Bilingual Learner and Semiotic Competence in Multimodal Writing: A Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis

• In Event: 67.035 - Multimodality in Bilingual Learners' Practices

Abstract

This study investigates how a bilingual sixth grader developed multimodal semiotic competence by focusing on intermodal metafunctions of sign systems as he constructed digital multimodal texts in PowerPoint on the greenhouse effect. The student’s multimodal composing was analyzed through a systemic functional approach to multimodal discourse analysis. The findings suggest that a) the student employed various semiotic modes (e.g., words, images, color) in the medium; b) the student employed non-linguistic modes for ideational meaning of the texts beyond interpersonal meaning of texts in a complementarity relationship across semiotic modes; and c) the student started to have a heightened understating of the metafunctions of sign systems.

Author

• Dong-shin Shin, University of Cincinnati