Transforming L2 writing into AI-friendly multimodal composing: Embracing PAA-4T in digital storytelling as social inclusion

The convergence of digital storytelling with emergent linguistic and semiotic theories presents a novel pedagogical frontier for digital humanities in the AI era. This paper explores the integration of the PAA-4T (Lin, 2024) model, featuring translanguaging, trans-semiotizing, trans-knowledging, and trans-culturing, into a 13-week course for digital storytelling. The PAA framework highlights the interplay of plurilingualism, affect, and agency among learners, fostering social inclusion in the AI era. The PAA-4T model, thus, emphasizes the fluidity and dynamic nature of languaging in ecologically multilingual settings. Translanguaging, as a core component, enables L2 students to utilize their entire linguistic repertoire to make meaning, challenging traditional monolingual norms and promoting linguistic diversity. Trans-semiotizing expands this approach by incorporating multiple semiotic resources, such as visual, auditory, and gestural modes, into the digital storytelling process, enriching the narrative and engaging different sensory modalities. Trans-knowledging encourages students to navigate and adapt to various linguistic registers, enhancing their communicative competence and versatility through the application and integration of diverse knowledge systems. Additionally, trans-culturing fosters an inclusive environment where cultural expressions and identities are integrated and valued within the learning experience.
Drawing on these theoretical underpinnings, the paper reports a case study of a digital storytelling curriculum developed in a university in Hong Kong. The 13-week course was structured to progressively develop multimodal composing skills among L2 adult learners (N=38) through a trajectory of AI-embedded scaffolding activities and personalized learning projects. The course began with introducing fundamental concepts of translanguaging and its application in digital media, followed by hands-on workshops on trans-semiotizing that guide students in integrating various semiotic modes into their narratives. The curriculum also included personalized learning exercises aimed at motivating bilingual adult learners to navigate different linguistic registers in L2 multimodal composing contexts. The course concluded with a focus on trans-culturing, encouraging students to incorporate and reflect on their cultural identities within their digital stories. Most importantly, it created a safe space where L2 students can create and present their digital stories while receiving peer and instructor feedback. By embedding the PAA-4T model into the curriculum, the teacher-researcher examines how this approach can equip adult learners with advanced digital storytelling skills and cultivate a sense of social responsibility and inclusion. Data generation tools include lesson observations, fieldnotes, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussion, digital storytelling artefacts, and critical reflection logs written in L2.
The findings highlight the critical role of plurilingualism, affect, and agency in digital storytelling. This paper argues that learners' ability to mobilize diverse semiotic resources using AI-friendly narrative tools empowers them to construct and harmonize authentic narratives, enhancing their multi-sensory engagement and emotional attachment to the storytelling process. This plurilingual approach not only promotes linguistic and cultural inclusivity but also reflects the complex, interconnected realities of the AI-driven world. By embracing plurilingualism, affect, and agency, educators can sustain socially inclusive learning environments that empower bilingual students to tell their stories authentically. This paper contributes to the ongoing discourse on innovative pedagogies in the age of AI, highlighting the transformative potential of L2 multimodal composing as social inclusion.