The Study Of English Micro-courses Based On Multimodal Discourse Analysis

With rapid development of multimedia technology and the diversification of communication methods,researchers no longer merely focus on language,but become more and more concerned with the role of semiotics such as images,colors,sounds,and actions in the construction of meaning.This process of exploring how various semiotic resources achieve communicative meaning is multi-modal discourse analysis,which broadens the scope of discourse analysis and enables us to interpret the text more comprehensively.Kress and Leeuwen’s multimodal theory “Visual Grammar” systematically expounds the rules of constructing meaning of multiply modality in visual images from three aspects:representational meaning,interactive meaning,and compositional meaning,providing a powerful theoretical basis for analyzing multimodal co-occurrence materials,for instance,micro-courses in the educational field.In view that micro-courses are widely used in college English teaching,many scholars have explored the development,design,and application of micro-courses from both theoretical and practical level.However,these studies are generally broad and few studies have discussed in depth the modalities of micro-courses.Further studies on modalities in micro-courses can help to innovate teaching ideas and further enhance students’ interest in learning and improve teaching level.This current study selects three award-winning English micro-course videos from Chinese Foreign Language Micro-course Competition.Through the multimodal discourse analysis of three excellent videos in micro-course competition,this thesis tries to seek out modality distribution standards for efficient micro-courses and make clear how words,sounds,and images are co-deployed to build meaning.Firstly,three videos were annotated and analyzed by ELAN software,and a largeamount of data was collected to find the distribution ratio of each mode in the three micro videos.Secondly,they are systematically analyzed under the framework of Visual Grammar.The study found that excellent micro-courses have commonalities in the distribution of modality: vocal modality accounts for the largest proportion,followed by images and characters;three-mode interaction is frequent in the construction of meaning.This provides reference for teachers to deal with the interaction of modality flexibly when teaching different knowledge points.