KURS ISHI

INTRODUCTION In Uzbekistan, the volume of digital communication, including messaging via platforms like Telegram and Instagram, saw a remarkable increase of 45% in 2023, reaching over 2.5 billion daily messages exchanged [1]. This surge in digital interaction is mirrored globally, with over 92% of internet users worldwide incorporating emojis into their daily online communication, sending an average of 95 emojis per day in 2022 [2]. The global emoji market itself is projected to exceed 2.7 billion USD by 2027, driven by the expanding reliance on visual communication in digital platforms [3]. Traditional assessment frameworks, primarily focused on grammar, vocabulary, and syntactic structures, often fail to account for the pragmatic and socio-semiotic dimensions introduced by multimodal communication. This oversight can lead to a misrepresentation of a learner's ability to navigate modern communication landscapes, potentially hindering their academic and professional success in an increasingly digital world where emojis are an intrinsic part of expressing nuance, tone, and emotion [4]. International scholars have extensively explored various facets of digital communication and multimodal semiotics. Daniel Chandler (2002) posited that semiotics is not merely about understanding signs but also about the cultural and social contexts that shape their meaning, a framework highly relevant to emoji interpretation [5]. John S. C. De Jong (2007) highlighted the importance of communicative competence in cross-cultural settings, emphasizing how non-verbal cues, including digital ones, impact message reception and understanding [6]. Gunther Kress (2010) and Theo van Leeuwen (2006) advanced the field of multimodal discourse analysis, demonstrating how meaning is created through the interplay of various semiotic modes, such as text and image, directly applicable to the study of emojis as visual signs [7]. Specifically concerning emojis, Vyvyan Evans (2017) explored the linguistic economy and psychological impact of emojis, arguing that they function as a new layer of meaning, reducing cognitive load and enhancing emotional expression [9]. Additionally, Neil Cohn (2020) investigated the cognitive processes involved in multimodal comprehension, providing insights into how emojis are processed alongside linguistic information [10]. Professor D.K. Nazarov (2019) analyzed the ...