Meaning between, in and around words, gestures and postures – multimodal meaning-making in children's classroom discourse

TAYLOR, Roberta (2014). Meaning between, in and around words, gestures and postures – multimodal meaning-making in children's classroom discourse. Language and Education, 28 (5), 401-420.

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

The view of language from a social semiotic perspective is clear. Language is one of many semiotic resources we employ in our communicative practices. That is to say that while language is at times dominant, it always operates within a multimodal frame and furthermore, at times modes other than language are dominant. The 2014 National Curriculum for the UK, on the other hand, values pupils' face-to-face classroom interaction in terms of standard spoken English (i.e. in terms of the mode of language alone). This paper offers examples demonstrating how embodied modes such as gesture, posture, facial expression, gaze and haptics work in conjunction with speech in children's collaborative construction of knowledge. In other words, what may have been previously conceived as gaps and silences - often interpreted as an absence of language - are in fact instantiations of the work of semiotic modes other than language. In order to consider this closely, this paper offers evidence from a multimodal micro-analysis of pupil-to-pupil, face-to-face interaction in one science lesson in a Year Five UK Primary classroom. It demonstrates how children's meaning-making is achieved through apt use of all available semiotic resources

Item Type:	Article
Research Institute, Centre or Group - Does NOT include content added after October 2018:	Sheffield Institute of Education
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2014.885038
Page Range:	401-420
Depositing User:	Ann Betterton
Date Deposited:	17 Dec 2014 09:46
Last Modified:	18 Mar 2021 10:45
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/9069

Actions (login required)

View Item

Downloads

Publication Metrics