Exploring modality in multimodal macrogenre: A social semiotic analysis of EFL pedagogic materials in China

Yumin Chen

doi:10.1515/jwl-2021-0016

Abstract

Abstract Given the evolving multimodal features in educational settings, modes other than language further enable the diversity in the realization of meanings and pedagogic goals. This paper explores modality in multimodal pedagogic materials for teaching English as a foreign language in China. Drawing upon the social semiotic approach to modality in visual media, this study provides a comparative analysis of modality markers in different elemental genres that constitute the macrogenre of a teaching unit, with a focus on explaining the underlying reasons for the different choices in terms of coding orientation. It is shown that different degrees of deviation from the accepted coding orientation are employed in different constituent genres of the macrogenre of a given text.

Highlights

IntroductionWith the extensive research on the multimodal features in pedagogic materials for foreign language teaching in China (Chen 2010a, 2010b; Feng 2021; Zhang 2009, 2010, 2019), the multimodal features of different genres that constitute the macrogenre of a teaching unit require further investigation
This paper explores modality in multimodal pedagogic materials for teaching English as a foreign language in China
Drawing upon the social semiotic approach to modality in visual media, this study provides a comparative analysis of modality markers in different elemental genres that constitute the macrogenre of a teaching unit, with a focus on explaining the underlying reasons for the different choices in terms of coding orientation

Summary

Introduction

With the extensive research on the multimodal features in pedagogic materials for foreign language teaching in China (Chen 2010a, 2010b; Feng 2021; Zhang 2009, 2010, 2019), the multimodal features of different genres that constitute the macrogenre of a teaching unit require further investigation. Continuing the semiotic analysis of multimodal pedagogic discourse along this line, this study provides a comparative analysis of modality markers in different constituent genres within the same teaching unit as macrogenre by drawing upon the social semiotic approach to modality in visual media (Hodge and Kress 1988; Kress and van Leeuwen 2006, 2021; van Leeuwen 2005). The present study aims to investigate how certain modality markers may be adjusted to some extent due to the variations in the topic or focus of the social activity by comparing two constituent genres with different visual features

Modality in multimodal discourse

The teaching unit as macrogenre

Photographs for representing actual scene

Drawings for illustrating mythology

Conclusion