Does ‘WOW’ translate to an ‘A’? Exploring the effects of virtual reality assisted multimodal text on Chinese Grade 8 EFL learners’ reading comprehension

Purpose In recent years, the incorporation of multimedia into linguistic input has opened a new horizon in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). In the reading aspect, the advent of virtual reality (VR) technology extends the landscape of reading repertoire by engaging learners with auditory, visual and tactile multimodal input. This study aimed to examine the pedagogical potential of VR technology in enhancing learners’ reading comprehension. Methods Three classes including 131 Chinese 8th grade EFL students participated in this study. This study adopted mixed methods methodology and triangulated pre-post-retention tests, questionnaires, learning journals and interview data to compare three modes of text input on learners’ reading performance and cognitive processing. Results The results indicated that VR-assisted multimodal input significantly improved learners’ macrostructural comprehension in the short term, whereas there was no significant difference in retention performance. The findings revealed that reading multimodal text did not exceed learners’ memory capacity or impose extraneous cognitive load. Participants mainly reported favorably on the efficacy of multimodal input in assisting their reading. Conclusion This study was the first attempt to integrate VR technology with input presentation and cognitive processing and offered a new line of theorization of VR-assisted multimodal learning in the cognitive field of SLA.

Context, Contextualisation and (Multimodal) Text

Context and genres are relevant concepts in Translation Studies, but paradoxically there is no consensus about their definition and how they challenge text, especially after the 1990s when technology began to impact on translation practices. It is surprising since new writings and textualisation of the interactions have developed concomitant with the dematerialisation of the context. In this study, we will trace the conceptual polysemy of “context”, first in linguistics (taken in a broad meaning) and then in Translation Studies. We will consider to what extent context and contextualisation are related, when translation is defined as a context-dependent meaning-making process. What does re-contextualisation imply, and how does context apply to (multimodal) text in a digital environment?

Analisis Teks Multimodal pada Logo Hari Santri Nasional 2021 sebagai Alternatif Media Pembelajaran Poster

Along with the times, science and technology, teachers and students are required to be able to master technological literacy skills, data literacy and human literacy (multiliteracy). The most appropriate way to developing these skills is to apply multiliteracy learning. Therefore, teachers must be able to plan and prepare multiliterate learning media to support learning activities in the 21st century. One of the media that can be used to implement multiliteracy learning is Instagram. The purpose of this study is to describe the results of multimodal text analysis on the 2021 National Santri Day logo as an alternative poster learning media. In this study, the literature study research method was used. The results of this study indicate that developing multi-literacy learning by conducting multimodal text analysis of the 2021 National Santri Day logo on Instagram can increase students' competence to cultivate creative souls, critical thinking in educational activities and can carry out exploration so that they can gain their own knowledge to support the realization of the next generation. Indonesia is gold in the era of society 5.0

What can cognitive linguistics tell us about language-image relations? A multidimensional approach to intersemiotic convergence in multimodal texts

In contrast to symbol-manipulation approaches, Cognitive Linguistics offers a modal rather than an amodal account of meaning in language. From this perspective, the meanings attached to linguistic expressions, in the form of conceptualisations, have various properties in common with visual forms of representation. This makes Cognitive Linguistics a potentially useful framework for identifying and analysing language-image relations in multimodal texts. In this paper, we investigate language-image relations with a specific focus on intersemiotic convergence. Analogous with research on gesture, we extend the notion of co-text images and argue that images and language usages which are proximal to one another in a multimodal text can be expected to exhibit the same or consistent construals of the target scene. We outline some of the dimensions of conceptualisation along which intersemiotic convergence may be enacted in texts, including event-structure, viewpoint, distribution of attention and metaphor. We take as illustrative data photographs and their captions in online news texts covering a range of topics including immigration, political protests, and inter-state conflict. Our analysis suggests the utility of Cognitive Linguistics in allowing new potential sites of intersemiotic convergence to be identified and in proffering an account of language-image relations that is based in language cognition.