Papers by Mark Evan Nelson
Hegemony, Identity, and Authorship in Multimodal DIscourse
linguistlist.org
It is popularly held to be a truism that expressing an idea in multiple modal channels, for examp... more It is popularly held to be a truism that expressing an idea in multiple modal channels, for example, written text alongside imagery, is bound to be more effective and clear than expression in only one mode or the other. Simply put, why just narrate it or show it when one can do both and (presumably) really drive the point home? The logic that underpins this notion is one that assumes that since each mode is expressing essentially the same idea, the meanings that are copresented in these modes are naturally congruent and additive, ...
Critical Perspectives on Technology and Education (Palgrave), 2015
In L. Alsagoff et al (Eds.), Principles and Practices for Teaching English as an International Language (Routledge), 2012
Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics 14(1), 1-24, 2012
Adopting a mixed-methods approach and Hyland’s (2000a, 2005a) model of “metadiscourse”, this comp... more Adopting a mixed-methods approach and Hyland’s (2000a, 2005a) model of “metadiscourse”, this comparative study examines the textual construction of authorial voice in academic unpublished book reviews (BRs) by a group of Chinese scholars and published reviews by a group of international scholars. The textual analysis presented a rather mixed picture: the Chinese writers used significantly fewer hedges and more self-mentions in their texts than the international scholars, but there were important similarities in the approaches of the two groups of reviewers to the rhetorical construction of authorial voice. On the basis of this analysis we conclude that the construction of authorial voice is a complex and socio-culturally situated process. We also call for greater awareness and acceptance of the rhetorical particularities of texts produced respectively by different groups of writers on the part of the English academic community. This research aims to complicate views about the construction of authorial voice in the relatively under-researched genre of academic BRs and to highlight the critical importance of an academic literacy perspective.
The Future of Literacy Studies, M. Baynham & M. Prinsloo (Eds), 2009
Pedagogies Journal, Feb 24, 2014
In this article, we describe a programme of qualitative research and interpretive analysis around... more In this article, we describe a programme of qualitative research and interpretive analysis around an approach to foreign language pedagogy that aimed to develop learners’ symbolic competence through experience with and examination of the of signs in acts of communication. Learners were presented with the problem of visually representing the abstract concepts of envy, excitement, joy and fear as a means of exploring relationships between mode and meaning and how meaning may be transformed as a result of re-presenting ideas in different modal forms. The data set included learners’ visual compositions, observational field notes on in-class interaction and transcribed semi-structured interviews and student presentations on their work, all of which were analysed through the interpretive lens of Peircean semiotics, specifically
the notion of abduction. Findings suggest that facilitating learners’ creative engagement in shifting meaning across representational boundaries of mode can serve to stimulate socio-cognitive processes of abduction, and thereby heighten students’
awareness of and connection to unique linguistic resources afforded by the target language.
Over the past few decades, there has been a marked shift away from conceptualizing
literacy as a... more Over the past few decades, there has been a marked shift away from conceptualizing
literacy as a functional skill set toward its recognition, particularly for children and
youth, as a social achievement that is buttressed, in part, by access to digital tools
and new media. Yet, beyond the mere consumption of multimedia and the mundane
assemblage of words, images, and other resources, we ask, “What does a successful
multimedia literacy performance look like and how might ‘designful’ multimedia
thinking and composition be taught, learned, and assessed?” In addressing these
issues, we present a fine-grained description and analysis of the work of a 13-year-old
Singaporean named “Jeremy,” who produced a personal digital story of considerable
theoretical and practical interest to us as researchers and new literacy scholars.
Building on prior research in the field of multiliteracies, we argue that educators (and
students) must cultivate their own senses of “semiotic awareness” before meaningful
assessment of children’s multimodal design work can be conceived or implemented.
We also sketch a preliminary approach to assessing multimodal literacies and explicate
a range of interconnected representational possibilities that we expect will prompt
a timely and urgent reconsideration of multimodal meaning design in school settings.
The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, 2012
Written Communication, 2005
This article reports research that attempts to characterize what is powerful about digital multim... more This article reports research that attempts to characterize what is powerful about digital multimodal texts. Building from recent theoretical work on understanding the workings and implications of multimodal communication, the authors call for a continuing empirical investigation into the roles that digital multimodal texts play in real-world contexts, and they offer one example of how such investigations might be approached. Drawing on data from the practice of multimedia digital storytelling, specifically a piece titled “Lyfe-N-Rhyme,” created by Oakland, California, artist Randy Young (accessible at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfFg8zNkXZM), the authors detail the method and results of a fine-grained
multimodal analysis, revealing semiotic relationships between and among different, copresent modes. It is in these relationships, the authors argue, that the expressive power of multimodality resides.
Language Learning & Technology, 2006
This study of digital storytelling attempts to apply Kress's (2003) notions of synaesthesia, tran... more This study of digital storytelling attempts to apply Kress's (2003) notions of synaesthesia, transformation, and transduction to the analysis of four undergraduate L2 writers' multimedia text-creation processes. The students, entering freshmen, participated in an experimental course entitled "Multimedia Writing," whose purpose was to experience and explore the processes of multimodal textual communication. With the support of empirical data drawn from interviews,student journals, and the digital story-related artifacts themselves, the author shows how synaesthetically derived meaning may be a natural part of the process of creating multimodal texts. Considering the special case of non-native English speakers, the paper also demonstrates that synaesthesia may have both amplifying and limiting effects on the projection of authorial intention and voice.
International Journal of Innovation in Language …, 2008
This paper examines a powerful potential of multimodal design: meaning that transcends the total ... more This paper examines a powerful potential of multimodal design: meaning that transcends the total semiotic contribution of a text’s constituent parts. With reference to data drawn from the digital storytelling practices of Japanese university students, the author argues and demonstrates that in the current semiotic climate, characterised by the increasing availability and complexity of communication tools and ready appropriation of available designs, practices of multimedia authorship truly can evince expression that is authentically multiplicative. However, this sort of meaning making does not automatically come about. Controlling the inherent polysemy of multimodal texts, in the author’s view, is a matter of recognising points of semantic correspondence among co-deployed images, language, etc. and creating syntheses of potential meaning that cut across these semiotic modes. The author further argues that it is in this way that the voice of the multimodal author can most clearly be heard, particularly in cases in which a language learner-author integrates elements within a multimedia text that encode meaning in the L2.
Written Communication, 2008
One privilege enjoyed by new-media authors is the opportunity to realize representations of Self ... more One privilege enjoyed by new-media authors is the opportunity to realize representations of Self that are rich textual worlds in themselves and also to engage the wider world,with a voice,a smile,imagery,and sound. Still,closer investigation of multimedia composition practices reveals levels of complexity with which the verbal virtuoso is unconcerned. This article argues that while technology-afforded multimedia tools make it comparatively easy to author a vivid text,it is a multiplicatively more complicated matter to vividly realize and publicize an authorial intention. Based on analysis of the digital story creation process of a youth named “Steven,”the authors attempt to demonstrate the operation of two forces upon which the successful multimodal realization of the author’s intention may hinge:“fixity”and “fluidity.”The authors show how,within the process of digital self-representation,these forces can intersect to influence multimodal meaning making, and an author’s life,in consequential ways.
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Papers by Mark Evan Nelson
the notion of abduction. Findings suggest that facilitating learners’ creative engagement in shifting meaning across representational boundaries of mode can serve to stimulate socio-cognitive processes of abduction, and thereby heighten students’
awareness of and connection to unique linguistic resources afforded by the target language.
literacy as a functional skill set toward its recognition, particularly for children and
youth, as a social achievement that is buttressed, in part, by access to digital tools
and new media. Yet, beyond the mere consumption of multimedia and the mundane
assemblage of words, images, and other resources, we ask, “What does a successful
multimedia literacy performance look like and how might ‘designful’ multimedia
thinking and composition be taught, learned, and assessed?” In addressing these
issues, we present a fine-grained description and analysis of the work of a 13-year-old
Singaporean named “Jeremy,” who produced a personal digital story of considerable
theoretical and practical interest to us as researchers and new literacy scholars.
Building on prior research in the field of multiliteracies, we argue that educators (and
students) must cultivate their own senses of “semiotic awareness” before meaningful
assessment of children’s multimodal design work can be conceived or implemented.
We also sketch a preliminary approach to assessing multimodal literacies and explicate
a range of interconnected representational possibilities that we expect will prompt
a timely and urgent reconsideration of multimodal meaning design in school settings.
multimodal analysis, revealing semiotic relationships between and among different, copresent modes. It is in these relationships, the authors argue, that the expressive power of multimodality resides.