PAA-4T Framework: Spinning Genre Eggs in AI-Enabled Multimodal Education

This study investigates the transformative impact of AI-enabled digital multimodal composing (DMC) on student engagement and learning outcomes in a 13-week professional communication course designed for Public Relations and Corporate Communication. Grounded in the PAA-4T framework—Plurilanguaging, Affect, Agency mapped with Translanguaging, Trans-semiotizing, Transknowledging and Transculturing —, and employing nexus analysis (Scollon, 2007), the research delves into how systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and multimodal practices intersect with "spinning genre eggs" in creating digital storytelling and hybrid genres for corporate branding and sustainability. The research methods include qualitative data collection through observation, interviews, and artifact analysis, focusing on 28 tertiary students’ collaborative projects and individual reflection. Nexus analysis provides a lens to examine the interaction between students, AI tools, and the sociocultural environment, capturing the dynamic evolution of genres within the course context. Findings reveal that AI-supported DMC fosters inclusive learning environments, enabling plurilingual, pluricultural students to leverage their multilingual repertoires as assets. In addition, some indepth case study informants demonstrated heightened engagement and creativity, producing narratives that bridge cultural barriers while aligning with corporate sustainability goals. The study also highlights tertiary students' ability to integrate SFL principles with AI-generated insights, resulting in coherent, impactful storytelling that resonates across diverse audiences. Research and pedagogical implications for emerging AI-enabled multimodal educational practices are significant. The integration of AI technologies in professional communication courses can enhance pedagogical approaches by fostering multimodal engagement, interdisciplinarity, and ethical awareness. By aligning technological tools with Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) frameworks, educators can ensure that genres evolve sustainably and inclusively. This research underscores the potential of AI-enabled DMC to redefine genre-sensitive curriculum frameworks, equipping plurilingual, pluricultural students with "strategic translanguaging and trans-semiotizing" (Liu et al., 2024) to navigate complex linguistic and societal challenges in corporate and public communication. The findings contribute to the growing discourse on the role of AI in shaping adaptive, multimodal, and transformative educational practices. It provides a gateway for understanding how transformative AI tools may potentially reshape genres, pedagogy, and inclusivity through PAA-4T in multimodal contexts.