Modes and meaning in the classroom – The role of different semiotic resources to convey meaning in science classrooms

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 88-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Danielsson
Keyword(s):  
Science Classrooms ◽  
Semiotic Resources

Sign-genres, authentication, and emplacement

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jannis Androutsopoulos ◽  
Akra Chowchong
Keyword(s):  
Language Choice ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Discourse Function ◽  
Multimodal Analysis ◽  
Semiotic Resources ◽  
The City ◽  
Secondary Signs

Abstract This paper asks how language and other semiotic resources are deployed in the semiotic landscape of Thai restaurants in the city of Hamburg, Germany. Based on detailed multimodal analysis of signage in twelve restaurants, this study draws on both established and underexplored topics in Linguistic Landscape scholarship, including the analysis of sign-genres, the distinction between communicative and symbolic functions of signs, the role of language choice in authenticating place, and the emplacement of signs in the semiotic landscape. A scheme for the classification of restaurant signs by discourse function and emplacement is proposed. The findings suggest that the analytical distinctions between inside and outside space as well as primary and secondary signs are useful for the study of restaurants and other commercial semiotic spaces.

Hip-Hop, the “Obama Effect,” and Urban Science Education

2012 ◽  
Vol 114 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Emdin ◽  
Okhee Lee
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Urban Youth ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Science Classrooms ◽  
Urban Science Education ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Urban Science ◽  
Science Educators

Background/Context With the ever increasing diversity of schools, and the persistent need to develop teaching strategies for the students who attend today's urban schools, hip-hop culture has been proposed to be a means through which urban youth can find success in school. As a result, studies of the role of hip-hop in urban education have grown in visibility. Research targeted toward understanding the involvement of urban youth in hip-hop and finding ways to connect them to school often rest primarily on the role of rap lyrics and focus exclusively on language arts and social studies classes. Purpose of the Study The purpose of this article is to move beyond the existing research on science education by utilizing an ongoing study to interrogate hip-hop culture, its relation to the “Obama effect,” and the role of hip-hop culture in creating new possibilities for urban youth in science. The discussion of hip-hop in urban schooling is grounded in the concept of social capital to explain what makes hip-hop youth who they are and how this knowledge can become a tool for supporting their academic success. Specifically, the discussion is based on theoretical constructs related to hip-hop in urban settings, including social networks, identity, and realness and emotional energy. Research Design To explore the complexities of hip-hop and the impact of the artifacts it generates on urban science education, we examined qualitative data illustrating the enactment of hip-hopness or a hip-hop identity in urban science classrooms. Specifically, we examined the “Obama effect” and its connection to hip-hop and science education. Findings The findings indicate that when teachers bring hip-hop into their science instruction, certain markers of interest and involvement that were previously absent from science classrooms become visible. Especially, the examples of the Obama effect in urban high school science classrooms in this article illustrate that science educators can strengthen hip-hop youth's connections to school and science by consistently using the science-related decisions President Obama is making as opportunities to teach science. Conclusions By engaging in a concerted focus on hip-hop culture, science educators can connect urban youth to science in ways that generate a genuine recognition of who they are, an appreciation of their motivation for academic success, and an understanding of how to capitalize on hip-hop culture for their identities as science learners. Such efforts can eventually lead urban youth to become “the best and brightest” in the science classroom and pursue careers in science-related fields.

Branding City Destinations

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Wang ◽  
Dan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
City Branding ◽  
Functional Grammar ◽  
Systemic Functional Grammar ◽  
Visual Discourse ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
Construction Of Meaning ◽  
Semiotic Resources ◽  
Global Arena ◽  
The City

Abstract City branding brings immense benefits for megacities to gain international prestige in an increasingly competitive global arena. City publicity films, as an effective method for selling the city through online dissemination, could reach and influence a wider audience. However, the deployment of different semiotic resources in the branding discourse in city publicity films remains under-explored, and in particular, the role of cultural attributes in the construction of meaning in the discourse of city branding through linguistic and nonverbal modalities remains unknown. This paper, drawing on theories of systemic functional grammar and visual grammar, examines the multimodal discourse of publicity films of Beijing and London in terms of representational and interactive meanings achieved through various semiotic resources. It is found that, in verbal and visual discourse, both films share similarities regarding enhancing persuasiveness via emotional branding but exhibit differences regarding how to achieve persuasiveness through different semiotic resources that co-construct meaning. The Beijing publicity film blends functional and emotional values while the London publicity film is prone to being more functional. In addition, possible reasons for the differences observed are discussed.

scholarly journals The Role of Anomalous Data in Knowledge Acquisition: A Theoretical Framework and Implications for Science Instruction

1993 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clark A. Chinn ◽  
William F. Brewer
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Acquisition ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Science Instruction ◽  
Theory Change ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Other ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Science Classrooms ◽  
Anomalous Data

Understanding how science students respond to anomalous data is essential to understanding knowledge acquisition in science classrooms. This article presents a detailed analysis of the ways in which scientists and science students respond to such data. We postulate that there are seven distinct forms of response to anomalous data, only one of which is to accept the data and change theories. The other six responses involve discounting the data in various ways in order to protect the preinstructional theory. We analyze the factors that influence which of these seven forms of response a scientist or student will choose, giving special attention to the factors that make theory change more likely. Finally, we discuss the implications of our framework for science instruction.

scholarly journals The role of language in scaffolding content & language integration in CLIL science classrooms

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kok-Sing Tang
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Science Classroom ◽  
Classroom Interaction ◽  
Science Classrooms ◽  
Cognitive Linguistic ◽  
Text Genre ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Integrated Or

Abstract This commentary to the special issue “Teaching, Learning and Scaffolding in CLIL Science Classrooms” synthesizes the contributions from the authors by addressing two overarching questions. First, what is the role of language in mediating science teaching and learning in a CLIL science classroom? Second, to what extent can content and language be integrated or separated in CLIL instruction and assessment? In addressing the first question, I distil three major perspectives of how the authors conceive the role of language as a scaffolding tool. These roles are: (a) providing the discursive means and structure for classroom interaction to occur, (b) enabling students’ construction of knowledge through cognitive and/or linguistic processes, and (c) providing the semantic relationships for science meaning-making. These three perspectives roughly correspond to the discursive, cognitive-linguistic, and semiotic roles of language respectively. In addition, two other roles – epistemic and affective, though not emphasized in this issue, are also discussed. In addressing the second question, I raise a dilemma concerning the integration of content and language. While there are clear political and theoretical arguments calling for an inseparable integration, there is also a common practice to separate content and language as distinct entities for various pedagogical and analytical purposes. In revolving this conundrum, I suggest a way forward is to consider the differences in the various roles of language (discursive/cognitive/linguistic vs. semiotic/epistemic/affective) or the levels of language involved (lexicogrammar vs. text/genre).

scholarly journals Metasemiotic Projects and Lifestyle Media: Formulating Commodities as Resources for Identity Enactment

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-136
Author(s):  
Evgeni Nikolaevich Molodychenko
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Sociocultural Context ◽  
General Sense ◽  
The Social ◽  
Semiotic Resources ◽  
Men's Magazines ◽  
Notable Increase

There has recently been a notable increase in the amount and perceived significance of new lifestyle media. Besides the instructive and entertaining function, these media arguably play a more fundamental sociocultural role of constructing identities. In consumer societies, these identities are to a great extent enacted through the acquisition of commodities and engagement in commodified practices, which thereby become semiotic resources of identity stylization. The purpose of this article is to explore the discursive mechanisms underpinning the process of formulating commodities and practices as such semiotic resources. To this end, several discourses from new online men’s magazines have been analyzed drawing on a model of discourse analysis that sees discourse as one of the “moments” of the social practice it is embedded in. The results indicate that the mechanism behind the processes in question can be described as a metasemiotic project. As such a project unfolds in discourse, various commodities and practices are being typified by a metasemiotic term. One of the most frequent prototypical metasemiotic terms in these resources is stylish man . The term is instantiated in texts by several lexemes, including the lexeme style and its derivatives, as well as lexemes naming various “masculine personas” such as man , guy, kid, gentleman, bad ass. It has been shown that an increasing number of commodities and practices are being “theorized” by the discourse of new online men’s magazines and typified by this term. One important feature behind the workings of the metasemiotic project is intertextuality. Specific texts are always dialogically linked to other texts of lifestyle discourse, while object-signs are reformulated and imbued with different social values. These results contribute to the exploration of contemporary lifestyle media and discursive mechanisms of identity construction used by them, and, in a more general sense, to recent discussions of operationalizing wider sociocultural context in textually oriented discourse analysis.

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