A Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis of English Micro-lectures

Journal: Journal of Higher Education Research DOI: 10.32629/jher.v2i5.508

Haili Feng

Foreign Languages Department, Qiongtai Normal University, Haikou 571127, Hainan, China

Abstract

Lim (2019) states that one challenge for the researchers in multimodal discourse analysis is to describe and discuss the interplay across various semiotic resources. English micro-lectures, as a kind of popular and widespread teaching materials in the information age, are typical multimodal discourses involving multi-semiotic resources. This article adopts the systemic-functional synthetic framework for multimodal discourse analysis from Zhang Delu (2018) to explore the relationship of various modes involved in excellent English micro-lectures and further examine how the semiotic resources cooperate and interact to construct communicative meaning. By analyzing and interpreting the context of culture, the meaning, the lexico-grammar, the media and the substance systems of involved modes in micro-lectures, it proves that English micro-lectures demonstrate complicated intersemiosis and various modes cooperate in a perfect way in meaning construction. This comprehensive investigation of semiotic systems sheds light on teachers’ mode choice and teaching design in producing micro-lectures and students’ learning strategies of micro-lectures in the mobile-assisted learning environment.

Keywords

micro-lecture, synergy, context of culture, meaning sysytem, lexico-grammar system, media system, substance system, systemic-functional synthetic framework for multimodal discourse analysis

Funding

Qiongtai Normal University “A Dynamic Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Micro-lectures for Foreign Languages” (qtzd201901); Hainan Applied Foreign Language Research Base “A Study on College Students’ English Learning Strategy under MALL” (HNWYJD18-02)

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