The course is part of the European project “EU-MADE4LL: European multimodal and Digital Education for Language Learning” (Erasmus + KA2) and will put together a common core of notions in multimodal studies presented in class plus five different workshops on digital texts.
(All the texts will be given by the teacher in an electronic format apart from the book "Language and Learning in the Digital Age" which can be found in the section dedicated to course books of the Novoli Campus Library).
Core readings:
1. Jewitt, Carey (ed.) 2014 [2011] , The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis. London/ New York: Routledge, pp. 22-28/ 31-43.
2. Roderick, Ian. 2016. Critical Discourse Studies and Technology. A Multimodal Approach to Analysing Technoculture. London/New York: Bloomsbury, pp. 9-13.
3. Jewitt, Carey, Bezemer, Jeff, O’Halloran, Kay L. 2016. Introducing Multimodality. London/ New York: Routledge, pp. 14-29.
4. Jones, Rodney H., Hafner Christoph, A. 2012. Understanding Digital Literacies: A Practical Introduction, London & New York: Routledge, pp. 1-15; 124-128.
5. Mode Glossary (https://multimodalityglossary.wordpress.com)
6. Gee, James Paul and Hayes, Elisabeth R. (2011). Language and Learning in the Digital Age. London and New York: Routledge, Chapters 7-8, pp. 54-76.
7. Jenkins, Henry (2010), TED Talk on Participatory Culture, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFCLKa0XRlw
8. Van Leeuwen, Theo (2014), Critical Discourse Analysis and Multimodality. In Christopher Hart and Piotr Cap, Contemporary Critical Discourse Studies. London/New York: Bloomsbury, pp. 281-295.
In addition, any student will have to study one of the following subset of secondary readings depending on the digital text type she will choose (or will be assigned).
Secondary readings:
Corporate Videos
1. Maier, C.D. (2012). Closer to nature: A case study of the multifunctional selection of moving images in an environmental corporate video. In Multimodal Communication, vol. 1, no. 3.
2. Iedema, R. (2001). Analyzing film and television: A social semiotic account. In Van Leeuwen, T. and Jewitt, C. (eds.). Handbook of visual analysis. London: Sage, pp.183-207.
Fanvids
1. Moschini, I. (2011). Music and series: the verbalizing role of soundtrack lyrics from contemporary TV series to user-generated narrations. Visual Communication, 10(2), pp. 193-208.
2. Moschini, I. (2014). “You should’ve seen Luke!” or the multimodal
encoding/decoding of the language of postmodern ‘webridized’ TV series. Text & Talk, Special issue: Multimodality, Meaning Making and the Issue of “Text”, 34 (3), pp. 283-305.
Blogs
1. Adami, E. (2015) Aesthetics and identity in digital texts beyond writing: A social semiotic multimodal framework. In A. Archer and E. Breuer (eds.) Multimodality in Writing. The state of the art in theory, methodology and pedagogy. Leiden: Brill, pp. 43-62
2. Adami, E. (2015) What’s in a click: A social semiotic multimodal framework for the analysis of website interactivity. Visual Communication 14/2, pp. 133-153.
Video-mediated interaction
1. Sindoni, M. G. (2012). Mode-switching. How oral and written modes alternate in videochats. In M. Cambria, C. Arizzi, F. Coccetta (eds.), Web Genres and Web Tools. With Contribution from the Living Knowledge Project, Como – Pavia: Ibis, pp. 141-158.
2. Sindoni, M. G. (2014). Through the looking glass. A socio-semiotic and linguistic perspective on the study of videochat. In E. Adami, R. Facchinetti and G. Kress (eds), Text & Talk, Special issue: Multimodality, Meaning Making and the Issue of “Text”, 34(3), pp. 325-347.
‘About us’ webpages
1. Petroni, S. (2011). Entropy in web communication, in S. Petroni, Language in the Multimodal Web Domain, Aracne-Legas, Rome-Toronto, pp. 57-72.
2. Djonov E., Knox J.S.( 2014). How to analyze web pages. In S. Norris, C. D. Maier (eds) Interactions, Images and Texts: A Reader in Multimodality, Boston, Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter, 2014, pp 174-193.
Learning Objectives
The course sets up to familiarize students with the theoretical foundations of multimodal studies, by giving an overview of the main theories and by introducing the history of the discipline, along with the presentation and investigation of textual analyses and case studies in an intercultural and multimodal perspective. The course’s aim is also to help students to achieve advanced skills in multimodal digital literacy on contemporary texts in English from socio-semiotic and intercultural standpoints. The course will be devoted to the study and detailed analysis of socio-semiotic theories and case studies of multimodal digital texts to equip students with a robust background of skills to design and produce their own digital texts, such as corporate videos, user-generated contents (fanvids), blogs, spontaneous and semi-spontaneous video-mediated interactions, and “about us” webpages. The text produced as an assignment during the course will be analysed by students in their capacity of authors/designers so as to improve their descriptive and analytical skills in planning and motivating each stage of their work. The peer-assessment assignment, which is part of the European project “EU-MADE4LL: European Multimodal and Digital Education for Language Learning” (Erasmus +, Key Action: 2; Project Reference: 2016-1-IT02-KA203-024087) that is embedded in the course, will encourage the development of competences in assessment that are needed in a wide range of professional contexts (e.g. teaching, human resources, communication and media, etc.). Peer-assessment will be carried out anonymously by students, who will be paired to other students from other universities (Rome, Messina, Leeds, UK and Aarhus, Denmark) to make sure that the whole process is transparent, with no envisaged conflict of interest and with the goal of familiarising students with an international learning context and in an intercultural perspective.
Prerequisites
Entry language level: B2 (Common European Framework of Languages)
Teaching Methods
The course face to face theoretical lectures and five highly specialized workshops, which were financed by an European project “EU-MADE4LL: European multimodal and Digital Education for Language Learning” (Erasmus +, Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices; Action Type: Strategic Partnership for Higher Education; Project Reference: 2016-1-IT02-KA203-024087). The workshops will be presented by some of the most expert European scholars in multimodality. The workshops will provide students with theoretical notions grounded in different areas of multimodal studies for the production of different digital texts/genres and will encourage them to develop critical skills for a full awareness of the semiotic value of multimodal resources in the context of intercultural communication in English. Scheduling of workshops will be published on the e-learning platform Moodle at the beginning of the course. For official participation in the project, attendance is compulsory and only 20% of the lectures can be missed (not the workshops). All classes and workshops will be delivered in English.
Further information
The scheduling of the workshops will be published on the e-learning platform Moodle at the beginning of the course. For official participation in the project, attendance is compulsory and only 20% of the lectures can be missed (not the workshops). All classes and workshops will be delivered in English.
Type of Assessment
The course will be assessed in line with the experimentation carried out during the EU-financed project entitled “EU-MADE4LL: European multimodal and Digital Education for Language Learning” (Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices; Action Type: Strategic Partnership for Higher Education; Project Reference: 2016-1-IT02-KA203-024087). This form of assessment will require: 1) the production of a digital text chosen by, or assigned to, the student (on a “first come, first served” basis) in a range of five text types/genres, namely corporate videos, user-generated contents/fanvids, blogs, video-chats, “about us” webpage; 2) an analysis in the form of a short academic paper (c. 2000 words plus an analytic grid which will differ for any digital genre type) that tests the command of the English language and the full understanding of the theoretical notions discussed during the course 3) filling in a peer-assessment form in which the student will evaluate another student’s from another University, Italian, British or Danish, to whom s/he will be anonymously paired by randomly picking on the external cohorts being assigned (or having chosen) the same text type/genre. Finally, students will have to discuss their own text in a final exam that will also test the command of the English language and the full understanding of the theoretical notions discussed during the course.
Not attendant students are invited to contact the teacher for further information regarding the program and the exam.
Course program
The course is part of an European project titled “EU-MADE4LL: European multimodal and Digital Education for Language Learning” (Erasmus +, Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices; Action Type: Strategic Partnership for Higher Education; Project Reference: 2016-1-IT02-KA203-024087) and will put together a common core of notions in multimodal studies presented in class plus five different workshops on digital texts: 1) corporate video; 2) user-generated videos/fanvids; 3) blogs; 4) video mediated interactions and 5) “about us” webpages.
The core notions deal with some approaches of linguistic investigation in contemporary English linguistics, with particular reference to multimodal studies, starting with how they have been developed since their first applications by the New London Group in the Eighties and then by the Sydney Semiotic Circle. Multimodality will be illustrated mainly with reference to systemic-functional grammar, but also in relation to other approaches and/or developments, such as socio-semiotics, multimodal interaction analysis, video-conversation analysis, multimodal discourse analysis, multimodal critical discourse studies, and others.
The course is thus designed to equip students with the theoretical and practical tools they need when analyzing a wide range of contemporary multimodal digital texts in English with the aim of encouraging the development of their socio-semiotic skills 1) in designing their own digital texts, 2) in critically reflecting on the processes of text production and reception and 3) in understanding the intercultural value of digital communication. In keeping with multimodal theories, analyses will include 1) investigation of how semiotic resources are integrated and orchestrated in digital communication 2) description and transcription of multimodal texts and genres by building up on a range of heuristics and tools explored during the course.
The program is composed of a set of Core Readings + a set of Readings for each Workshop (see the suggested readings above).
All the texts will be made available electronically at the beginning of the course, which will take place in the second semester.