"Quietness" or Multimodal embodied participation? The case of a multilingual language learner

This research investigated multimodal embodied participation of a quiet multilingual student during a French second language literacy development pedagogy. We collected video-recorded data for 12 weeks, transcribed the data using conversation analysis transcription conventions, and analyzed it from microgenetic and macrogenetic perspectives and McNeill's framework for gestures. The findings showed that, even in silence, through her embodied actionembodied action, the student was highly attuned to speech events related to her roles in pair and group interactions. Her gestures and minimal speech indicated her active meaning-making and contributions to the development of the group's Zone of Proximal Development. The research findings challenge the long-standing perception of classroom participation based on verbal interaction only. On this basis, we challenge the deficit assumptions about quiet students as passive learners and sparse verbal communication as limited learning. In addition, we emphasize the role of pedagogy, using a Division of Labor Pedagogy, along with Concept-Based Language Instruction, for its focus on collective teaching-learning as well as the learner's agencyagency that supports their transformation to achieve both interactional and pedagogical purposes in proactive ways.