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Beyond Words: Visual Mediation and the Construction of Learner Identity in Second Language Learning
Hagit Arieli Chai
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DOI:10.17265/1539-8080/2026.01.001
Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, USA
Research on second language acquisition (SLA) has increasingly moved beyond cognitive models toward sociocultural and post-structural understandings of language learning as a socially situated and identity-driven process. Within this shift, learner identity has emerged as a central construct, reframing language acquisition not merely as the development of linguistic competence, but as the negotiation of subjectivity, agency, and belonging within historically and socially structured worlds. Learners are not simply processing input. Rather, they are positioning themselves in relation to power, discourse, and imagined futures as they engage with new linguistic practices. This article contributes to research on language learning and identity in three ways. First, it extends sociocultural theory by conceptualizing visual art as a mediational tool through which second language (SL) learners construct and negotiate identity. While mediation has been widely discussed in relation to language itself, less attention has been paid to visual and multimodal symbolic systems as sites of identity work. Second, the article bridges identity theory and multimodal pedagogy by demonstrating how visual practices enable learners to externalize subjectivity, articulate cultural memory, and imagine future selves in ways that complement and sometimes exceed verbal expression. And third, it proposes a conceptual framework for understanding learner identity construction beyond spoken discourse, highlighting the role of multimodal mediation in shaping agency, positioning, and participation in the language classroom.
visual mediation, learner identity, second language learning
Hagit Arieli Chai, Beyond Words: Visual Mediation and the Construction of Learner Identity in Second Language Learning. US-China Foreign Language, January 2026, Vol. 24,
No. 1, 1-13 doi:10.17265/1539-8080/2026.01.001
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