Abstract
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.
Highlights
The study of multimodality in discourse has increased over the past two decades because it reveals the way writers articulate their intended meanings and intentions
Halliday’s (1978, 2014) social semiotic approach to language, systemic functional linguistics (SFL), and Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) framework for the analysis of the grammar of visual design fit with the aim of the present study because they set out the explanation of how students make meaning of language and the various multimodal semiotic resources
Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) systems for the analysis of the textual organization in images seemed appropriate for the aims of my study because they reveal the configurations of the multimodal texts through the representational and interactive meanings of the image to each other through three “interrelated systems” – composition of information value; visual salience; and visual framing by dividing lines
Summary
The study of multimodality in discourse has increased over the past two decades because it reveals the way writers articulate their intended meanings and intentions. The present study conducted a systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA) to explore the realization of the textual metafunction of the different semiotic resources in a key topic in the Oral Biology course, i.e., developmental abnormalities: defects of the face and oral cavity. The study is pertinent, since it is the first to explore the way Saudi undergraduate dentistry students produce cohesive and coherent multimodal texts. It is of interest as the number of Saudi English as a foreign language (EFL) students enrolled in a dentistry undergraduate program in Saudi Arabia has increased dramatically during the past 10 years. The study may provide insights for science tutors and undergraduate EFL/English as a second language (ESL) science students
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