This collection responds to the need for theoretically informed and methodologically grounded empirical research on the global transformations in multimodal human communication and social practices in light of recent widespread change. The volume highlights the need to expand on the established approaches--Social Semiotics, Multimodal Discourse Analysis, and Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis--by complementing them with other analytical frameworks to better understand the impact of unprecedented global challenges, such as Covid-19, on the way humans communicate and make use of meaning-making resources. Bringing together established and emergent scholars from a variety of geographical, cultural, and linguistic contexts, the collection presents studies from both the Global North and Global South, including South Africa, Latin America, Brazil, and the Caribbean, to showcase new perspectives in multimodality research. This innovative book will be of interest to students and scholars in multimodality, social semiotics, and discourse analysis.

'If we take the book Literacy and Education: Understanding New Literacy Studies in the Classroom seriously, it may help us teachers in training, teachers in the field, teaching theorists and researchers to learn more about ourselves and our teaching.' Journal of Early Childhood Literacy '… the best introduction to the theory and practice of New Literacy Studies available today for teachers, though policy-makers and researchers should also read it' - James Paul Gee, University of Wisconsin-Madison 'This long awaited, accessible text shows how key research strands into the nature of contemporary literacy can reinvigorate classroom practice. Technological advances have transformed literacy practices in all spheres of learners’ lives and Pahl and Rowsell show through real examples, how pedagogical practice can accommodate these developments. This is a must for all those involved in all levels of literacy education' - Dr Julia Davies, Deputy Head of the School of Education, The University of Sheffield. Literacy and Education: Understanding the New Literacy Studies in the Classroom is a practical guide to applying New Literacy Studies in primary, secondary and family literacy contexts. It represents a comprehensive look at how to rethink, redefine, and redesign language in the classroom to meet contemporary needs and skills of students based on current literacy research, theory and practice. Each chapter profiles key themes within New Literacy Studies including: literacy and identity; multimodality and multiliteracies, bridging home-school literacy practices, and literacy and globalization. The book follows an accessible format with multiple activities in each chapter, theory boxes highlighting seminal research and theory; suggestions for classroom design and planning ideas; and New Literacy Studies assessment framework; and vignettes of New Literacy Studies and Multiliteracies classrooms in Britain and Canada, as well as a comprehensive glossary of terms. Literacy and Education: Understanding the New Literacy Studies in the Classroom brings research and practice together and is a valuable resource for teachers-in-training, practising teachers, and students studying literacy education at the graduate level. Allan Luke Dean, Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, Singapore, prefaces the book with a look to the international importance of understanding and implementing New Literacy Studies in pedagogy and practice Jim Cummins Professor, OISE/University of Toronto, concludes the book with an eye to local settings and the necessity for us to accommodate the diverse literacy needs of students and clearly illustrates how New Literacy Studies fills such a niche.

This textbook provides the first foundational introduction to the practice of analysing multimodality, covering the full breadth of media and situations in which multimodality needs to be a concern. Readers learn via use cases how to approach any multimodal situation and to derive their own specifically tailored sets of methods for conducting and evaluating analyses. Extensive references and critical discussion of existing approaches from many disciplines and in each of the multimodal domains addressed are provided. The authors adopt a problem-oriented perspective throughout, showing how an appropriate foundation for understanding multimodality as a phenomenon can be used to derive strong methodological guidance for analysis as well as supporting the adoption and combination of appropriate theoretical tools. Theoretical positions found in the literature are consequently always related back to the purposes of analysis rather than being promoted as valuable in their own right. By these means the book establishes the necessary theoretical foundations to engage productively with today’s increasingly complex combinations of multimodal artefacts and performances of all kinds.

Teaching English language learners has long presented challenges for teachers tasked with bringing these students to a level of language comprehension comparable to that of native speakers. These challenges and issues can lead to difficulty comprehending core academic topics for those learning the English language. Optimizing Elementary Education for English Language Learners is a critical scholarly publication that explores the importance of English as a Second Language (ESL) education as well as the challenges that can arise in striving for effective and engaging learning environments for the students involved. Featuring a broad scope of topics, such as effective lesson plans, teacher education and preparation, and the education achievement gap, this book is geared toward academicians, practitioners, and researchers seeking current research on effective teaching strategies for teachers of English language learners.

Focusing on multimodality in translation studies, this edited volume provides insights into the trends and practices of multimodal translation in a variety of media. Divided into four main themes, the book explores audiovisual translation in digital media, multimodal translation of Chinese classics, multimodal design in website translation, and the use of paratexts in conference interpreting. Contributors draw on a diverse range of methods and theoretical models, including systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis, narrative theory, Skopos-functional theory, multimodal analysis of digital discourse, and corpus-based multimodal analysis. It covers important topics in media translation, ranging from emerging multimodal translation models to multimodal creativity in interlingual subtitling for social media and identity construction in the multimodal translation of food advertising. Through robust empirical studies, the book aims to shed light on the methodological development of multimodal translation in different media forms, including social media, websites, on-site interactions and books. The title will be of great value to scholars and students of linguistics, translation studies, multimodal discourse analysis and digital media.

This book is a first attempt to map the broad context of performance studies from a multimodal perspective. It collects original research on traditional performing arts (theatre, dance, opera), live (durational performance) and mediated/recorded performances (films, television shows), as well as performative discursive practices on social media by adopting several theories and methodologies all dealing with the notion of multimodality. As a mostly dynamic and also interactive environment for various text types and genres, the context of performance studies provides many opportunities to produce meaning verbally and non-verbally. All chapters in this book develop frameworks for the analysis of performance-related events and activities and explore empirical case studies in a range of different ages and cultures. A further focus lies on the communicative strategies deployed by different communities of practice, taking into account processes of production, distribution, and consumption of such texts in diverse spatial and temporal contexts.

As a founder and leading figure in multimodality and social semiotics, Theo van Leuween has made significant contributions to a variety of research fields, including discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, communication and media studies, education, and design. In celebration of his illustrious research career, this volume brings together a group of leading and emerging scholars in these fields to review, explore and advance two central research agendas set out by van Leeuwen: the categorisation of the meaning potential of various semiotic resources and the examination of their uses in different forms of communication, and the critical analysis of the interaction between semiotic forms, norms and technology in discursive practices. Through 11 cutting-edge research papers and an experimental visual essay, the book investigates a broad range of semiotic resources including touch, sound, image, texture, and discursive practices such as community currency, fitness regime, film scoring, and commodity upcycling. The book showcases how social semiotics and multimodality can provide insights into the burning issues of the day, such as global neoliberalism, terrorism, consumerism, and immigration.

The Discourse of YouTube explores the cutting edge of contemporary multimodal discourse through an in-depth analysis of structures, processes and content in YouTube discourse. YouTube is often seen as no more than a place to watch videos, but this book argues that YouTube and YouTube pages can also be read and analysed as complex, multi-authored, multimodal texts, emerging dynamically from processes of textually-mediated social interaction. The objective of the book is to show how multimodal discourse analysis tools can help us to understand the structures and processes involved in the production of YouTube texts. Philip Benson develops a framework for the analysis of multimodality in the structure of YouTube pages and of the multimodal interactions from which their content emerges. A second, and equally important, objective is to show how the globalization of YouTube is central to much of its discourse. The book identifies translingual practice as a key element in the global discourse of YouTube and discusses its roles in the negotiation of identities and intercultural learning in videos and comments. Focusing on YouTube as a key example of new digital media, The Discourse of YouTube makes a substantial contribution to conversations about new ways of producing multimodal text in a digital world.

Recently, research in the Humanities is showing an increasing interest in exactly how language and other semiotic resources support each other. The eighteen articles of this book focus on the interplay between spoken language and other modalities and address a spectrum of cross-modal resources and their functions. They also discuss how multimodal resources are exploited to increase communicative effectiveness and broaden accessibility to knowledge. This is illustrated with examples from discourse types including dramatic, literary and audiovisual texts, Facebook communication and chats, comics and audio-guides. The volume will be of interest to scholars of linguistics, translation studies, museology and education, and for readers interested in the wide array of possibilities that multimodal texts open up for meaning-making.

This edited volume aims to unpack the digitisation of art and media within the dynamics of participatory culture, and how these changes affect the power relations between the production and consumption of these new forms in a globalised Asia. This follows the rise of new art forms and social media platforms in wake of rapid and ongoing digitisation, which has, in turn, produced far-reaching implications for changing media ownership and its role in social, cultural, economic, as well as political activities. New challenges arise every day in relation to digital art and design practices and social media communications, and their respective impact on identity politics. This book showcases a diverse range of interdisciplinary research on these concomitant changes and challenges associated with digital media and technologies within the context of a globalised Asia. The case studies included present perspectives on Asia’s evolving digital humanities landscape from Hong Kong, China, India, Korea and from across Southeast Asia, with topics that tackle organisational digital marketing, brand advertising and design, mobile gaming, interactive art, and the cultural activities of ethnic and sexual minority communities in the region. This book will of interest to scholars in digital humanities focused on new media and cultural studies.