July 2026 Member Scholarship Feature:

Dr. Tala Karkar-Esperat, Eastern New Mexico University

Book: Teaching multilingual students through culture and language: An elementary teacher’s guide to self-discovery using semiotics

The book is a professional development guide designed for elementary preservice and in-service teachers, the primary users, and home language arts teachers, the students’ guardians and parents, the secondary users. The guide centers student language and culture by recognizing and harnessing the students’ assets through semiotics and self-discovery. It draws on the applications of Dr. Karkar-Esperat’s work: The Raciosemiotic Architecture Framework®, the MultiSemiotic Architecture Framework®, the Transmultiliteracies Sustaining Pedagogy, and the Pedagogical Holistic Model of New Literacies. 

The book’s seven chapters focus on self-discovery through the linguistic mode (Idioms, Identity Text, Storytelling), Visual Mode (Customs and Traditions and Visual Knowledge), Audio Mode (Mariachi, Hip Hop, Folk Music), Spatial Mode (Connecting Local to Global), Gestural Mode (Examining Gestures in the Classroom), and Synesthesia Mode (Examining Culture Through Local Historical Figures). This guide supports joy, love, compassion, and self-discovery in education, viewing student differences as assets.

To Cite:

Karkar-Esperat, T. M. (2025). Teaching multilingual students through culture and language: An elementary teacher’s guide to self-discovery using semiotics. Routledge.

https://www.routledge.com/Teaching-Multilingual-Students-Through-Culture-and-Language-An-Elementary-Teachers-Guide-to-Self-Discovery-Using-Semiotics/Karkar-Esperat/p/book/9781041066927