limited linguistic resources, may use other sociocultural semiotic resources in order to express their opinions, values and meanings (Dovchin et al., 2016). They can use dialogues from films or song titles from their favorite albums in order to engage in conversations and perform a 'cool' youth identity (Sultana, 2014). They can also express their affiliation, support and comradery by pressing the like button or sharing posts (Blommaert & Varis, 2017). All of these linguistic and multimodal resources, recontextualized in the virtual space, emerge with new meanings, based on the purposes and communicative functions they serve for the interlocutors.

Second, virtual space is specifically important to understand the agentive role of the interlocutors. Thurlow and Mroczek (2011) identified that the new media, even though it is afforded by technologies, is given social meanings by the users. On a similar note, Varis and Wang (2011: 71) define virtual space as 'a superdiverse space par excellence' that has 'seemingly endless possibilities for self-expression, individual life projects and community formation'. People have freedom and independence in arranging the physical and social environment of the space with specific resources and in selecting interlocutors with whom they want to engage in conversations. Virtual space is thus individually defined and people may express varied individual senses of self and reconfigure relationships with others.

Third, virtual space seems to provide a unique platform for socially, culturally and politically marginalized segments of the society for engaging in alternative discourses and negotiating different facets of identification. Virtual space creates a personal and private space where individuals may express themselves, while they fail to do so in a public space. Virtual space is significant for coming to terms with personal, social, cultural and ideological issues, especially for those who are marginalized in society for any specific reasons, be it socioeconomic condition, gender identity or political affiliation (Karim, 2014; Kee, 2011). Hence, it is important that we understand the process of meaning-making in the virtual space along with the function of linguistic and multimodal resources. The chapter intends to address the research questions given below:

• What kind of linguistic and multimodal resources do young adults in Bangladesh use in virtual space?

• In what ways do they use these resources?

• For what purposes do they use them?

Unraveling the relationship among youth language practices and various multimodal resources, the chapter thus explores the process of meaning-making in virtual space. It contributes to the new trend of sociolinguistics research rather than the linguistic features of these resources, which gives more emphasis on the intentions and purposes of language use and contextual realities that determine the actual meanings of these resources in the newer contexts. The chapter also captures the trajectories of these resources through time, locations, cultures and modalities. This chapter is significant for Bangladesh since virtual space has remained almost an unexplored research site. It intends to bring sociolinguistics insights into the space which has been explored only from a cultural perspective, missing the chance to develop nascent understanding of how language and other semiotic resources work as mediating tools in the meaning-making process.

Virtual Space: Transglossia, Re-entextualization and Resemiotization

In recent times, the linguistic and multimodal resources used in virtual space and the use of different codes, modes and genres in the meaning-making processes have been explored in applied linguistics research. Language is viewed as transglossic, which is an extension of Bakhtin's heteroglossia (see also Sultana, 2015; Sultana et al., 2015; Dovchin et al., 2017). Transglossia underscores the importance of 'voices' and the way voices engender new meanings through linguistic and multimodal resources. These studies show that voices, in mimicking dialogues, allow individuals to transgress linguistic and cultural boundaries. Hence, language no longer remains attached to any specific location and culture.

Voices adopted through the use of various modes of semiotic resources such as quotations, images, links to music videos and photographs in virtual space allow individuals to flout the boundaries of modes. Language no longer remains restricted to one...