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Multimodal Interaction – Language and Modal Configurations
Abstract
This chapter illustrates how language builds one system with all other modes in interaction. Elucidating this point, the chapter examines language and modal configurations in multimodal actions in a small art school in Germany. First, the historical development of multimodal (inter)action analysis is outlined. Then, relevant theoretical concepts are discussed. Following, the theory is exemplified by an analysis of (inter)action in the art classroom. Here, the chapter investigates practices of speaking about colour in the art school based on audio and video data collected over four months. Then, it hones in on one representative sample in which the art teacher interacts with a new art student. The chapter then zooms in further, examining how language in (inter)action shifts within modal configurations. The conclusion critically assesses the explanatory value and practical use of multimodal (inter)action analysis.
... To explore multimodal practices in chamber music lessons, this study adopts a mixed-methods approach by combining multimodal (inter)action analysis (Norris, 2004(Norris, , 2011(Norris, , 2016(Norris, , 2019 and multimodal conversation analysis (Deppermann, 2013(Deppermann, , 2018Mondada, 2014Mondada, , 2016Mondada, , 2019a. I will work with a corpus consisting of video data from chamber music lessons at the music conservatoire Claudio Monteverdi Bolzano. ...
... Multimodal (inter)action analysis takes the action as a unit of analysis and looks at three action types and their interconnections (lower-level, higher-level, and frozen actions) within a "site of engagement", i.e., a real-time window onto social practices and actions (cf. Norris, 2004Norris, , 2016. Chamber music lessons become a site of engagement because different practices (e.g., rehearsing a piece of music, discussing music, correcting musical performance, and repeating music) are performed at a particular time in a particular place by different social actors (e.g., teacher and students). ...
This study analyzes the interplay of semiotic modes employed by a teacher and music students in a chamber music lesson for instructing, learning, and discussing. In particular, it describes how specific higher-level actions are accomplished through the mutual contextualization of talk and further audible and visible semiotic resources, such as gesture, gaze, material objects, vocalizing, and music. The focus lies on modal complexity, i.e., how different modes cohere to build action, and on modal intensity, i.e., the importance of specific modes related to their useful modal reaches. This study also attends to the linking and coherent coordination of interactional turns by the participants to achieve a mutual understanding of musical ideas and concepts. The rich multimodal texture of instructional, negotiation, and discussion actions in chamber music lessons stresses the role of multimodality and multimodal coherence in investigating music and pedagogy from an interactional perspective.
... In this, different semiotic modes take over specific interactional tasks, depending on their respective modal strengths. Rather than aggregate much data, the paper is based on an analysis of one representative sample drawn from a larger corpus of rehearsal transcripts within the theoretical frameworks of multimodal (inter)action analysis (Norris 2016;Pirini 2014) and multimodal conversation analysis (Deppermann 2013;Mondada 2013Mondada , 2016. ...
... Following the general logic of multimodal (inter)action analysis (Norris 2004(Norris , 2016, orchestra rehearsals can be viewed on two different levels. First and more generally, they represent or instantiate a 'nexus of practice' (Scollon and Scollon 2004), which is "the point where multiple discursive and non-discursive practices come into contact and interact" (Norris and Maier 2014: 392). ...
Using multimodal (inter)action/conversation analysis, the present contribution inventories the repertoire of higher-level actions that constitute musical instruction in orchestra rehearsals. The study describes the modal complexity of the instructional actions as built from a varied combination of speech, gesture, gaze, vocalizing and body posture/movement. A high modal intensity of speech and vocalizing is explained with recourse to their contextually useful modal reaches. While some modes, like vocalizing and body posture appear to be action-specific, others turn out to be pervasive default modes. Besides modal intensity, the study also attends to the transitioning between higher-level actions through gaze and the role of the score as frozen action. The analyses help demystify orchestra rehearsals as a special type of professional communicative interaction, which builds on a rich multimodal texture motivated by recurring instructional functions. The methodological rationale demonstrated will be suited to exploring the social variation of instructional interaction in orchestra rehearsals.
English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers and students are often pressured to use generic, globally published textbooks featuring ‘inner-circle’ social realities. While some studies look at specific instances of content that socially marginalizes their intended audiences, few attempt comprehensive examinations of the multimodal ensembles on each opened page. Inspired by critical discourse studies that problematize some textbooks as vehicles for social injustice, this study features a novel, critical multimodal analysis process (CMAP) to look closer at the discourse in a popular textbook, asking: (1) What power relations and ideologies are harbored in the multimodal discourse? (2) What dominant narratives do the lessons appear to teach? After analyzing six units of lessons in a popular, globally published EFL textbook, CMAP reveals dominant inner-circle perspectives and othering, to which this study collectively labels innercirclism. Considering globally published EFL textbooks continue to be a popular choice for academic programs in expanding circle nations, the implications of this study suggest innercirclism diminishes the pedagogical vision of the teacher to ensure the value of their students’ investment in English language learning.
This afterword draws insights and conclusions from the preceding chapters by critically engaging once again with the disciplinary status of multimodality. It explicates the main points of discussion of the contributions and makes some recommendations concerning disciplinarity and multimodality. The path taken addresses multimodality at a fundamental philosophical and practical level, reflecting some of the requirements that establishing a discipline of multimodality would entail. This presents multimodality and its study increasingly in a particular light of its own and, as a consequence, it will be argued that a strengthening of disciplinary claims for multimodality is at this time not only beneficial but, in certain important respects, crucial for advancing beyond the current, somewhat disparate, state(s) of the art.
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