ABSTRACT
The chapter calls for more textbook research to (qualitatively) address learning. An example of an ethnographic study in which beginner English as a foreign language learners use textbooks and laptops in the classroom is provided to discuss why adopting an alternative notion of learning—as semiotic and multimodal transformation—allows researchers and teachers to better identify the agentive semiotic work of students. The analysis of a student’s 3D map and her conversation with the teacher during an oral assessment instance demonstrates her situated agency in contesting the middle/upper-class feel multimodally constructed throughout the textbook. Findings point to the need to attend to how textbook discourse is critically negotiated in the classroom and its implications for learning.
