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Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis for the study of lectures: active and passive uses of metadiscourse

  • Edgar Bernad-Mechó EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: March 13, 2023

Abstract

This paper offers a Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis study of how metadiscourse is used in university lectures. Metadiscourse is frequently employed in spoken academic discourse to guide the audience through the contents of the speech, thus becoming an essential element to foster comprehension in lectures. Although lectures have been largely researched under a multimodal eye, studies looking at the multimodal nature of metadiscourse are still scarce. In fact, previous multimodal explorations of metadiscourse in lectures point towards discrepancies in the attention given by lecturers to metadiscursive instances. In this study, six face-to-face lectures in fields within Humanities were analyzed to spot all instances of organizational metadiscourse. Next, the fragments containing such metadiscourse were further explored through a Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis to identify the structure of higher-level actions and the ways in which metadiscourse was integrated as part of the modal configurations of the actions. The analysis of higher-level actions using the foreground-background continuum reveals two main roles in the use of metadiscourse: an active one, in which metadiscourse is explicitly used to guide and engage the audience, as expected; and a passive one, in which metadiscourse is rather used as a filler in the background. These results contribute to reflecting on teaching practices and raising awareness on the importance of multimodal literacy for teacher training.


Corresponding author: Edgar Bernad-Mechó, Universitat Jaume I (UJI), Castelló de la Plana, Spain, E-mail:

Funding source: Generalitat Valenciana

Award Identifier / Grant number: CIAICO/2021/069

Award Identifier / Grant number: PID2021-127827NB-I00

  1. Research funding: This study is encompassed within a research project funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Spain (Ref: PID2021-127827NB-I00) and entitled Cybergenres and English as a Medium of Instruction. Multimodal analysis of digital academic genres and their pedagogical implications in Higher Education EMI contexts; a research project funded by Generalitat Valenciana – Conselleria d’Innovació, Universitats, Ciència i Societat Digital (Ref: CIAICO/2021/069) entitled Análisis y descripción de la naturaleza multimodal y multimedial de los géneros académicos en la educación superior. La comunicación académica digital en inglés.

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Received: 2023-02-19
Accepted: 2023-02-20
Published Online: 2023-03-13

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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