AAAL 2026: Invited Colloquium

Convened by Matt Kessler and Christine Tardy

Reimagining Disciplinary Writing: Leveraging Digital Multimodal Genres for Sharing Applied Linguistics Research with Broad Audiences

Conveners:

Matt Kessler, University of South Florida
Christine Tardy, University of Arizona

Discussant:

Lourdes Ortega, Georgetown University

Colloquium Abstract

Within the field of applied linguistics, an open science movement has steadily been growing. One key pillar of this movement includes attempts to make our research accessible – that is, publicly available, non-technical, and above all, meaningful to different audiences. One of the primary methods of accomplishing this goal has been through researchers leveraging digital multimodal genres – genres such as digital videos, infographics, and various social media texts – which require the use of different modal resources to communicate information in strategic ways. In this colloquium, we further explore this topic through a series of presentations that address the central question of: How can we reimagine disciplinary writing and leverage digital multimodal genres to share applied linguistics research with broad audiences?

This two-hour colloquium opens with a brief introduction by the colloquium organizers (Matt Kessler & Christine Tardy). It is then followed by a series of four, 20-minute presentations that cover a variety of topics including: what applied linguists might learn from other fields (Diane Belcher); an example of how to reimagine a traditional academic genre (Raffaella Negretti & Lisa McGrath); how researchers and practitioners have formed a coalition to make research syntheses accessible (Masatoshi Sato & Sin Wang Chong); and current examples of how social media can be leveraged to reach the broader public (Elizabeth Hanks & Daniel Hieber). Following the presentations, a commentary is provided by a discussant (Lourdes Ortega). The colloquium then closes with time for Q&A from the audience.

What can applied linguistics learn from other fields’ use of digital multimodal genres to reach broad audiences?

Diane Belcher, Georgia State University

Applied linguists are no strangers to the use of digital multimodality (DM), especially for oral presentation of their research, e.g., voiceover (live or recorded) PowerPoint research presentations at conferences and other venues, including researchers’ own campuses. In contrast, however, for written presentation of AL research, DM is less conspicuous. Such is not the case in a number of other disciplines, especially in the natural and physical sciences, where the video abstract (Belcher, 2023), video methods articles (Hafner, 2018), and highly digitally multimodal research blogs (Luzón, 2017) are common. What explains this difference, and what can we learn from it? Is it the case that research findings in the so-called hard sciences are so much more abstractly complex and removed from ordinary life that scientists feel compelled to find ways to make them more accessible and relatable, as Hyland and Zou (2022) have suggested about junior scientists’ presentations in Three Minute Thesis contests? Or is there a democratization of science movement that inspires scientists to spread the word about the pressing questions they seek to address and even persuade citizen-scientists to join them in the pursuit of relevant data, enlisting DM to encourage and enable broad collaboration (Reid & Anson, 2019)? These, of course, are not the only possible explanations of other fields’ embrace and development of DM genres. In this presentation, we will first consider such differential motivations between AL and other fields, and then move on to exploring some of the types of DM genres that have become increasingly popular in many of the sciences and what some of the distinct characteristics of those genres could teach us in AL about innovative approaches to publicizing and explaining the value of AL research findings to those who might otherwise be oblivious to or unimpressed by them.

There and back again - Reimagining disciplinary writing instruction in a digital world

Raffaella Negretti, Chalmers University of Technology
Lisa McGrath, Sheffield Hallam University

‘Impact’ is becoming ever more prominent in higher education: academic endeavours need to demonstrate benefits to society, and universities need to reach wider audiences via digital platforms. The term “impact” escalates what was framed as ‘scholarship of engagement’ (Boyer, 1996), which aims to establish a reciprocal relationship between civic engagement into the production of knowledge. A key aspect of scholarship of engagement is its critique of the increasing specialization of academic knowledge into discrete disciplines, a trend that we have seen in genre pedagogy in its dissection of disciplinary discourse to identify teachable conventions; and in the research on writing instruction, with its increased specialization on L2 proficiency in academic writing. How can we, as applied linguists, instead, leverage digitalization, and especially the emergence of multimodal genres of communication, to promote a scholarship of engagement in both our own fields and others? We can (and should) engage in outreach activities ourselves, but perhaps a more long-lasting and meaningful impact in education, a scholarship of engagement, is best achieved through teaching, rather than LinkedIn. We can go back to where writing instruction starts—to the task. In our recent editorial, we highlighted how tasks that require reformulation (Swales, 1990) can generate rhetorical consciousness and the agility needed to communicate across contexts. Rather than focusing on disciplinarity, we can shift to a writing pedagogy that encompasses the range of genres researchers now perform, including digital and multimodal. To illustrate the point, we show how combining the analysis and production of a traditional academic genre (abstract) with a digital genre (blog post) within a series scaffolded reformulation tasks fosters metacognition of authorial choices, genre awareness, and genre-specific knowledge, ultimately facilitating engagement between academic writers and broader audiences.

Digital multimodal communication between researchers and practitioners: An example of TESOLgraphics

Masatoshi Sato, Universidad Andres Bello
Sin Wang Chong, University of St Andrews

As an emerging pedagogical framework, digital multimodal instruction has been investigated in relation to second language (L2) learning and teaching. However, its utility as a communication method between research and practice has rarely been explored. In this presentation, we will discuss benefits and challenges of TESOLgraphics (tesolgraphics.com)—an online platform designed to facilitate an equitable relationship between L2 researchers and practitioners. TESOLgraphics rejects the concept of “knowledge mobilization” or “outreach” that implies that “knowledge” is produced and owned by researchers and practitioners are recipients of that knowledge; instead, we strive to create a venue in which researchers and practitioners share their professional knowledge, experience, and skills, with a common goal of contributing to L2 education. TESOLgraphics has three pillar activities, all of which take advantage of digital multimodality. First, we produce infographics of secondary research (meta-analyses and narrative reviews) in order to make research more accessible and digestible (currently, we share over 110 infographics). Importantly, the contents are created by teachers. Second, we host Talk Shows as podcasts in which a researcher and a teacher discuss specific infographics. Third, we create videos in which a practitioner explains how to transform specific infographics into actual teaching materials. Practical challenges thus far include the varying digital multimodal skills for us to create appealing and effective contents. Time, both for researchers and practitioners, is a challenge as well because creating multimodal contents takes more time than writing texts. Conceptual challenges for co-constructive and mutually-beneficial communication include the difficulty of deconstructing the hierarchical relationship that society designates to researchers and teachers. We conclude with recommendations for like-minded researchers and teachers who are willing to sacrifice their limited time for making a change in L2 education.

Laugh and learn linguistics: How social media can enhance popular science linguistic outreach

Elizabeth Hanks, University of South Florida
Daniel W. Hieber, Linguistic Discovery

Short-form videos are a digital multimodal genre that has been growing in popularity, thanks to social media platforms such as TikTok, which is projected to have over 117 million U.S. users by 2026 (Ceci, 2024). While TikTok is primarily an entertainment platform, many users are drawn to it because of its educational content, leading to the nickname the “laugh and learn” app. A survey of 4,156 participants suggests that 25% of U.S. TikTok users engage with social media videos in order to learn (Teaching with TikTok, 2022). In addition, researchers have posited that the semiotic resources available in such digital communications allow for rich exchange of ideational, interpersonal, and textual meaning (e.g., Huang & Xia, 2024; O'Halloran, 2008). Given users’ motivation to enrich their education through social media as well as this genre’s potential for improved learning outcomes, short-form social media videos provide a unique opportunity for linguists to effectively disseminate research findings to interested general audiences.

This presentation discusses the affordances of short-form social media videos for (a) sharing applied linguistics research with broad audiences and (b) participant recruitment. Specifically, we share case studies from popular linguistics social media channels that have been effectively leveraged to entertain and educate general audiences about linguistics as well as to recruit diverse participants for research studies. We also share evidence-based methods of creating and sharing videos on social media, highlighting the importance of adhering to the distinct genre conventions of various platforms. Finally, we discuss how short-form social media videos can be leveraged to engage students and improve learning outcomes in the classroom through, for example, the use of digital multimodal composition (e.g., Huang & Xia, 2024) and engaging in “bite-sized learning” (e.g., Jacobs et al., 2024).

>>>Back to AAAL 2026 Chicago Invited Colloquia