Roberta E Taylor

... The football magazines aimed at children contain many images of football players, the goalkeepers nervously ... stretched before a goal mouth, the striker about to take a penalty, gazing into the ... They seem to be taking images from one mode, the magazine poster, and transposing ...

TAYLOR, Roberta (2014). Meaning between, in and around words, gestures and postures – multimodal meaning-making in children's classroom discourse. Language and Education, 28 (5), 401-420.
Full text not available from this repository.
Link to published version:: 10.1080/09500782.2014.885038
Abstract
The view of language from a social semiotic perspective is clear. Language is one of many semiotic resources we employ in our communicative practices. That is to say that while language is at times dominant, it always operates within a multimodal frame and furthermore, at times modes other than language are dominant. The 2014 National Curriculum for the UK, on the other hand, values pupils' face-to-face classroom interaction in terms of standard spoken English (i.e. in terms of the mode of language alone). This paper offers examples demonstrating how embodied modes such as gesture, posture, facial expression, gaze and haptics work in conjunction with speech in children's collaborative construction of knowledge. In other words, what may have been previously conceived as gaps and silences - often interpreted as an absence of language - are in fact instantiations of the work of semiotic modes other than language. In order to consider this closely, this paper offers evidence from a multimodal micro-analysis of pupil-to-pupil, face-to-face interaction in one science lesson in a Year Five UK Primary classroom. It demonstrates how children's meaning-making is achieved through apt use of all available semiotic resources
Item Type: Article
Research Institute, Centre or Group: Sheffield Institute of Education
Identification Number: 10.1080/09500782.2014.885038
Depositing User: Ann Betterton
Date Deposited: 17 Dec 2014 09:46
Last Modified: 17 Apr 2015 10:52
URI: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/9069
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This article explores the texture of engagement, a necessary foundation for creative thinking , and examines that texture through a multimodal lens. The article reports on research examining pupils' face-to-face interaction, achieving rigour through systematic application of a multimodal discourse analysis framework to discover more about the nature of collaboration in class. The focus in this article is the work of two boys in an exam preparation class where the task is to transpose Macbeth Act 1 scene 7 into a modern context. The multimodal micro-analysis of extracts from the interaction allows for an understanding of the work of embodied modes of gaze, posture and gesture alongside spoken and written language. In particular, it highlights the work of embodied modes in engaged collaborative classroom interaction and the poetic, or prosodic, aspects to gaze and posture as well as language in everyday classroom communication. It conceptualises engagement as a process rather than a state or reaction. Building on these insights regarding the multimodal texture of engagement in collaboration, the article argues that it is important to understand engagement as a process rather than a state or response and discusses some implications as to what teachers need to take account of when implementing collaborative activities.

This article considers some of the findings of a research project
comparing discourse analysis and multimodal analysis as research
methods. It describes some of the insights into the multimodality of
children’s communication as revealed by that study and questions
whether descriptions based primarily on discourse analysis give as thick a
description as possible. Given the current interest in ‘Speaking, Listening,
Learning’ in Key Stage 1 and 2, the paper posits that the communicative
functions of gesture, posture and other forms of multimodal meaning
making will have implications for teachers of English seeking to extend
opportunities for learning through speaking and listening.
Key Words
Discourse analysis, multimodal analysis, children’s communicative
practices, intertextuality, thick description.
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