Theoretical Concepts and Analytical Procedures
In order to explore how the multimodal resources of computer applications contribute
to technology mediated learning I look beyond language and attend to all modes. Any
system consisting of elements that can be brought into sign making and principles for
their organisation in relation the ‘meta-functions’ is treated as a ‘mode’. Working
with the concepts of mode, materiality, modal affordance and logic, semiotic resource
and the meta-functions three approaches or starting points for the analysis of
multimodal meaning making have emerged in multimodal analysis.
The first approach foregrounds the concept of mode. The semiotic resources for
meaning making offered by each mode are analysed. The decision to focus on
individual modes in this way is a pragmatic one. While modes always work together
to realise meaning the complexity of multimodal texts can make it difficult to know
how to start to ‘get at’ its meaning. Focusing on the semiotic resources of individual
modes is a useful analytical tool to prise open a text. It is clear however that analysing
modes individually realises only a part of the potential meaning of a Communicational
event or text: the interaction between modes offers another ‘layer’. In other words the
interaction of modes, their juxtaposition, and relations realises meaning. The second
approach foregrounds the concept of the meta-functions. The concept of meta-
functions offers an analytical tool to analyse how the modes work together to realise
different kinds of meanings. How the semiotic resources of image, sound-effect and
animated movement, for example, might all work to construct ideational or
interpersonal meaning in the classroom, or how the coherence of a text or
communicative event is realised through the combination of the resources of these
modes. All of the modes that I discuss in this thesis realise the ‘meta-functions’
although the modal resources of some modes are more specialised with regard to the
‘meta-functions’ than some others.
The starting point for the third approach to multimodal analysis is the semiotic
principles that work across modes. Multimodal principles are common threads that
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