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The textbook in a changing multimodal landscape
Abstract
In this chapter we explore communication and learning in the contemporary social world. Taking the textbook as a 'case study' we identify changes in multimodal text making – in the use of writing, image, layout and typography – and highlight their social pedagogic significance. The theoretical frame of our account is social semiotics. Drawing on a corpus of English, Science and Maths textbooks and digital learning resources published between 1930 and now we render visible profound shifts in the semiotic landscape of education. Teachers and designers of learning resources have always drawn on a range of different 'modes'-‐ writing and image foremost among them, yet a combination of social change and new technologies have given rise to the possibilities for an increase in the use of more modes than these, in new 'ensembles' of modes, and with differently distributed functions. The chapter explores what the implications of these changes are for what and how students learn.
... Multimodality reflects the many ways in which we process information, communicate, and express ourselves, and is a powerful means to customise learning. It requires learners to engage with new information in a sense-making process, creating deeper learning opportunities (Bezemer & Kress, 2016), and extends the available options so that learning can be constructed via one modality, while also interweaving the use of others (Nouri, 2019;Phuong et al., 2017;Sankey et al., 2010). ...
... Although the study was unable to prove a positive learning effect as a direct result of the inclusion of multimodal representations, Sankey et al. (2010) conclude that careful consideration should be given to their incorporation as a means of improving learner engagement, progression, and retention. Given the evidence, the increased opportunity for communication in multiple modes, and the contemporary educational landscape, a strong case appears to exist for designing and delivering multimodal, rather than unimodal, learning experiences (Bezemer & Kress, 2016;Bouchey et al., 2021). ...
... Multimodality, in fact, calls for researchers to move beyond the empirical boundary of their discipline and develop theories and methods that interpret how we use different modes together to produce meanings (Jewitt et al., 2016). For instance, studies using multimodal approaches have flourished within genre research to address the semiotic complexity of multiple genres, including research papers (e.g., O'Halloran, 2015), conference presentations (e.g., Morell, 2015), and school textbooks (e.g., Bezemer & Kress, 2016), as we illustrate in the following sections. ...
... In this section, we illustrate an exemplary study by Bezemer and Kress (2016), which adopts a Social Semiotics approach to analyzing textbooks for secondary school students and contemporary digital learning materials. As the researchers argue, learning processes have always been shaped by a wide range of educational resources (and related modes) available to instructors and learners, among which are textbooks. ...
Advancements in digital technology have led to the emergence of various multimodal genres involving the combination of multiple meaning-making resources. This has prompted researchers to adopt new analytical frameworks to investigate previously unexplored genre features. This chapter provides an overview of the three main approaches employed by applied linguists to examine genre from a multimodal perspective, including Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Social Semiotics Multimodal Analysis, and Multimodal Corpus Analysis. After delving into the background, objectives, and specific tools employed by each approach, the chapter presents examples of studies investigating various academic and non-academic genres. The present work offers readers an understanding of the common issues and challenges encountered in multimodal genre research and outlines potential directions for future research.
... Even young learners can express messages through dialogue, roleplaying, drawing, and marking (Short et al., 2000). Consequently, teachers and designers tend to draw from different modes of resources to create learning materials (Bezemer & Kress, 2016). Since the expansion of oral and written literacy into digital literacy, transmediation between modes has become prevalent. ...
... VR creates a sense of presence as in the real world (Barricelli et al., 2016) by offering multimodal learning resources and the opportunities to improve and expand the effectiveness of learning (Mills & Brown, 2021). VR affords users the ability to use different modes of presentation (Bezemer & Kress, 2016). For example, images creating meaning through their visual presentation are considered visual literacy (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). ...
This study aims to investigate the influence of story creation on young EFL learners’ reading performance. Action research was adopted to examine the effects of two different story reading projects in a library setting in Taiwan. Each project comprised a group of 19 young EFL learner from Grades 4 to 6 (aged 10- 12). The first group’s activities consisted of picture storybook reading and word games. The results obtained from the pre- and post-reading tests on the learners’ performance revealed an increase in their English reading scores. But the results of the learners’ motivation and anxiety questionnaire were unsatisfactory. To overcome this discrepancy, a 3D virtual construction task using Omni-immersion Vision, an online VR construction tool, was added to the reading activity. This let the students express their ideas through multimodal resources including text and images in their stories and their 3D virtual contexts. The results showed that the second group made improvements not only in their English language reading but also in their learning motivation, and they demonstrated lower levels of anxiety than the first group. It appears that a combination of multimodal stories and context construction in virtual worlds benefited EFL learners.
... In this paper, we launch a panoramic view on contributions and the unfolding of the Multimodality Approach in the Brazilian context. In the fi rst moment, we focus the dialogue on the postulations of Kress (2010); Kress and van Leeuwen (2001); Bezemer and Kress (2016), seeking to interact with a social-semiotic perspective on communication in order to understand the semiotic landscape. Then, we describe how this perspective has been placed in the Brazilian scenario. ...
... Os dados revelam que a abordagem multimodal no contexto brasileiro tem sido, erroneamente, percebida como uma teoria independente, que possibilita conjugar e descrever o uso modos/recursos na produção de signifi cados. É mister salientar, diante do que asseveram Bezemer e Kress (2016), que a multimodalidade constitui-se em um campo fértil para a Semiótica Social, visto que está ancorada em pressupostos teóricos, conforme previamente elucidado na primeira parte deste trabalho, e, portanto, não se constitui em uma nova teoria, mas em um modelo de comunicação que fornece ferramentas de análise que podem tanto auxiliar o entendimento de como os signifi cados são construídos. É fato que muitas discussões têm sido tecidas por pesquisadores como (Jewitt 2013;Adami 2016;Callow 2013;Kress 2003) e muitas questões ainda estão em debate, por exemplo, noção de letramento; modo, affordances e multimodalidade, enquanto fenômeno de comunicação. ...
In this paper, we launch a panoramic view on contributions and the
unfolding of the Multimodality Approach in the Brazilian context. In the
fi rst moment, we focus the dialogue on the postulations of Kress (2010); Kress and van Leeuwen (2001); Bezemer and Kress (2016), seeking to interact with a social-semiotic perspective on communication in order to understand the semiotic landscape. Then, we describe how this perspective has been placed in the Brazilian scenario. The quantitative study was based on two main search engines: Google Scholar and the online database of CAPES – The Coordination for the Improvement of Higher EducationPersonnel
... In this paper, we launch a panoramic view on contributions and the unfolding of the Multimodality Approach in the Brazilian context. In the fi rst moment, we focus the dialogue on the postulations of Kress (2010); Kress and van Leeuwen (2001); Bezemer and Kress (2016), seeking to interact with a social-semiotic perspective on communication in order to understand the semiotic landscape. Then, we describe how this perspective has been placed in the Brazilian scenario. ...
... Os dados revelam que a abordagem multimodal no contexto brasileiro tem sido, erroneamente, percebida como uma teoria independente, que possibilita conjugar e descrever o uso modos/recursos na produção de signifi cados. É mister salientar, diante do que asseveram Bezemer e Kress (2016), que a multimodalidade constitui-se em um campo fértil para a Semiótica Social, visto que está ancorada em pressupostos teóricos, conforme previamente elucidado na primeira parte deste trabalho, e, portanto, não se constitui em uma nova teoria, mas em um modelo de comunicação que fornece ferramentas de análise que podem tanto auxiliar o entendimento de como os signifi cados são construídos. É fato que muitas discussões têm sido tecidas por pesquisadores como (Jewitt 2013;Adami 2016;Callow 2013;Kress 2003) e muitas questões ainda estão em debate, por exemplo, noção de letramento; modo, affordances e multimodalidade, enquanto fenômeno de comunicação. ...
RESUMO Neste trabalho, lançamos um olhar panorâmico sobre contribuições e os desdobramentos da Abordagem da Multimodalidade nas pesquisas no contexto brasileiro. No primeiro momento, centramos o diálogo nas postulações de Kress (2010); Kress e van Leeuwen (2001); Bezemer e Kress (2016), para compreender a paisagem semiótica. No segundo momento, descrevemos como essa perspectiva tem se colocado no cenário brasileiro, trazendo contribuições para o desenvolvimento de pesquisas. A parte quantitativa deste artigo utilizou as plataformas de busca, como Google Acadêmico e o banco de dados virtual CAPES-Coordenação para o Melhoramento do Pessoal de Educação Superior. Palavras-chave: Abordagem multimodal; Semiótica Social; contexto brasileiro.
... It is crucial that learners' textbooks, which socialise them accurately, represent all learners. Considering South Africa's developing democracy, learners should be able to relate their lived experiences to the world portrayed in their textbooks (Bezemer & Kress, 2016). Barton and Sakwa's (2012) study of English language textbooks used in Uganda revealed that the textbooks still maintained the traditional depiction of gender roles characterised by women's silence, invisibility, domestic roles, and a negative rendition of their emotional state. ...
Textbooks socialise and legitimise cultural norms, and therefore, learners’ social worlds should find expression in their textbooks. In the study reported on here we examined how Grade 4 English First Additional Language and life skills textbooks reflected learner diversity in South African schools as manifested in their racial, gender, occupational, ability and geographical profiling in the textbooks. Content analysis was used to systematically identify instances of diversity representation in Grade 4 English First Additional Language and life skills textbooks. Quantitative content analysis accounted for the ubiquity of human characters’ reflection in textbooks on the diversity variables in question. Qualitative analysis focused on the depiction of characters’ gender roles. Quantitative data suggest that learners’ social worlds were generally represented in the selected textbooks. However, males enjoyed greater visibility than females, and the visibility of disabled people was low. The 2 life skills and 1 English textbook portrayed both urban and rural settings. The qualitative analysis uncovered some gender stereotyping, where, for example, women were depicted in lower positions compared to men’s high-paying vocations like judges, scientists, or doctors. Boys were depicted receiving prizes for their Matric achievements. Implications for publishers and writers commissioned to write textbooks include the need to consider representation of learner diversity in textbooks. The Department of Education should develop guidelines that promote such representation.
... Her findings showed some instances where the visual message was in contradiction with the verbal message, reflecting the embedded ideologies in the texts and images. Bezemer and Kress(2015) have demonstrated that in textbooks, typography and image are used to construct and differentiate between different imagined abilities as much as writing does. This has important implications for researching and evaluating textbooks and text more widely, since they believed that text designed for readers to engage with aspects of the world cannot be fully understood without due attention to all modes operating in that text. ...
With the development of modern information technology, there emerges an increasing trend of multimodal teaching and learning. Teachers are required to employ a wide range of materials such as textbooks, diagrams, photographs and drawings to facilitate students’ learning. Thus, the significance of applying multimodal textbook discourse into classroom setting is also becoming increasingly pronounced. This article takes a retrospective look at the related previous studies on multimodal teaching and learning, which cover a wide variety of perspectives, including the multimodal discourse analysis, the multimodal classroom teaching and the multimodal textbook analysis. Based on the literature review, the deficiencies of current multimodal studies and suggestions for further research have been proposed in the last part of the article. The current study can give important enlightenment to the research and practice of multimodal teaching and learning, especially with the aid of the multimodal textbook discourse analysis.
... Researchers (Bezemer & Kress, 2016;Ester, Nouri & Rodriquez, 2018;Matusiak, 2013;Sankey Birch & Gardiner, 2010) concur that there exists a proliferation of information in several modes, such as gestures, visuals, haptics, auditory productions, text-based information, and multimedia. Representing information through different modes, and/or using a combination of modes, can create multiple access points for, and experience of learning. ...
The study investigated the shortages in a multimodal learning (MML) approach that was used in a science faculty of a selected higher education institution (HEI) in South Africa. The study population consisted of students of the science faculty. The sample consisted of students who willingly offered to participate after being informed of this study. A study questionnaire consisting of MML components was used to collect data. It was distributed by email as Google forms to students who had supplied their email addresses in acceptance of participating. Analysis of data consisted of graphs and measures in percentages to determine the level of how the students experienced the various MML components. The deficiency level was not too high, but the components that were missing were crucial to effect beneficial learning. The components missing in MML were found to be core components of a flipped classroom (FC). The paper recommended a move of MML closer to FC.
... The videos recorded lessons were analyzed drawing on conversation analysis (CA) and multimodal discourse analysis (MMDA) for classroom data to ensure a fine-grained analysis (Tang et al. 2014). MMDA is a perspective that encompasses a diverse range of approaches to analyse how participants produce meaning through the use of different semiotic modes in the course of teaching and learning (Bezemer and Kress 2016). In Set's (2021) view, the identifications of each specific mode in the transcript were useful to see the affordances of each mode for science meaning-making. ...
This paper draws on conceptualisations of language as heteroglossic practices to examine how the experienced bilingual science teacher navigates between the monoglossic ideology that is embodied in the official Namibian Language in Education Policy (LiEP) within a linguistically constrained Namibian bilingual context. This paper aims to support recent research that challenges monolingual and monoglossic language practices, which tend to ignore the linguistic resources that children bring to the classroom. Data were collected from a classroom including video and audio recordings of lessons, field notes and photographs. The data were analysed through socio-cultural discourse and fine-grained multimodal analytical methods. The data findings illustrate the moment where the science teacher was constrained by English monolingual policy to mediate learners’ access to science learning, and harnessed all linguistic resources that the learners bring to the classroom. Subsidiary to that, there were moments where the teacher worked flexibly across languages, discourses and modes to interrupt the monoglossic ideology that is embodied in the official Namibian Language in Education Policy (LiEP). The use of rich heteroglossic practices is a clear testimony to enhanced science meaning-making regardless of learners’ ‘limited proficiency in English. The findings highlight the need to support learners from linguistically diverse backgrounds through a deliberate inclusive language policy that harnesses the heteroglossic nature of communicative practices and prepares teachers for a multilingual reality.
... Minor deviations from these guidelines do occur in both contexts, although possibly more in France, to discard units due to time constraints or irrelevance, to include topical issues and additional, perhaps more authentic material, and to cater to student needs. Indeed, as the literature shows, coursebooks still function as a hidden curriculum in education (Schmidt 2015), despite the rise of technological tools (Bezemer and Kress 2015). By contrast, Swedish teachers were found to teach more strongly according to student needs. ...
Today, the Common European Framework of Reference (2009) and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) underpins English Language Teaching (ELT) curricula throughout Europe. However, given cross-national differences such as ones related to educational policies and students’ engagement in extramural English (EE), one could expect ELT to vary across countries. We investigated Austrian, French, and Swedish teachers’ types of instruction as well as how and why they resort to the reported practices by conducting semi-structured interviews with twenty lower secondary teachers. Our results show that ELT in all countries seems to largely rely on CLT, but Austrian and French teachers appear to attribute a greater role to teaching form than do teachers from Sweden. Swedish teachers provide primarily meaning-focused, fluency-based teaching. Moreover, Austrian and French teachers reported applying rather predetermined grammar teaching, whereas ELT in Sweden seems to cater more to individual student needs. This cross-country comparison provides a detailed picture of how multiple factors such as curricula, EE, practical constraints (e.g., class size) and student needs influence pedagogical choices and extends our understanding of how grammar teaching practices are related to the teaching context.KeywordsEnglish language teachingAccuracy versus fluencyFocus-on-meaningFocus-on-formExtramural english
... This didactic unit is aimed at students at an intermediate level of language in Spanish courses or undergraduate courses in Spanish Language and Literature. We are theoretically based on authors such as Bezemer and Kress (2015), Coscarelli (2016), andRibeiro (2018) to propose an activities sequence that aims to integrate different literacies in teaching the textual production of an opinion article. From this proposal, we realized that the padlet is a relevant virtual tool in terms of interaction possibilities, allowing its users to develop the textual production and rewriting activities collaboratively and with the teacher tutoring throughout the process. ...
Neste trabalho, temos como objetivo propor uma unidade didática de ensino de produção textual em língua espanhola com o gênero artigo de opinião a partir do uso do aplicativo padlet, considerando as suas funcionalidades enquanto ferramenta colaborativa que tem sido bastante utilizada durante o ensino remoto. Esta unidade didática tem como público-alvo estudantes de espanhol em nível intermediário de cursos de línguas ou da graduação em Letras - Língua Espanhola. Baseamo-nos teoricamente em autores como Bezemer e Kress (2015), Coscarelli (2016) e Ribeiro (2018) para propor uma sequência de atividades que visam integrar diferentes letramentos no ensino de produção textual por meio de um artigo de opinião. A partir dessa proposta, percebemos que o padlet é um ambiente virtual rico em possibilidades de interação, permitindo aos seus usuários desenvolverem as atividades de produção e de reescrita textual de forma colaborativa e com a tutoria do professor em todo o processo.
... All of these characteristics seem to have changed substantively. Paraphrasing findings from Bezemer and Kress (2015), these changes can be found in terms of composition and design (linearity vs modularity), the role of image (illustrative vs constitutive), preferred syntactic structures (hypotaxis vs parataxis), the use of modality or validity markers (use of color, depth, etc.), as well as the medium (printed page, online screen), among others. ...
... The inception of this new technology of genetic manipulation occurred when most forms of scientific communication were becoming increasingly more digitalized and reliant on multimodal forms. For instance, modern scientific textbooks along with traditional textual resources use images, colours and different kinds of spatial arrangement (Bezemer, Kress 2016). Scientific lectures and presentations embody another knowledge dissemination channel which employs multimodal resources (Rowley-Jolivet 2002;Bucher, Niemann 2012). ...
This study investigates the multimodal potential of conference presentations for specialized knowledge dissemination purposes during the International Summit on Human Gene Editing. The methodological framework combines a genre perspective with a social semiotic reading of multimodal artefacts, focusing on the main canvas of analysis represented by the video recording of a PowerPoint-based conference presentation, with the parallel corpus of slides and commissioned papers. The study pursues the aim to assess how different semiotic codes interact in the resulting multimodal artefact, and, specifically, how video recording of conference presentations contributes to the dissemination of scientific knowledge on human gene editing in slides and papers. The findings pinpoint the disappearance of elements typical of dissemination and popularization from the papers and the PowerPoint slides, and at the same time confirm that videos provide adaptive choices for integrating different modes for the fullest knowledge dissemination attempt, with some minor technical shortcomings.
... Intensity, the quality of being felt strongly or having a very strong effect (Cambridge Dictionary, 2017), can be expressed in social media texts through the mode of writing, image and colour. Summarised by Bezemer and Kress (2016): ...
Social media users combine semiotic resources like writing, speech, still image, moving image, layout and colour when communicating online. The complex nature and forms of social media use have clear correspondences with the concerns of multimodal theory - a social semiotic theory which looks beyond speech and writing to focus on the multiple modes of meaning making and communication that constitute contemporary life. This thesis aims to explore the potentials and limitations of researching social media interaction with a multimodal approach, with a focus on how users’ textmaking choices create social media styles that express their individual and social interests. The empirical work is carried out by a multimodal social semiotic microanalysis of digital content. In particular, the thesis examines multimodal text-making practices of users from three different social media platforms – Pinterest, Twitter and Tumblr. By accounting for resources of image, colour and layout in addition to language, this thesis attempts to respond to some of the challenges of social media research, in that it pays attention to all modes of communication appropriated by social media users. This study finds, that through nuances in style work, from linguistic resources of pronouns and modal verbs, to image resources of content placement and colour palettes, social media users not only present themselves to the online community, displaying their interests, values and beliefs. Users also highlight their intended audience and their membership in online communities through their multimodal compositions. As such, the thesis contributes to our understanding of self-presentation and audience management online, highlighting the importance of accounting for the multimodal character of social media use
... Textbooks; foreign language teaching; language education; international languages; cultural content; multilingualism For a long time, the language textbook has been the authorised/legitimated educational medium for language learning and to a great extent it still is, as the various contexts and phenomena under investigation in this issue show. Despite the apparent rise of digital tools and platforms, printed textbooks are still widely used around the world (Bezemer & Kress, 2015). While in some teaching scenarios they have been replaced by digital tools, more often than not these digital tools become articulated in wider 'textbook systems' (Risager, 2018). ...
Language textbooks have been –and still are- the centre of attention of substantial research in the field of applied linguistics, language education and instruction, and language studies, among others. This paper synthesizes results and findings from the current Special Issue ‘The language textbook: representation, interaction and learning’’. In particular, it discusses how -and to what extent- this collective work expands our current undertstanding of the field. By drawing on the concepts of representation/communication, interaction and learning, the paper calls for more attention to empirically and situated research in the field so as to better account for textbook discourse circulation and use and to better capture the agentive role of students and teachers in negotiating textbook discourse, representations and contents. It is in this sense that a deeper articulation between representation, interaction and learning is needed to further explore the dynamics of structural and situated power and agency in language textbook studies. This can inform not only researchers, but also practitioners and other educational stakeholders, including textbook publishers.
... Some of these artifacts-mainly, the printed textbook-have a long tradition of authorization for learning (Luke et al. 1989) and still continue to be widely used in education despite the rise of digital tools and platforms (Bezemer and Kress 2015). Other artifacts, on the other hand, have been introduced much more recently; this is the case of laptops in Uruguayan education (see Chap. 4). ...
Canale introduces learning from a multimodal socio-semiotic perspective, arguing this has profound theoretical and ethical implications. In light of this, Canale explores some of the many connections between technology, meaning-making and multimodality in the understanding that new technology plays a fundamental role in current formal education and that the interaction, communication and learning that take place with such technology in schools needs to be approached socio-semiotically and multimodally. Drawing on classroom examples, he discusses the benefits of approaching learning from this multimodal socio-semiotic perspective as an alternative to long-ingrained ideologies of learning which permeate many school and classroom practices and which obscure much of the meaning-making and learning that takes place inside (and outside) the school walls.
This study explores the integration of multimodal teaching, translanguaging, and dialogic pedagogy to improve English literacy among junior students in a Chinese private university. In the context of globalization, proficiency in English is essential for these students, yet many face challenges that hinder their literacy development. This research examines how multimodal mind maps, as tools for translanguaging and multimodal learning, reveal student perspectives on language learning and literacy development in Chinese private universities. The study offers insights with significant potential for shaping educational practices and curriculum design in Chinese private universities (Canagarajah, Suresh. 2012. Translingual practice: Global Englishes and cosmopolitan relations . New York: Routledge). By strategically implementing multimodal teaching techniques, the research introduces innovative strategies to enhance English literacy (García, Ofelia & Li Wei. 2014. Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and education . Palgrave Macmillan; Jewitt, Carey & Gunther Kress. 2010. Multimodality, literacy and school English. In D. Wyse, R. Andrews & J. Hoffman (eds.), The Routledge international handbook of English, language and literacy teaching , 342–352. London: Routledge; Vygotsky, Lev S. 1978. Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press). The findings highlight the interplay between linguistic strategies, instructional methods, and student perspectives, offering effective pedagogical interventions that prioritize multimodal engagement. By bridging theory and practice (Canagarajah, Suresh. 2012. Translingual practice: Global Englishes and cosmopolitan relations . New York: Routledge), this research provides actionable insights that address the literacy challenges and aspirations of junior students. Using a multimodal teaching approach (García, Ofelia & Li Wei. 2014. Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and education . Palgrave Macmillan), this study not only demonstrates how diverse modes of communication strengthen students English skills and foster their confidence but also addresses the development of their identities as competent members of an English academic community. Drawing on Norton’s (Norton, Bonny. 2013. Identity and Language learning: Extending the conversation . 2nd edn. Bristol: Multilingual Matters) work on identity and investment in language learning, this research underscores the importance of identity construction in the language learning process. It shows how students, through multimodal engagement, can assert their identities and claim the right to participate in academic communities, thereby preparing them for success in a globally interconnected society.
El libro de texto ha sido objeto de interés y, a su vez, un elemento sobre el que se han vertido numerosas críticas tanto a nivel curricular como educativo. A pesar de ello, en el ámbito hispánico todavía no contamos con un cuerpo contundente y sostenido de investigaciones sobre libros de texto de segundas lenguas (L2) o extranjeras (LE). Este monográfico reúne una colección de artículos sobre libros de texto centrados en el español como L2/LE, pero con implicaciones de interés también para otras lenguas y tradiciones textuales, con el fin de cumplir un doble propósito: por un lado, ofrecer un estado crítico del arte que de entidad a este ámbito en relación con la enseñanza del español y, por otro, proporcionar investigaciones desde diferentes ópticas, contextos y tradiciones que promuevan la consolidación este campo de investigación en el ámbito del español. Este artículo presenta una definición operativa del concepto de libro de texto, sintetiza los antecedentes más sobresalientes sobre la materia y analiza avances y necesidades futuras. La colección de artículos aquí recogidos nos permite avanzar en la construcción del campo de estudios de libros de texto de L2/LE, un espacio altamente fragmentado y la disperso, aunque con enormes posibilidades a nivel epistémico y transdisciplinar.
The school textbook has been an object of both academic interest and educational dispute. Despite this, Hispanic studies still lacks a solid and robust body of research about second language (L2) and foreign language (FL) textbooks. This Special Issue puts together a collection of papers about Spanish L2/FL language textbooks, whose implications also pertain to the teaching of other languages and to other textbook research traditions. The purpose of the collection is twofold. On the one hand, it seeks to offer readers a critical state of the art of textbook studies, with a focus on Spanish L2/FL. On the other hand, it seeks to present specialized research conducted in very different contexts and that draw on different theoretical and analytical tools so as to contribute to consolidating the field of study of Spanish language textbooks. This paper introduces a working definition of textbook, synthesizes previous relevant research, and discusses advances and needs of future research. The collection of papers published in this Special Issue moves us forward in the consolidation of the field of L2/FL textbook studies, a field thus far characterized by fragmentary and disperse research practices. However, the field has great epistemic and transdisciplinary potential.
This article aims to contribute to the understanding of the use of interactive story apps as didactic resources for fostering the learning and teaching of multiliteracies. It presents the multimodal discourse analysis of an interactive story app showing a dense net of intermodal meaning relations, such as convergence, complementarity, and divergence, in the representation of ideational and interpersonal meanings. The results allow the characterization of the story app as a complex multimodal ensemble and point to the need of a renewed readers and teacher’s agency in the pedagogical use of interactive story apps in the learning and teaching of multiliteracies. The article finishes by identifying the limitations of the study and some future developments.Resumo: Este artigo tem como objetivo contribuir para a compreensão do uso de aplicativos interativos de histórias como recursos didáticos para promover a aprendizagem e o ensino de multiletramentos. Apresenta a análise do discurso multimodal de uma aplicação interativa de histórias, que mostra a densa rede de relações de significado intermodais, como a convergência, a complementaridade e a divergência, na representação de significados ideacionais e interpessoais. Os resultados permitem a caraterização desta aplicação de histórias como um conjunto multimodal complexo e apontam para a necessidade de uma renovada agência do leitor e do professor na utilização pedagógica de aplicações interativas de histórias na aprendizagem e no ensino dos multiletramentos. O artigo termina identificando as limitações do estudo e alguns desenvolvimentos futuros.
Nosso objetivo foi refletir sobre o ensino de Língua Inglesa (LI) em uma turma do Ensino Médio (EM) de uma escola pública do município de Tenente Ananias – RN. Mais precisamente, pretendemos analisar como o professor de inglês nas atividades de leitura aborda a perspectiva multimodal da linguagem, com foco nos recursos visuais do texto. A fundamentação teórica compreende os estudos da multimodalidade: Kress e Van Leeuwen (1996, 2006), Jewitt (2008, 2009); a pedagogia dos multiletramentos pelo Grupo de Nova Londres (1996) e por Cope e Kalantizis (2000); e na teoria do letramento visual/multimodal crítico, com base em Callow (1999, 2005, 2006, 2008) e em Silva (2016). Os resultados obtidos sinalizam que, apesar do professor trabalhar textos multimodais em sala de aula, a sua prática de ensino ainda se limita às questões verbais do código escrito em detrimento da exploração dos significados dos textos visuais.
Museums have long played an important role in the support of learning, yet less is known about the role of museums in supporting preservice teacher learning in the field of literacy education. In this qualitative study, the authors’ report on how a partnership with a local art museum, as a space of hybridity, extended preservice teacher’s learning about multimodality and social semiotics in relation to preservice teachers’ content areas. Drawing upon interviews with preservice teachers, their written reflections, curricular planning in the form of lesson and unit plans, and field notes, we found that multiple visits to the museum supported expanded notions of literacy and raised awareness about multimodality and social semiotics as they related to disciplinary literacy. We offer recommendations for how teacher-educators can leverage local resources, like museums, as partners in helping teachers prepare their students to engage in multimodal work within their disciplines.
Even though there is a long-standing tradition of textbook analysis that
explores textual representations, analyzing the textbook as part of wider social practices (e.g., in the contexts of textbook production and textbook use) is key to exploring the many ways in which representations are negotiated in social interaction. In this paper, we draw on multimodality and ethnographic approaches to discourse to present illustrative examples of two research sites in Uruguay: English language teaching (ELT) textbook production and ELT textbook use in the classroom. We focus on how textbook content developers, teachers and learners negotiate heteronormative visual representations in textbooks. These negotiations respond to broader ideological assumptions (about gender and about the textbook as educational media) which become articulated in interaction. Our conceptual aim in discussing these illustrative examples is to claim for situated textbook discourse analysis as a key area for analyzing the complex dynamics of representation as a semiotic process and not solely as a semiotic product
Este artigo tem o objetivo de investigar articulações entre textos multimodais digitais apresentados em propostas de redação do Programa Desafio Nota 1000 — 2ª e 5ª edições realizadas pela Secretaria de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia da Paraíba (SEECT/PB) em 2021 — e orientações para leitura e produção textual visando à prática dos estudantes para escrita de texto dissertativo-argumentativo em modelo proposto pelo ENEM. Para tanto, analisamos a multimodalidade em duas propostas de redação veiculadas em ambientes digitais, a partir da disposição de textos motivadores verbo-visuais, em consonância com as metafunções da Gramática do Design Visual (GDV), de Kress e van Leeuwen (1996, 2006, 2021). Em uma perspectiva teórico-metodológica, situamos o estudo no campo da Linguística Aplicada, com base em discussões de autores como Hodge e Kress (1988), Cope; Kalantzis (2000), Kress (2001, 2003, 2010), Silva (2016), entre outros, acerca da Multimodalidade e da Semiótica Social, a partir de uma abordagem qualitativa de cunho descritivo e interpretativista. Os resultados demonstraram que os alunos precisam estar inseridos em um ambiente de práticas de letramentos visuais para produzirem sentidos, a partir da relação de significados sociais entre os textos verbais e não verbais. Desse modo, concluímos que a formação de leitores/produtores de textos multimodais nessas propostas, faz-se indispensável, tendo em vista a necessidade de que os participantes desenvolvam maior proficiência na leitura crítico/visual dos textos motivadores, permitindo assim uma produção escrita condizente não apenas à matriz avaliativa do ENEM, mas também à produção de sentidos inerente a todo texto multimodal.
The book is about the relations between technology and language. It has a chapter written by me and Elisa Stumpf "CARACTERÍSTICAS DO DISCURSO DESINFORMATIVO NO TWITTER: ESTUDO DO DISCURSO ANTIVACINAS DO COVID-19"
Communication has become increasingly multimodal in contemporary society. This fact has prompted reflections on how pedagogical actions reflect these changes. In this chapter, the authors investigate the relationship between the multimodal approach of a textbook and the pedagogy of an English language teacher from a public school in Brazil. The theoretical bases of the study are Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), Jewitt (2008, 2009), Bezemer and Kress (2008, 2015), Callow (1999, 2006), among others. The study conducted by the authors is an ethnographic with descriptive and interpretative features. The main conclusions indicate that teacher's manual suggests adopting critical visual literacy, but it was not materialized in the activities. Both, teacher and textbook call students' attention to the images to teach language, rather than to explore critical visual literacy. They seek to develop the written code skill. Finally, the researchers suggest that textbooks should be designed and more pedagogical training about approaches that emphasize multimodal literacies should be promoted.
Este artigo objetiva investigar o ensino de Língua Inglesa como Língua Adicional (LA) por meio das atividades de produção textual do Livro Didático Time to share (AGA; MARTÍNEZ, 2015), do livro do professor do 9º ano do Ensino Fundamental, para verificar como o ensino de produção de texto, que integra linguagens e semioses, pode revelar letramento visual crítico. Este trabalho está respaldado nos estudos da multimodalidade de Kress e Van Leeuwen (1996, 2006), Jewitt (2009), Bezemer e Kress (2008, 2016); do letramento visual crítico de Callow (2008, 2012, 2013) e em abordagens para o ensino de produção de texto propostas por Ribeiro (2016, 2018). Os resultados revelaram que as propostas de produção de texto do livro do 9º ano trazem temáticas relevantes para se trabalhar no ensino de inglês. Entretanto, quando se trata de produção textual, para além do modo verbal, a análise revelou que o livro apresenta uma abordagem insuficiente com relação aos textos que integram palavras e imagens, apesar de ter uma aparência visualmente atraente. Assim, o livro didático acaba limitando as agências dos letramentos para o sistema escrito.
Virtual learning sites give learners unprecedented control and autonomy over their own learning. The flexible learning pathway is mainly contributed by the design of the apps, which offers a variety of linguistic and semiotic resources for language learning. So far, there is only limited research on the multimodal design of language learning apps. This chapter examines the semiotic arrangement of the Memrise app, which is a multilingual virtual learning site with a focus on vocabulary learning. In particular, this chapter aims to (1) map out the kind of resources that are provided for learners, (2) the way these resources are realised in the design of the app and (3) the way in which these resources are orchestrated and contribute to language learning through conducting multimodal social semiotic analysis. This chapter concludes with a critical view of the use of technology in education.
Canale explores Plan Ceibal policy in a focal classroom to investigate how through classroom interaction and work two curriculum artifacts (laptop and textbook) come to encapsulate either a traditional ideology of learning (underscoring verbal communication as demonstration of learning) or an alternative one (foregrounding the multiplicity of modal resources deployed in communication and learning). The analysis foregrounds teachers’ agentive role within the Policy in designing spaces for interacting with artifacts to demonstrate learning multimodally. Findings are also discussed in light of the expectations two legitimating policy audiences have (students/EFL supervisors and parents, respectively) and their effect on how artifacts are used and how semiotic labor is distributed between both artifacts in the classroom.
The aim of the thesis is to explain how multilingual adults use their linguistic and semiotic repertoires, which are records of their life experiences and mobility, to facilitate the learning of Chinese, in particular with the reading and writing of Chinese characters. The thesis begins with an overview of the background of the study in relation to the advent of mobile technologies and mobile learners. Through conducting an extensive literature review, it is argued that out-of-class, self-directed language learning through the use of online platforms has been an under-explored area and this thesis aims to fill in that research gap. This thesis adopts a multiperspectival approach in its choice of theoretical framework, consisting of translanguaging, multimodality and multilingualism. Each of these approaches contributes to the thesis in a unique way that crosses theoretical boundaries. This thesis illustrates the possibility of connecting these concepts and using them in a meaningful way so that they complement each other in explaining the complexity of meaning-making. Consequently, a combination of methodological approaches are used, including ethnography and social semiotic multimodality. Together they work in partnership with each other with an aim to generate a holistic view of how learning and teaching is conducted in the online learning environment. Eleven learners were studied in the thesis, among which four case studies are discussed in detail, with a focus on two learning practices: learning to read and learning to write Chinese characters. Learners engaged in these two practices demonstrated how they used their entire linguistic repertoires to construct knowledge through the process of translanguaging. The four case studies supported the need for a 'multimodal turn' in applied linguistics research in order to capture the multimodal nature of communication. Through repeatedly testing the boundaries and reach of translanguaging, multimodality and multilingualism, this thesis calls for a dialogue between applied linguistics and multimodality so that they can complement each other with the unique set of toolkits and explanatory powers that they have. This thesis has provided an example of how these perspectives can be brought together in a meaningful way to explore communication contexts that are complex and diverse.
This article imagines a tussle between Multimodality, focused on ‘modes’, and Applied Linguistics (AL), based on ‘language’. A Social Semiotic approach to MM treats speech and writing as modes with distinct affordances, and, as all modes, treats them as ‘partial’ means of communication. The implications of partiality confound long-held assumptions of the sufficiency of ‘language’ for all communicational needs: an assumption shared by AL. Given MM’s plurality of modes and the diversity of audiences, design moves into focus, with a shift from competent performance to apt design. Principles of composition — e.g. linearity versus modularity — become crucial, raising the question at the heart of this paper: how do AL and MM deal with the shape of the contemporary semiotic landscape?
Frequently writing is now no longer the central mode of representation in learning materials—textbooks, Web-based resources, teacher-produced materials. Still (as well as moving) images are increasingly prominent as carriers of meaning. Uses and forms of writing have undergone profound changes over the last decades, which calls for a social, pedagogical, and semiotic explanation. Two trends mark that history. The digital media, rather than the (text) book, are more and more the site of appearance and distribution of learning resources, and writing is being displaced by image as the central mode for representation. This poses sharp questions about present and future roles and forms of writing. For text, design and principles of composition move into the foreground. Here we sketch a social semiotic account that aims to elucidate such principles and permits consideration of their epistemological as well as social/pedagogic significance. Linking representation with social factors, we put forward terms to explore two issues: the principles underlying the design of multimodal ensembles and the potential epistemological and pedagogic effects of multimodal designs. Our investigation is set within a research project with a corpus of learning resources for secondary school in Science, Mathematics, and English from the 1930s, the 1980s, and from the first decade of the 21st century, as well as digitally represented and online learning resources from the year 2000 onward.
In this article, the authors provide an empirically based, social semiotic account of changes in textbook design between 1930 and the present day. They look at the multimodal design of textbooks rather than at image or any other mode in isolation. Their review of 23 textbooks for secondary education in English shows that profound changes have taken place not just in the use of image but equally in writing, typography and layout. Design is no longer exclusively organized by the principles of the organization of writing, but also, and increasingly so, by graphic, visual principles. They explore what these semiotic changes mean for the social organization of design and knowledge production, asking: What is 'English', a subject that supposedly concerns itself with the modes of writing and speech? What has changed in the environment that is set up by the textbook makers for teachers and students to engage in?
This book takes a fresh look at secondary urban English classrooms and at what happens when students and their teachers explore literature collaboratively. By examining very closely what happens in English lessons, minute by minute, it reveals how literary texts function not as a valorised heritage to be transmitted but rather as a resource for the students’ work of cultural production and contestation. The reading that is undertaken in classrooms has tended to be construed as either a poor substitute or merely a preparation for other reading, particularly for that paradigmatic literacy event, the absorbed and simultaneously discriminating consumption of the literary text by the independent, private reader. This book argues for a different understanding of what constitutes reading, an understanding that is informed by historical and ethnographic perspectives and by psychological and semiotic theory. It presents the case for a conception of reading as an active, collaborative process of meaning-making and for a fully social model of learning. Drawing extensively on data gathered through classroom observation and digital videotape of English lessons taught over the course of a year by two teachers in a London secondary school, the book explores students’ engagement with literary texts and the pedagogy that facilitates this engagement. The book offers new insights into reading, and reading literature in particular. It challenges the paradigm of reading that is offered in government policy and the assumption, common to much work within the field of ‘new literacies’, that ‘schooled literacy’ is the already-known, the default, against which the alternative literacy practices of homes and communities can be defined.
This book explores the role of photographs in newspapers and online news, analyzing how meanings are made in images and exploring text-image relations, illustrated with authentic news stories from both print and online news outlets.
The 21st century is awash with ever more mixed and remixed images, writing, layout, sound, gesture, speech, and 3D objects. Multimodality looks beyond language and examines these multiple modes of communication and meaning making. Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication represents a long-awaited and much anticipated addition to the study of multimodality from the scholar who pioneered and continues to play a decisive role in shaping the field. Written in an accessible manner and illustrated with a wealth of photos and illustrations to clearly demonstrate the points made, Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication deliberately sets out to locate communication in the everyday, covering topics and issues not usually discussed in books of this kind, from traffic signs to mobile phones. In this book, Gunther Kress presents a contemporary, distinctive and widely applicable approach to communication. He provides the framework necessary for understanding the attempt to bring all modes of meaning-making together under one unified theoretical roof. This exploration of an increasingly vital area of language and communication studies will be of interest to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of English language and applied linguistics, media and communication studies and education.
With the recent explosion of technology into the world of education across the globe, this book sets out a framework for rethinking the three key areas of schooling that are most affected by technology's impact on education today: knowledge as curriculum; learning and pedagogy and literacy across the curriculum. A well-known author in this field, Jewitt takes the reader through an analysis of teaching and learning with materials such as CD-ROMs, websites, the Internet, computer programming applications and computer games, relating each in turn to the main curriculum topics.
This book takes a fresh look at secondary urban English classrooms and at what happens when students and their teachers explore literature collaboratively. By closely examining what happens in English lessons, minute by minute, it reveals how literary texts function not as a valorised heritage to be transmitted, but as a resource for the students' work of cultural production and contestation.
Children’s everyday drawing and writing are paradoxical: charmingly engaging, yet seemingly unremarkable in their ordinariness. This book takes a very close look at what passes by largely unnoticed at home and in school: copying, texts fleetingly present then gone, a picture drawn after the valued work of writing has been completed. Examining features of children’s text making that are commonly disregarded because of their very ordinariness, or dismissed as mistakes because they are flawed or lacking, the book examines features such as shading, arrangement and forms of shorthand, and uncovers an intensity of effort in the making of meaning. In decisively shifting the focus away from insufficiency to what children can do and to the ‘work’ they invest in the texts they make, the lens taken here reveals resourcefulness and purposiveness. The unremarkable turns out to be remarkable. This has the most profound implications for what takes place at school, and beyond.
This article presents a social semiotic framework for the multimodal analysis of website interactivity. Distinguishing it from interaction, it defines interactivity as the affordance of a text of being acted (up)on, thus including hypertextuality. The author introduces the notion of ‘interactive sites/signs’ as the loci of interactivity in digital texts; these have a two-fold nature and a two-dimensional functioning. In their two-fold nature, they are both places enabling actions producing effects and forms endowed with meanings. Notwithstanding the non-direct correspondence between forms, actions and effects (which makes any specific association between the three significant within a webpage design), and in spite of their many possible forms (encompassing still and dynamic images, shapes and writing), a small range of actions can activate them (click/click+type/hover), producing a restricted set of textual effects (access/provide/transfer text). In their two-dimensional functioning, interactive sites/signs function both syntagmatically, on the page where they are displayed, in their relation with other co-occurring elements, and paradigmatically, opening to optional text realizations, hence in their relation with these. The framework adapts Halliday’s three metafunctions to the analysis of the two-fold nature and two-dimensional functioning of interactive sites/signs. It provides a fine-grained account of the interactive meaning potentials of digital texts, distinguishing between a text’s aesthetics of interactivity - as visually communicated before it is activated, performed and experienced - and its functionality, in the configuration of interactive possibilities offered by a page. Designed to complement the extant practices of text analysis of webpages, the framework can be used comparatively, as exemplified in its application to the analysis of two blog pages, and can provide a more refined assessment of the interactive meaning potential of a webpage than traditional methodologies such as content analysis.
This study demonstrates how semiotic theories can be used to understand typography. Starting from the assumption that typography represents a mode/code in its own right, which interacts with all other textual signing modes, the article outlines a typographic `grammar' as a structured set of networked resources. The analytical toolkit is then illustrated with the help of two sample texts. Based on some general semiotic reflections about the nature and operations of the graphic sign, this article also attempts a concise account of typographic meaning making and its communicative effects.
This paper offers a historically comparative picture of the latest waves of policy and technological changes that have occurred between 2000-2006 and discusses their impact on the practices of secondary school English in the UK. It draws on data from two previous research projects to explore significant moments of micro-interaction in a classroom that can be framed and integrated in the broader macro social and policy contexts of the production of school English. Specifically the paper offers a comparison of two distinct "moments"--2000, when the first data set was collected, and 2006 with a focus on the impact of technological and policy change for English. (Contains 1 table and 2 footnotes.)
L'histoire de l'education et l'histoire du livre ont recemment beneficie d'une reorientation qui les a rapprochees. Les livres ont rarement ete consideres comme objet d'etude. L'objectif de l'A. est de montrer comment le livre peut etre concu comme un element focal du processus de transmission de la culture. Dans une seconde partie l'A. applique cette approche a un exemple specifique, la grammaire latine utilisee au 19 e siecle en Angleterre.
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