Multimodality and mathematics literacy: Knowledge visualisation and construction through a bilingual mobile learning app

This paper responds to the pedagogical challenges faced by faculty members in mediating students’ mathematics learning through English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in higher education institutions. Specially, it focuses on aiding students from Chinese as a Medium of Instruction (CMI) secondary schools as they transition into mathematical knowledge construction in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) environments. To bridge the trans-lingual transfer of prior learning towards success, CLIL educators are summoned to help students navigate among multi-semiotic representations (such as graphs, symbols, equations, and words) to engage with mathematical knowledge and discourse, apply mathematical reasoning and procedures, and visualise mathematical thematic patterns in English-medium higher education contexts. The analysis emphasises the dynamic and strategic integration of multimodal meaning-making resources in mobile apps as mediating tools for trans-semiotic scaffolding. By examining how the mathematics-specific linguistic and non-linguistic features are entwined with the animated ‘concept and language mapping (CLM)' diagrams, the study contributes to the effective learning of the mathematical thematic patterns and register. Triangulating multimodal learning materials with teacher interviews, the findings inform a framework for guiding teachers’ multimodal pedagogical design, facilitating both classroom instruction and self-paced mathematical enquiry - the unpacking and repacking of mathematics registers.