Images of ‘Asia Literacy’: An Analysis of Online Representations

Abstract

For more than two decades, the term ‘Asia’ has become strongly affiliated with the term ‘literacy’. In fact the term ‘Asia literacy’ has become common parlance for many Australians, particularly those in the communities of academia, education, politics and business. However, there is very little research to date that has closely analysed the textual representation of Asia literacy in our contemporary semiotic landscape. In response, this chapter examines the various ways in which the term ‘Asia literacy’ is currently articulated across a range of online digital texts. In other words, how and to what extent is ‘Asia literacy’ conceptualised, presented and valued in the Australian discourse community. To this end, the chapter draws on a small corpus of online digital texts, which, to various extents, engage with the topic of Asia literacy. In terms of the method of analysis, the chapter closely examines the linguistic and visual features of online texts using principles from social semiotics (Van Leeuwen, Introducing social semiotics. Routledge, London, 2005), systemic functional linguistics (SFL) (Halliday and Matthiessen, Introduction to functional grammar, 3rd edn. Edward Arnold, London, 2004), visual grammar analysis (e.g. Callow J, The shape of text to come: how image and text work. Primary English Teachers Association of Australia (PETAA), Newtown, 2013) and critical discourse analysis (CDA) (e.g. Van Leeuwen, Critical discourse analysis. In Brown K (ed) Elsevier encyclopaedia of language and linguistics, vol 13, 2nd edn. Elsevier, Oxford, pp 290–294, 2006). The findings show a contrast between the close linguistic analysis and the visual grammar analysis. For the most part, the linguistic analysis reveals a diverse, dynamic and contemporary representation of Asia literacy. The visual representation of Asia literacy however is especially homogenised, presenting an essentialised Asia and a normative view of literacy, learning and schooling. By way of contrast, the visual grammar analysis is then compared with images representing Asia in a different context – an online travel website. In conclusion, the chapter considers future research directions, with particular reference to pedagogical contexts, and the role of critical and creative thinking in the context of Asia literacy.