scholarly journals An SF-MDA of the Textual and the Logical Cohesive Devices in a Postgraduate Accounting Course

SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402094712
Author(s):  
Hesham Suleiman Alyousef
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Making Meaning ◽  
Lexical Cohesion ◽  
Multimodal Discourse Analysis ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
Cohesive Devices

The use of cohesive devices in academic discourse not only improves the quality of writing but also enhances our learning experiences. This study aims to explain how the multimodal accounting discourse is constructed by postgraduate business students through the cohesive ties. Halliday and Hasan’s and Halliday’s cohesion analysis schemes were employed in the systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA) of the cohesive devices in the multimodal accounting texts. The schemes are based on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) which suits the context of this study as it considers language as a social semiotic resource for making meaning. Its linguistic tools are capable of explaining the way we construct and make meanings. The SF-MDA findings showed the first and most frequently occurring cohesive device type in the orthographic texts was lexical cohesion, in particular repetition of the same lexical items, followed by reference and conjunctions. Lexical cohesive devices were higher in the tables than in the orthographic texts. Conjunctions were only employed in the orthographic texts to signal extension and enhancement relationships. One of the key features that characterize financial statements is the abundance of implicit hierarchically networked lexical ties that bind the separate lexical strings, thereby organizing the discourse of financial statements. The results contribute to our understanding of the complex multimodal meaning-making processes in accounting discourse.

scholarly journals Text Cohesion in English Scientific Texts Written by Saudi Undergraduate Dentistry Students: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Textual and Logical Relations in Oral Biology Texts

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402110321
Author(s):  
Hesham Suleiman Alyousef
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Bachelor Of Science ◽  
Lexical Cohesion ◽  
Multimodal Discourse Analysis ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Analysis Scheme

This qualitative study examined multimodal cohesive devices in English oral biology texts by eight high-achieving Saudi English-as-a-foreign-language students enrolled in a Bachelor of Science Dentistry program. A Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) of the textual and logical cohesive devices in oral biology texts was conducted, employing Halliday and Hasan’s cohesion analysis scheme. The findings showed that students used varied cohesive devices: lexical cohesion, followed by reference and conjunctions. Although ellipsis was minimally employed in the oral biology texts, its discipline-specific uses emerged: the use of bullet points and numbered lists that facilitate recall. The SF-MDA of cohesion in multimodal semiotic resources highlighted the processes underlying construction of conceptual and linguistic knowledge of cohesive devices in oral biology texts. The results indicate that oral biology discourse is interdisciplinary, including a number of subfields in biology. The SF-MDA of pictorial oral biology representations indicates that they include instances of cohesive devices that illustrate and complement verbal texts. The results indicate that undergraduate students need to be provided with a variety of multimodal high-cohesion texts so that they can successfully extend underlying conceptual and logical meaning-making relations.

scholarly journals A study of cohesion in international postgraduate Business students’ multimodal written texts: an SF-MDA of a key topic in finance

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 56-78
Author(s):  
Hesham Suleiman Alyousef ◽  
Suliman Mohammed Alnasser
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Capital Budgeting ◽  
Multimodal Communication ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Lexical Cohesion ◽  
Functional Linguistics ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Analysis Scheme

Empirical research studies of finance students’ language use have investigated students’ performance in finance courses and the effect of class attendance on students’ performance.Similarly, research on accounting students’ texts has been directed at readability of accounting narratives and lexical choices. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) based research in multimodal communication and representation has been confined to school and workplace contexts. Whereas multimodal communication investigations in tertiary contexts has been conducted across the fields of mathematics, science and computing, and nursing, business courses have not been explored. The purpose of this paper is to report on a case study designed to investigate the key multimodal academic literacy and numeracy practices of ten international Master of Commerce Accounting students enrolled at an Australian university. Specifically, it aims to provide an account of the salient textual and the logical patterns through the analysis of cohesive devices in a key topic in the Principles of Finance course, namely capital budgeting techniques and management reports. This study is pertinent as most international ESL/EFL students’ enrolments in Australia and elsewhere is in business programs. This study is underpinned by Halliday’s (1985) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach to language and Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) cohesion analysis scheme. The study employs a Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) for the analysis of cohesive devices in the participants’ multimodal texts. Lexical cohesion formed the largest percentage of use, and in particular repetition of the same lexical items, followed by reference.The findings contribute to the description of the meaning-making processes in these multimodal artefacts. They provide a potential research tool for similar investigations across a broad range of educational settings. Implications of the findings for finance students and educators are finally presented.

scholarly journals A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Political Speeches: The Case of Donald Trump’s 2016 Election Speeches

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 168
Author(s):  
Mohamed Hassanien Abdel Ghany Hassan Elsanhoury
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Support Section ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Full Account ◽  
Multimodal Discourse Analysis ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
2016 Election ◽  
Political Speeches ◽  
Verbal Meaning

<p><em>This paper investigates the different verbal and non-verbal meaning making resources manifested in the speeches of Akron, Ohio and Phoenix, Arizona delivered by Donald Trump during his presidential campaign in 2016.  The way verbal and non-verbal resources combine or interact intersemiotically unravels how Donald Trump attempts to affect his audience and reveal his populist leadership. For that end, the researcher carried out an analysis that is divided into two sections. Section one is devoted to a ‘themes’ analysis to isolate the overarching themes and illuminate the major topics addressed by President Donald Trump to seek his audience’s support. Section two follows SF-MDA which relies on Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics (Halliday, 1978, 1994; Halliday &amp; Matthiessen, 2004/2014) for the analysis of verbal meaning- making resources and Kress and Van Leeuwen’s visual grammar (1996/2006) for the analysis of non-verbal resources. The analysis reveals that both verbal and non-verbal meaning-making resources, in terms of representational, interactive and compositional meanings, work intersemiotically to deliver a full account of meaning and unravel Donald Trump's populist leadership.</em></p>

scholarly journals AN ANALYSIS OF COHESION OF EXPOSITION TEXTS: AN INDONESIAN CONTEXT

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 515
Author(s):  
Emi Emilia ◽  
Nurfitri Habibi ◽  
Lungguh Ariang Bangga
Keyword(s):  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Written Language ◽  
High Achievers ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Lexical Cohesion ◽  
Functional Linguistics ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Eleventh Graders ◽  
Flow Of Information

The paper reports on the results of a study aiming to investigate the cohesion of exposition texts written by eleventh graders of a school in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. The study used a qualitative case study research design, especially text analysis, involving 32 students. In the interest of space, the paper will present the data obtained from six texts written by 6 students, representing low, mid, and high achievers. The texts were analyzed using systemic functional linguistics (SFL), especially in terms of schematic structure and linguistic features, especially those contributing to the cohesion of the texts, such as Theme progression and cohesive devices. The results show that all texts show students’ grasp and understanding of the schematic structure of an exposition, including thesis, argument, and restatement of the thesis. All texts also successfully use the zig-zag and the Theme reiteration patterns, which indicate the students’ emerging capacity to create a text with cohesion at the clause level. However, only texts written by high achievers employ the multiple Theme pattern, indicating the students’ emerging capacity to create a text with better sense of connectedness, unity, and flow of information at the global level. High achiever texts also employ discourse features which allow the reader to predict how the text will unfold and guide them to a line of understanding of a text as a whole. Moreover, in terms of cohesive devices, all texts use some simple cohesive devices—reference, lexical cohesion, and conjunction. It should be mentioned that all texts are rudimentary with some inappropriate word choices and grammatical problems. This suggests that the students still needed more guidance and time to do research on the topic in focus, to go through the process of writing as professional do, to allow them to create a better text with more elaboration and characteristics of written language with consistency and accuracy. It is recommended that further research on different perspectives and foci of analysis of different text types using systemic functional linguistics, with more representative samples, and studies on the teaching of writing be conducted.

scholarly journals A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the Most Viewed Reggaeton Video on Youtube by the LIV Super Bowl Halftime Show

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-52
Author(s):  
Gustavo Moreno López
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Writing Proficiency ◽  
Sexual Content ◽  
Heavy Load ◽  
Related Literature ◽  
Multimodal Discourse Analysis ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
Visual Semiotics

We are what they eat and what we listen as well. Concerning this idea, it is essential to mention that reggaeton is one of the most consumed genres in many countries. Furthermore, to the extent that people regularly listen to music on platforms and express to like reggaeton in recent years, they may want to know more about what they are consuming. However, in the related literature, there is evidence of a negative impact on the women’s image and heavy load of sexual content (Gallucci, 2008; Noriega, 2014; Ramírez, 2012). Therefore, the present article analyses the discourse of “no me conoce” by J. Balvin, Bad Bunny, and Jhay Cortez. The lyrics and images were analyzed using systemic functional linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2003) and visual semiotics (Machin, 2010). The findings suggest that this genre contributes negatively to educational stances, such as writing proficiency, vocabulary range, and reading comprehension.

scholarly journals GE Big Boys Appliances: Towards a Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the SNL Fake Commercial

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Karina Clemente-Escobar
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Gender Roles ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Multimodal Discourse Analysis ◽  
Traditional Gender Roles ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
Saturday Night Live

Nowadays, comedy shows like Saturday Night Live (SNL) have become popular and entertain many people around the world. For this study, a fake commercial for GE Big Boys Appliances, aired on YouTube in 2018 is analyzed to explore how discourse is used to represent gender roles and stereotypes. To conduct this multimodal discourse analysis, some elements of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) proposed by Halliday (1978), some notions of critical discourse analysis, and some features of the Machin’s (2010) visual semiotic framework are employed. The findings portray that the sketch shows a change concerning gender roles through time, but it still promotes the transmission of some classical gender stereotypes. Therefore, it is valuable to study comedy sketches to understand how traditional gender roles and stereotypes are still transmitted in social media.

scholarly journals “And this is the view from outside my window”: On text and image interplay in university website blogs

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renáta Tomášková
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Text And Image ◽  
University Websites ◽  
Functional Linguistics ◽  
Multimodal Discourse Analysis ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
Verbal Content

Abstract The paper focuses on the institutional website as a complex genre with a relatively discontinuous inner structure, which is, however, coherent and cohesive, and unified by a common communication goal(s). The website is viewed as a discourse colony consisting of independent but related components realized in an array of subgenres, some of which are typical of the academic/institutional environment while others come from different discourse domains and are employed as embedded genres. The paper focuses on the blog as an embedded genre, its forms and functions within university websites, and particularly on its potentially multimodal character, i.e. the interplay of the verbal content of the blog and the non-verbal elements, esp. photographs, which co-create the producer’s message to the addressee. Drawing upon the recently developed field of multimodal discourse analysis within Hallidayan Systemic Functional Linguistics, particularly Martinec and Salway’s model, the paper explores the level to which the modes are integrated and the ways they contribute to meaningmaking in the genre.

scholarly journals THE REPRESENTATION OF EXPERIENCE IN UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS STUDENTS’ TEXTS: A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF MULTIMODAL MEANING MAKING RESOURCES IN MARKETING TEXTS

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-27
Author(s):  
Hesham Suleiman Alyousef
Keyword(s):  
Functional Analysis ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Marketing Plan ◽  
Multidimensional Approach ◽  
Mathematical Symbolism ◽  
Written Assignments ◽  
Model Texts ◽  
Undergraduate Business Students

From the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) standpoint, experiential meanings reflect our experience, perceptions, and consciousness. Research on experiential meaningmaking in tertiary contexts has traditionally focused on areas such as mathematics, journalism and media, science and computing, nursing, and history. This paper aims to investigate the experiential multimodal meanings in an undergraduate marketing course. The data comprised three written assignments and the tutor’s two model texts. The study employed a multidimensional approach by Alyousef (2013), which is framed by SFL (Halliday 2014) and O’Halloran’s (2005, 1998, 2008, 1999) multisemiotic framework for the analysis of semiotic codes in mathematics. The results showed that the experiential meanings in the students’ marketing plan texts were primarily construed through material processes and both explicit and implicit relational identifying processes. The findings indicated how mathematical symbolism is encoded in the multisemiotic texts, in the most economical manner, by using grammatical strategies of structural condensation. The results also noted the extent to which the different modes of meaning were integrated in the texts.

scholarly journals Thematic Progression in Saudi Postgraduate Business Students’ Multimodal Texts: An SF-MDA of Accounting Discourse

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Hesham Suleiman Alyousef ◽  
Amerah Abdullah Alsharif
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Balance Sheet ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Saudi Students ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
Thematic Progression ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistic

Thematic progression plays a vital role in organizing the information in a text and in enabling it to be understood and communicated effectively. Studies of multimodal business discourse have been confined to workplace contexts, and across the fields of management accounting, marketing, and finance. Based on Halliday’s (2014) analytical tools of systemic functional linguistic (SFL) and Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) analysis of images, an Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) was conducted to explore THEME and INFORMATION structure in five international students’ texts in a key topic in accounting, namely financial statements. The participants are first-year Master of Commerce Accounting Saudi students enrolled in the Accounting Concepts and Methods module at an Australian university. The findings of the SF-MDA revealed the frequency of Theme reiteration and the linear Theme pattern in financial statements. The first pattern is employed in accounting tables to list the corresponding numerical values. The SF-MDA findings of the balance sheet corresponded with Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) approach to the analysis of grammar of visual design in terms of compositional zones.

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