ERIC Number: EJ1452534
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Dec
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0142-6001
EISSN: EISSN-1477-450X
Available Date: N/A
Multimodal Academic Discourse Socialization: Examining Geoscience Students' Disciplinary Knowledge Construction and Socialization at a Canadian University
Masaru Yamamoto
Applied Linguistics, v45 n6 p1050-1074 2024
This ethnographic multiple-case study examines how undergraduate students are socialized into the disciplinary norms, values, and practices of a geoscience course at a Canadian university. Transcending logocentric assumptions about academic discourse, this article advances a broader domain of inquiry----"multimodal academic discourse socialization"----which foregrounds the polysemiotic nature of academic socialization. This approach examines not only linguistic but also a wider range of semiotic resources, including gestural, visual, material, and spatial ones, among others. To understand geoscientists' disciplinary norms, values, and communicative practices, ethnographic data (classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, course-related artefacts) were thematically analysed. Focal students' geoscience poster presentation performances were also analysed using multimodal interaction analysis to scrutinize micro-level instantiations of disciplinary practices. Findings highlight how students were socialized into geoscience 'observations and interpretations' through a recurrent multimodal classroom activity, which was also reflected in micro-level multimodal practices enacted in students' geoscience poster presentations. This study emphasizes that multimodal enactments constitute a crucial dimension of disciplinary practices and values connected with learning to think, view, and represent knowledge as geoscientists.
Descriptors: Undergraduate Students, Socialization, Earth Science, Standards, Values, Verbal Communication, Nonverbal Communication, Visual Aids, Instructional Materials, Learning Modalities, Class Activities
Oxford University Press. Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, UK. Tel: +44-1865-353907; Fax: +44-1865-353485; e-mail: jnls.cust.serv@oxfordjournals.org; Web site: http://applij.oxfordjournals.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A