Exploring modality in multimodal macrogenre: A social semiotic analysis of EFL pedagogic materials in China

3.1 The teaching unit as macrogenre

The term “genre” has been approached in a great variety of disciplines, while the present discussion focuses on what it means in linguistic sense and draws on the approach to genre that is developed by the “Sydney School”. Within SFL, genre is interpreted as a staged, goal-oriented social process (Martin 1984). Genre is the contextual semiosis above the semiotic stratum of register that reflects the “variations in culture” (Martin 1992: 504–507; Martin and Rose 2008: 16).

Genre analysis can be applied both to much longer texts that spread across several pages and to “elemental” genres realized as relatively short texts. Martin (1994) proposes the concept of “macrogenre” to deal with longer texts in which various constituent genres can be identified. Each teaching unit in the EFL textbooks under discussion can also be treated as a macrogenre, in that the entire unit is used to accomplish a specific educational goal and is divided into a number of staged sections. Each of the sections belongs to a specific genre. Take “Unit 2 The Olympic Games” in New Senior English for China Student’s Book 2 (People’s Education Press et al. 2004: 9–16) for instance. As indicated in the corresponding teacher’s resource book New Senior English for China Teacher’s Book 2 (People’s Education Press et al. 2007: 29), the goal of that teaching unit encompasses four categories, i.e. “topic (Ancient and modern Olympic Games; Olympic spirit), vocabulary, function (Talking about interests and hobbies), and grammar (simple future tense)”. To achieve this goal, the whole unit consists of eight teaching sections, i.e. Warming Up, Pre-reading, Reading, Comprehending, Learning about Language, Using Language, Summing up, and Learning Tip, and these sections represent different types of genres. For example, Learning Tip (Figure 1 below) is an exposition that explains why the students should be active in pair work or group work, which is intended to provide advice on how to achieve the pedagogic goal of effective communication. The Reading section (Figure 2 below) is a description of modern Olympic Games that takes the form of an interview, while the reading material of Using Language (Figure 3 below) is a narrative concerning two figures in Greek mythology, both of which is related to the topical pedagogic goal.

Figure 1:

An exposition from textbooks – The Learning Tip section of “The Olympic Games” (Excerpted from New Senior English for China Student’s Book 2 [People’s Education Press et al. 2004: 16]). Reproduced with permission.

Figure 2:

A description embedded in an interviews – The Reading section of “The Olympic Games” (Excerpted from New Senior English for China Student’s Book 2 [People’s Education Press et al. 2004: 9–10]). Reproduced with permission.

Figure 3:

A mythic narrative – The Using Language section of “The Olympic Games” (Excerpted from New Senior English for China Student’s Book 2 [People’s Education Press et al. 2004: 14] and New Senior English for China Teacher’s Book [People’s Education Press et al. 2007: 44–45]). Reproduced with permission.

Martin and his colleagues (Martin 1994; Martin and Rose 2008: 216–223) draw on Halliday’s concept of logico-semantic relations to account for the relations between componential genres within a macrogenre. The examination of the relations between different sections within a teaching unit is beyond the scope of the present discussion. The current focus is on the features of the visual styles in comparable teaching sections, e.g. Reading and Using Language within the macrogenre of the unit, with the purpose of explaining the underlying reasons for the different choices of visual styles. The two multimodal texts are comparable because they target the same group of viewers but present different visual styles.

3.2 Photographs for representing actual scene

The Reading section considered here (see Figure 2 below) is a description in terms of genre. It describes the modern Olympic Games, with an emphasis placed on the similarities and differences between the ancient and modern Olympics.

Description is a kind of factual genre distinct from the report, in the sense that description centers on specific facts about things while the report is concerned with generic facts (Martin and Rose 2008: 5–6). In Figure 2, the description is mainly given by a Chinese girl named Lili, who is interviewed by Pausanias, an ancient Greek scholar who had written about the ancient Olympics and is now assumed to take a magical journey to the present day with the purpose of figuring out the modern Olympic Games. The specific description of the modern and ancient Olympics is as follows:

1. Frequency of modern Olympics:

   1. every four years athletes from all over the world are admitted as competitors

   2. the Summer and the Winter Olympics […] both are held every four years

   3. the Winter Olympics are usually held two years before the Summer Olympics

2. Sports events in Winter Olympics:

   1. skiing and ice skating which need snow and ice

3. Participants of ancient Olympics:

   1. Greek cities used to compete against each other

   2. no other country could join in

   3. slaves or women (could not join in)

4. Scale of modern Olympics:

   1. all countries can take part if their athletes reach the standard to be admitted to the games

   2. there are over 250 sports and each one has its own standard

   3. women are not only allowed to join in but play a very important role

   4. a special village is built for the competitors to live in, a stadium for competitions, a very large swimming pool, a gymnasium as well as seats for those who watch the games

5. Host of modern Olympics:

   1. a competition among countries to host the Olympics

6. Award of modern Olympics:

   1. Olympic medals

   2. still all about being able to run faster, jump higher and throw further

7. Award of ancient Olympics:

   1. the olive wreath

As explained in Section 3.1, the description is embedded in an interview. Pausanias interrupts Lili every time he is shocked by the great changes that have taken place in the modern Olympics, and Lili in return explains what has been replaced and clarifies what remains. Accordingly, a description of the major characteristics of modern Olympic Games is presented, as compared with those of the ancient one. There are three images accompanying this description, i.e. a photograph of the sculpture representing Pausanias’ head and shoulders, a photograph showing a scene of the opening ceremony of the modern Olympic Games, and a photograph that captures a moment of the speed skating competition in modern Olympics. These three photographs comply with the naturalistic standard that is defined by the 35 mm photographic technology and represent the scenes in real life that we may see with the naked eye. Although the photograph of Pausanias’ sculpture might be seen as a borderline case due to its plain background, its naturalistic way of representing the color, texture, and the play of light and shade convinces us of its naturalistic coding orientation.

It can be inferred that the choice of naturalistic visual style in Figure 2 shows the influence of the field of the discourse, i.e. the topic of the description. Although the interview is an imaginary one, Pausanias was a real writer in Greek history, as is revealed in the written text by the realizations of the noun a Greek writer and the accurate indication of circumstance 2,000 years ago. The corresponding visual image represents the naturalistic sculpture of Pausanias, which is the evidence of his former presence that can be traced in our modern times. Here Pausanias is represented as a historical figure rather than an imaginary comic style character, which helps focus the reader’s attention on the factual account of the similarities and differences between the ancient and modern Olympics instead of on the fanciful story about the miraculous journey. Lili is a fictitious character, and yet what she describes about the modern Olympic Games are facts that happen in real life. Therefore, none of the two images that accompany the interview and snapshot of the modern Olympics is about Lili (which would require a comic style). Both photographs represent the real scenes of the modern Olympic Games, which form a cohesion together with the nouns in the verbal text such as the Summer Olympics, the Winter Olympics, and ice skating. This choice of visual style again attaches great importance to the factual information about the modern Olympics that is given in the description rather than the imaginarily timeless interview between Pausanias and Lili.

To summarize, the choice of the naturalistic visual style is in line with the real, factual orientation of the text; while the corresponding images that uphold naturalistic coding orientation, on the other hand, enhance the factual positioning of the discourse that the intended reader is supposed to assume.

3.3 Drawings for illustrating mythology

Another constituent genre of the teaching unit is a mythic narrative entitled “The Story of Atlanta”, which tells the story about Atlanta and Hippomenes, two Greek mythological figures. The narrative is divided into two parts in the teaching section of Using language. The first part of the story is presented as reading material, while the second part is recorded as listening material. The two parts are combined, and the whole story is represented in Figure 3 below.

In analyzing the narrative structure of “The story of Atlanta”, I draw on Labov and Waletsky’s (1997) schema of narrative structure, and Martin and Rose’s (2007, 2008 framework for the generic structure of story. Labov and Waletsky’s (1997) propose a schema that consists of the stages of Orientation, Complication, Evaluation, Resolution, and Coda to refer to the generalized structure for narratives of personal experience, with Complication and Resolution as obligatory stages while the others optional. In order to overcome the formalist bias that tends to subordinate Evaluation as the boundary between Complication and Resolution, sytemicists have taken Labov and Waletsky’s (1997) narrative analysis as the point of departure and carried out a more discourse-oriented approach to the analysis of story types (Martin and Plum 1997; see also Martin and Rose 2008: 49–90). Martin and Rose (2008: 51–52) identify recount, anecdote, exemplum, and observation along with narrative in the story genre family. Narrative is specifically referred to “the generic pattern that resolves a complication” (Martin and Rose 2008: 52), and the evaluation of narrative complications allows variations between affect, judgement, and appreciation, which are often employed to “suspend the action, increasing the narrative tension, and so intensifying the release when tension is resolved” (Martin and Rose 2008: 52). When analyzing the generic structure of story, Martin and Rose (2007) suggest adopting both perspectives of generic stages and phases. Story phases have to do with “a common set of resources” that the story family (i.e. narrative, recount, anecdote, exemplum, and observation) share in “moving sequences forward and engaging readers” (Martin and Rose 2007: 79). Each phase-type has a specific function and may occur in any stage of a story. The narrative structure of “The Story of Atlanta” is analyzed in Table 1 below, with generic stages and phases within each stage specified.

In the beginning, the Orientation (i.e. from Atlanta was a Greek princess to Other men stayed to run the race) presents the heroine Atlanta’s identity (i.e. a Greek princess) and the location of the story (i.e. in Greece), her specialty (i.e. very beautiful and could run faster than any man), and the rule that gives rise to a problem (i.e. not allowed to run in the Olympic Games). It is followed by Atlanta’s reaction to the rule (i.e. so angry), and another problem for Atlanta (i.e. Her father said she must marry and asked her if she wanted to marry a king or prince). The counterexpectancy signaled by “but” creates tension and leads to another problem for suitors, i.e. Atlanta’s insistence that any man who wants to marry her must run faster than her or will be killed, preceding the suitors’ different reactions. The Complication (i.e. from There was a man called Hippomenes who was amazed when he heard of Atlanta’s rules to Soon she was in front of him) describes how Hippomenes marries Atlanta. The hero Hippomenes is introduced with his reflection on how to win the race. It then describes his seeking advice from the Greek Goddess of Love and his marriage proposal. Though Atlanta does not want Hippomenes to die because of losing the race, Hippomenes’ insistence creates tension again. The Resolution (i.e. from Then Hippomenes threw one of the golden apples to So Hippomenes won the race and married Atlanta) clarifies Hippomenes’ success with the help of the three golden apples given by the Greek Goddess of Love. Every time problem arises and Hippomenes almost loses the race, he throws an apple, which arouses Atlanta’s desire, and the tension is resolved. Hippomenes eventually wins the race, and the Coda (i.e. Thanks to the Goddess they lived happily ever after) presents the narrator’s comment on the happy ending.

There are two images in “The Story of Atlanta”, one depicting Atlanta’s negotiation with her father about her marriage and the other illustrating Hippomenes receiving the three golden apples from the Greek Goddess of Love. Both images are color drawings. From the point of view of the naturalistic standard, they are of high modality in terms of color saturation, color differentiation, color modulation, representation, and brightness. For instance, efforts are made to depict the skin color, the textures of people’s hair and clothes in a subtle way and as relatively close to what we see with the naked eye. Nevertheless, the images depart from the naturalistic coding orientation in the aspects of illumination, depth, and contextualization. To be specific, there is no play of light and shade in the images, and the simple overlapping leads to the absence of depth. In terms of contextualization, the decoration of the palace and the scenery outside the palace served as the background in the first image are selectively simplified, and what are reserved are confined to those architectural features that represent Greek characteristics. As for the background in the second image, the drifting clouds around the lady enhance the indication of her identity as the Goddess.

The targeted viewers of the aforementioned two images are senior secondary students, and naturalistic coding orientation is retained in the representations of certain modality markers as analyzed above. This complies with the general truth criteria in the whole senior secondary EFL textbooks (Chen 2010c). However, deviations from this naturalistic standard are observed in illumination, depth, and contextualization. I will account for this by resorting to the register variable of field. As previously discussed, the topic of the whole discourse is a Greek mythology concerning the Olympic Games. The mythology is supposed to be helpful in students’ understanding of the culture and traditions of ancient Greece in which the Olympics is developed, and yet the mythology itself and the characters involved may not be historical events or figures that have ever existed. Moreover, the plot of the mythology is more imaginary than factual. Therefore, it is drawings rather than photographs that are employed to illustrate the remote, ancient story whose historical facticity is hard to nail down. The choice of this fanciful style, on the other hand, induces the putative reader to agree on the imaginary characteristics of the mythic narrative.

From the above analysis and discussion of the multimodal texts within a macrogenre, it could be inferred that field is one of the factors that might exert influence on the choice of visual style. Certain modality markers could be adjusted to some extent due to the topic or focus of the social activity, and the relevant coding orientation may be modified accordingly, thus resulting in the style variations like photographs and drawings that target the same group of viewers.