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 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 A multimodal discourse analysis of English dentistry texts written by Saudi undergraduate students: A study of theme and information structure

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 267-283
Author(s):  
Hesham Suleiman Alyousef
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Multimodal Discourse Analysis ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
Textual Features ◽  
Visual Artifacts ◽  
Functional Analyses

AbstractThe study of multimodality in discourse reveals the way writers articulate their intended meanings and intentions. Systemic functional analyses of oral biology discourse have been limited to few studies; yet, no published study has investigated multimodal textual features. This qualitative study explored and analyzed the multimodal textual features in undergraduate dentistry texts. The systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA) is framed by Halliday’s (Halliday, M. A. K. 2014. Introduction to Functional Grammar. Revised by Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen. 4th ed. London/New York: Taylor and Francis) linguistic tools for the analysis of Theme and Kress and van Leeuwen’s (Kress, Gunther, and Theo van Leeuwen. 2006. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge) framework for the analysis of visual designs. Oral biology discourse intertwines two thematic progression patterns: constant and linear. Although a split-rheme pattern was minimally employed, disciplinary-specific functions of this pattern emerged. The SF-MDA of the composition of information in oral biology pictures extends Kress and van Leeuwen’s functional interpretations of the meaning-making resources of visual artifacts. Finally, the pedagogical implications for science tutors and for undergraduate nonnative science students are presented.

scholarly journals “Nice to get to know you”

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-55
Author(s):  
Judit Háhn
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Action Mode ◽  
Multimodal Discourse Analysis ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
Media Interaction ◽  
Collaborative Activities

Virtual exchange comprises online collaborative activities in facilitated, educational contexts across borders. This paper offers a multimodal approach to the study of social presence in students’ asynchronous online discourse in the context of virtual exchange. It draws on the Community of Inquiry model of online learning (Garrison 2017) and interprets social presence as the dynamic discursive process of social interaction and self-presentation. The data consists of screenshots collected in a closed Facebook group during the first assignment of a Czech-Finnish virtual exchange project in 2017. The study aims to explore how the method of multimodal discourse analysis can be used to describe the three dimensions of social presence. The students’ self-introductory posts, reactions and comments were examined in three modes of meaning-making: the linguistic, the visual and the action mode. The study offers a model for the qualitative multimodal discourse analysis of social presence construction in asynchronous social media interaction.

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 Relations Between Verbal Language and Visual Image in Student’s Textbook Implementing the Concept of Metafunctions

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-415
Author(s):  
Sukrun Nisak ◽  
Dwi Rukmini
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Visual Image ◽  
Information Value ◽  
Verbal Language ◽  
Multimodal Discourse Analysis ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
Multimodal Text ◽  
Visual Relations ◽  
Textual Meaning

This research is about the use of verbal language and visual image to realize the metafunctions in student’s textbook. In order to see the process of meaning making in multimodal text, the researcher analyses the implementation of ideational, interpersonal, and textual meaning. The data was taken from conversation sections in Interchange Student’s Book 1. It consists of verbal language in the form of dialogues and visual image in the form of pictures. There were 16 conversation sections chosen from 16 chapters in the book. This research uses multimodal discourse analysis; using three instruments to classify the data. The checklists are from Eggins (2004) about metafunctions in verbal language, Van Leeuween (2006) about metafunctions in visual image, and Royce (2007) about the relations in verbal language and visual image. In ideational meaning, the result of the study shows that verbal language which dominates the conversation is the material proces; while in visual image, the reactional process is the highest number of process happens. Thus, the verbal-visual relations in ideational meaning found are collocation and repetition. Furthermore, the result in interpersonal meaning finds out that the most common verbal language used is statement; while in visual image, the medium shot is mostly found. Thus, the verbal-visual relation in interpersonal meaning realized through reinforcement of address is interaction between represented participant and represented participant. Moreover, in textual meaning, the result of verbal language shows that the most common used theme is topical theme; while in visual image, the information value is mostly left-right. Thus, the verbal-visual relation in textual meaning shown in reading path is left-right.

The sliding of the signified: multimodal sign operations in a youth-created experimental digital video

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Ranker
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Digital Video ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Digital Videos ◽  
Multimodal Discourse Analysis ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
School Classroom ◽  
Public School Classroom ◽  
Urban Public School ◽  
Artistic Quality

In this article, the author presents a multimodal discourse analysis of a digital video composed by five students (ages 11–12) in an urban, public-school classroom. The focal mockumentary video is distinctive in that it is difficult to interpret and has an artistic quality that turns the process of meaning-making back on itself, resisting the very idea of a single, determinable meaning. He examines this phenomenon as the sliding of the signified in the students’ video (as multimodal discourse), focusing on the ways in which the students tapped into discursive agencies that rupture meaning-making. In particular, he analyzes how visual and spoken signifiers are related or coordinated with one another across the film in the creation of multimodal discursive effects such as floating signifiers, networks of metonymic potential, and signifier condensation complexes. This study thus offers conceptualizations of multimodal discursive units that can be used to interpret and analyze the interactions of visual and spoken signifiers in films and digital videos.

scholarly journals An Analysis of Multimodal Interaction in a Webinar: Defining the Genre

10.29007/p8mm ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noelia Ruiz-Madrid ◽  
Inmaculada Fortanet-Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Multimodal Interaction ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Multimodal Discourse Analysis ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
Communication Modes ◽  
Collaboration And Communication ◽  
Complex Relationships ◽  
Digital Genres

AbstractFrom a Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) perspective (Kress and Van Leuween, 2001; Kress, 2003; O’Halloran, 2004; Baldry&Thibault, 2006; Jewitt, 2009; Querol-Julián and Fortanet-Gómez, 2012) each semiotic resource (i.e., speech, image, writing, movement, gaze, sound, layout, among others) contributes to the meaning-making process. Linguistic and non-linguistic information is integrated in multimodal texts, and especially so in digital genres (Shepherd & Watters 1999; Crowston & Kwasnik 2004; Askehave & Nielsen 2005; Villanueva et al. 2008), where complex relationships are conveyed by the use of multiple resources.One of these new digital genres is the webinar or web seminar. Webinars help to disseminate knowledge, facilitate collaboration and communication, and enhance performance among students and instructors, employers and employees and specialist in dispersed locations (Wolf, 2006; Forrester, 2009; Bandy, 2010; Kokoc, Ozlu, Cimer & Karal, 2011). Its main characteristic is that it is online and it often consists of a number of lectures streamlined and/or recorded to be watched off-line, and there are several participants located in several places, who can contribute online or offline through different communication modes (written or spoken with or without video). In this sense, it is clear that webinars include a wide array of multimodal resources, both verbal and non-verbal. But how do they work together? To what extent are they integrated? Are users responsive to these multimodal resources and to what extent?In order to answer these and other questions, we analyse in this paper a dataset of several sessions of a research webinar organized by the Group for Research on Academic and Professional English in 2015 on the topic of Multimodal Discourse Analysis. Our interest is to study all the multimodal components in the discussion sessions in this seminar and the different strategies used by participants for online and face-to-face interaction.

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