A Multimodal Approach To The Interpersonal Negotiation In English Micro-lectures

With the advance of information technology,the micro-lecture arises as a new popular educational mode.It involves not only the verbal language but also images,videos,gestures and Power Point,all of which are mutually coordinated to impart knowledge effectively.Based on systemic functional linguistics and visual grammar,this thesis aims to explore how excellent English micro-lectures achieve the interpersonal negotiation in such a multimodal way as verbal language,images and Power Point.Based on systemic functional linguistics and visual grammar by Kress & van Leeuwen(2006)from the social semiotic perspective,the study selects thirty prizewinning English micro-lectures for undergraduates from the Sixth Micro-course Contest of Foreign Languages in China in 2020 as samples and applies UAM Corpus Tool 3.3v for the verbal analysis.It investigates how the interpersonal meaning is realized in verbal system of English micro-lectures quantitatively and qualitatively,and how the interactive meaning is realized in visual system and how their synergy achieves the optimal teaching effect in English micro-lectures qualitatively.It is found that in the verbal system,teachers in English micro-lectures intend to use the first person plural we,us to shorten their distance with the audience.The declarative is mostly used to impart knowledge,and low probability and subjective modality are widely employed for negotiation.In the visual system,images are mainly presented in a relatively close shot and a frontal and eye-level angle to strengthen the interactivity between interactants.Teachers like to invite the audience to participate in the interaction with smiles,gaze and gestures,and colorful pictures,interesting audio and video,and Power Point are to attract the audience.To achieve the optimal teaching effect,there are the synergy relations of congruence,explanation,salience,and dependence between the multi-modes.It is hoped that the study can help teachers achieve the best design and effect with multi-modes in micro-lectures,thus providing learners with more high-quality presentations.Also,it may help learners construe the process of multiple modes realizing the interaction,and develop their multimodal literacy.