Patrick James Kiernan

• University of Birmingham, Doctor of Philosophy, Applied Linguistics
• Professor (Associate) at Meiji University

This chapter provides a detailed multimodal analysis of a single narrative from the complimentary perspectives of ideational, interpersonal and textual meaning. The extract considered is the description of a childhood experience of living overseas in which the participant used gestures to shape and illustrate her story. It describes how the teller...

The interpersonal metafunction refers to the dimension of language that is concerned most directly with identity. This interpersonal perspective on multimodality describes positionings of self and others. It is also concerned with evaluation and the marking of opinions. In particular, this chapter develops a model of the physical and gestural resou...

This chapter, introduces and discusses the range of translingual experiences in relation to a continuum of translingual identity. This chapter also considers the various ways in which the class can be conceived of as a community of translinguals. This includes the idea of the class as a family and the class as a community of practice with orientati...

This chapter provides case studies of three developed, balanced and confident translinguals in the class. It also includes discussion of kikokushijo or returnees, and as well bilingualism and ambilingualism. The consideration of the three confident translinguals reveals that though they share the fact that they have lived almost equal periods of th...

This chapter considers the cases of translingual identity that developed from the translingual inheritances of children whose parents were from different linguistic backgrounds. It begins by introducing the ways in which children of mixed parents have been framed by the media in Japan. The main part of the chapter considers three examples of transl...

This chapter explores the first of the metafunctions ideational meaning in more detail. Ideational meaning, is the area of meaning most conventionally understood as “meaning.” It is the resource that focuses on the ways in which language is used to represent the world in terms of time and place, people, actions and activities, relationships and log...

Beginning with a quote from one of the study participants who emphasised the importance of communicating multimodally in study abroad contexts, this chapter makes the case for a multimodal approach. It introduces systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and multimodality and provides an overall rationale for the methodology which is expounded over Par...

In order to set the scene for language learning in Japan, this chapter begins with a discussion of monolingual perceptions of Japan in the light of its history of language in Japan and the national discourse of Japan—Nihonjinron. The main focus of the chapter is on the first of three perspectives on translingual identity. It uses the multimodal and...

This chapter, the final chapter of Part I, develops the account of the textual metafunction as a multimodal resource. This involves consideration of how the narrative interviews are structured through both the choice and ordering of questions and the various ways in which the interview is framed by the participants but also escaped, reconfigured an...

The conclusion provides a reflective overview of the book and attempts to draw out key findings from the book as a whole while considering how the inevitable shortcomings of this single project could lead into further research into translingual identity. It offers an evaluation of the methodology outlined and proposes new directions for research in...

This chapter looks further into the values and differing perspectives and experiences of the community. It considers unpleasant and rewarding experiences and what they suggest about community values. Based on an overview of the experiences, it offers answers to the questions: “What is the best way to learn a language?” “When should you study abroad...

This chapter uses two microcorpora of consumer reviews from the websites of Brooks England Limited, a traditional leather bicycle-saddle maker, and Wiggle, an online cycle retailer, to explore the use of narrative and evaluation within consumer reviews. Both the Brooks and Wiggle corpora included all reviews of Brooks saddles on the website and sub...

This chapter offers a comparative multimodal analysis of two cycle-component-maker websites. One represents Shimano, the global leader in cycle parts manufacturing, and the other Surly, an American niche brand that specialises in making affordable steel frames and parts, and targets budget-minded bicycle hobbyists. The comparison shows; how image,...

This book explored ways in which celebrity, community, individual and corporate identities are evoked across an array of current media resources from more traditional ones such as published biographies, magazine articles and TV to those more closely associated with the new media age: online forums, homepages, blogs and YouTube channels. The explora...

This chapter explores the use of hyperlinks in relation to SFL and other applied linguistic accounts of coherence and exophoric and endophoric reference. One important role for links in this forum is the incorporation of multimedia content, including not only photos and videos but also mapping and ride-data resources, such as MapMyRide and Strava....

This chapter explores corporate identity and consumer participation through a consideration of how identities are signaled and evoked on a YouTube cycling channel. The Global Cycling Network (GCN) is currently the most successful among English YouTube cycling channels. It recreates cycling as media entertainment, reaching one million subscribers fo...

Although repulsive to many cyclists, the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong from cancer victim to a record seven-time Tour de France winner to convicted doper is a fascinating case of how narratives, and with them identities, can be reconstrued and repositioned. For this reason, his first confession interview with Oprah Winfrey, where both Armstrong...

This chapter serves as an introduction to this book by explaining the basic concepts discussed in the ensuing chapters as well as the overall aims of the study. The key terms in the title—‘language’, ‘identity’, ‘cycling’ and ‘new media age’—are defined according to the approach outlined in this book, which explores the relations between them. In a...

Team Sky, generously funded by the cable television company Sky, set out in 2010 with the ambitious goal of producing the first British winner of the Tour de France within five years. They succeeded in 2012 when Bradley Wiggins won the race, with his teammate Chris Froome in second place. Team director David Brailsford attributed the success to wha...

This chapter examines the case of an overtly false identity in the online forum in relation to Bakhtin’s notion of carnival. The analysis shows how deliberate flouting of expectations associated with a credible identity can be used as a form of play to reveal covert values and assumptions of the online community. Although the case discussed was a r...

The two previous chapters focused on celebrities in European cycling. In contrast, this final chapter of the section explores fictional cyclists in the popular Japanese manga series Yowamushi Pedal. The series depicts the adventures of a fictional adolescent schoolboy, Onoda Sakamichi, and his friends and rivals, who are engaged in an inter-high sc...

Particularly early in his career, despite remarkable success on his bike, Mark Cavendish struggled to overcome a negative image in the media. In his autobiography, Cavendish recounts a press interview of the kind that very likely contributed to this image but recontextualises it through an internal dialogue. This account is explored in relation to...

This chapter offers a detailed analysis of a specific shared-ride thread on a forum where participants reveal and indeed become aware of their very different memories and perceptions. As such, this picks up on the theme of multiple perspectives—the shaping of experience and identities through narration and dialogic contraction and expansion discuss...

This book examines how identities associated with cycling are evoked, narrated and negotiated in a media context dominated by digital environments. Arguing that the nature of identity is being impacted by the changing nature of the material and semiotic resources available for making meaning, the author introduces an approach to exploring such iden...

I teach low level learners aged 18–19 in a Japanese university. Here I describe a teaching project where I used narrative tasks with these students, including the problems that arose and ways that I resolved them. I also consider the potential of such tasks for developing general conversational narrative skills.

Cell phones are now widespread in many countries including Japan where we teach, and are particularly popular among university students. Although they can be a distraction in the classroom, functions such as Internet access and e-mail capability have transformed them into sophisticated communication tools. But are they also potentially useful in...

Speaking English is now widely recognized as being the key to international communication in the current globalised world. However, the utilitarian need for English as a useful skill for global communication brings with it a baggage of identity issues which language educators would do well to consider. This paper provides an overview of issues in i...

This paper proposes a systemic approach to describing the representation of time and space in oral narratives, outlining four categories that would constitute the first level of analysis. It focuses specifically on exploring anecdotes that occurred in research interviews with English language teachers in Japan who recounted their professional exper...

Celebrities or sports 'personalities' are involved in a very public kind of 'identity work' largely controlled by the media who report on their public activities. But how are such personalities created and what are the key resources for evoking such public identities? This paper explores evaluative linguistic resources available for managing perspe...