Sustaining Plurilingual Meaning-Making in Digital Music Ecologies: A Critical Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Intercultural Communication Practices
Abstract
This study investigates how plurilingual meaning-making is sustained and reshaped within digital music ecologies through multimodal discourse practices. Grounded in a language ecology perspective and Critical Multimodal Discourse Analysis (CMDA), the research examines multilingual interactions across YouTube and Instagram, focusing on captions, comments, visual symbolism, and platform affordances. The findings reveal that plurilingual competence emerges as an adaptive ecological process in which linguistic, visual, and affective resources operate collaboratively to facilitate intercultural mediation. Rather than relying on fixed language boundaries, participants engage in translanguaging, symbolic alignment, and multimodal negotiation to construct shared interpretations across diverse cultural backgrounds. The analysis further demonstrates that algorithmic infrastructures and participatory practices play a significant role in shaping intercultural dialogue by amplifying certain communicative strategies while enabling localized linguistic expressions to coexist within global digital networks. The study contributes theoretically by integrating plurilingual competence and multimodality into a unified analytical framework, highlighting the importance of digital cultural spaces as informal sites of multilingual learning and mediation. Pedagogically and policy-wise, the findings suggest the need to reconceptualize multilingual education and language planning to account for multimodal literacies and technologically mediated communication practices.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Aslan, E. (2025). ‘Responding to “thank you” properly’: Mediated metapragmatic repertoires in an English language teaching YouTube video. Discourse Context & Media, 67, 100934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100934
Busch, F., Lallo, J., & Täge, J. (2025). Navigating digital repertoires: translingual practices in smartphone communication across platforms. Discourse Context & Media, 68, 100949. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100949
Doğruöz, A. S., Sitaram, S., Bullock, B. E., & Toribio, A. J. (2023). A Survey of Code-switching: Linguistic and Social Perspectives for Language Technologies.. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2301.01967
Fäcke, Christiane., Gao, Xuesong., & Garrett-Rucks, Paula. (2024). The Handbook of Plurilingual and Intercultural Language Learning. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394165957
Fang, Yanqin. (2025). Multimodal Discourse Analysis of English Reading and Writing Classes from the Perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Curriculum and Teaching Methodology, 8(7). https://doi.org/10.23977/curtm.2025.080702
Galante, A., Piccardo, E., Marcel, F., Zeaiter, L., Cruz, J. W. N. d., & Barisé, A. (2024). Decolonizing language learning in digital environments through the voices of plurilingual learners in the Global South. Applied Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amae090
Ishihara, N. (2024). Fostering a translingual framework in teacher education focused on pragmatics: Identity and the multilingual turn in pragmatics pedagogy. System, 125, 103457. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2024.103457
Ji, E. Y. (2025). A Metasemantic-Metapragmatic Framework for Taxonomizing Multimodal Communicative Alignment. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2501.01535
Kifli, B., Pane, I. I. I., & Rangkuti, M. A. (2025). A Multimodal and Critical Discourse Analysis of Gender Representation in an Indonesian Grade 4 Science Textbook. PAROLE: Journal of Linguistics and Education, 15(1), 27-37. https://doi.org/10.14710/parole.v15i1.27-37
Koch, G., Bella, G., Helm, P., & Giunchiglia, F. (2024). Layers of technology in pluriversal design decolonising language technology with the live language initiative. CoDesign, 20(1), 77–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2024.2341799
Leblebici, D. and Rostom, M. (2025). “Alexa learned Arabic”: A translanguaging and multimodal perspective on language and media ideologies. Discourse Context & Media, 66, 100909. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100909
Lee, T. K. (2025). Pop linguistics in social media: translanguaging and literacy edutainment. Discourse Context & Media, 67, 100933. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100933
Liddicoat, A. J. and Derivry‐Plard, M. (2024). Linguistic and Cultural Mediation. The Handbook of Plurilingual and Intercultural Language Learning, 303-316. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394165957.ch22
Melo‐Pfeifer, S. and Ollivier, C. (2025). Assessing the plurilingual competence and plurilingual individuals’ skills and knowledge: similarities and divergences. Frontiers in Communication, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2025.1498940
Morton, T. (2025). Multilingualism in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) classroom contexts: Commentary on the special issue. Learning and Instruction, 98, 102112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2025.102112
Pérez-Arredondo, C., Avello, D., & Cárcamo-Ulloa, L. (2025). A multimodal discursive approach to translanguaging and identity in Chilean social media. Discourse Context & Media, 68, 100951. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100951
Permatasari, I. (2023). The integration of intercultural communicative competence in ELT settings: A systematic review. LingTera, 10(1), 54–63. https://doi.org/10.21831/lt.v10i1.59885
Pradier, C., Céspedes, L., & Larivière, V. (2025). A smack of all neighbouring languages: How multilingual is scholarly communication?.. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2504.21100
Rusmawaty, D., Zahra, M. I., Fathinah, F., & Azzahra, Y. M. (2025). A Critical Ecolinguistic Analysis of Environmental Discourse at Mulawarman University: Conservationism and Eco-Modernism in University Social Media. Conference on English Language Teaching, 73–82. https://doi.org/10.24090/celti.2025.1347
Sindoni, M.G., Ho, W.Y., & Wei, L. (2025). Conceptual framework of translanguaging in mediated action: The case of #Bilingualparenting on social media. Discourse, Context & Media, 68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100959
Tafrijiyah, K. and Andriani, M. (2025). Multimodal Discourse Analysis of an English Language Learning Textbook in Indonesia. Lire Journal (Journal of Linguistics and Literature), 9(1), 61-79. https://doi.org/10.33019/lire.v9i1.391
Tran, Hong Lam. (2025). REVISITING MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE: A REVIEW OF INTRODUCING MULTIMODALITY (2ND EDITION, 2025). Indonesian Journal of Linguistics, 2(2), 71–78. https://doi.org/10.33005/ijl.v2i2.58
Vitiugin, F., Lee, S., Paakki, H., Chizhikova, A., & Sawhney, N. (2024). Unraveling Code-Mixing Patterns in Migration Discourse: Automated Detection and Analysis of Online Conversations on Reddit.. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2406.08633
Wang, Y., Feng, D., & Zhang, J. (2025). Transpositioning through visual translanguaging creativity: A multimodal analysis of a Chinese wanghong vlogger’s identity performance on YouTube. Discourse Context & Media, 68, 100937. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100937
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52620/jls.v3i1.349
Refbacks
Copyright (c) 2026 Saiyidinal Firdaus
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
| About the Journal | Journal Policies | Author | Information |
Journal of Linguistics and Social Studies by Institut Nurul Islam Mojokerto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.