Ideational Meaning In Oxford English Textbooks:a Multimodal Discourse Analysis

Textbook discourse, as one of the domain categories of pedagogical discourse, has been an important subject for Systemic Functional Linguists. Numerous researchers and scholars have devoted themselves to studying textbooks, but few have made a comparison across Oxford English textbooks at Primary, Junior and Senior High School levels and analyze the differences of Image/Text relations in terms of construing ideational meaning in Oxford English textbooks.In order to fill up this gap, this paper seeks to explore differences across Oxford English textbooks in terms of ideational meaning as well as the differences of Image/Text relations in terms of construing ideational meaning in Oxford English textbooks. The research questions addressed in this thesis are:1)What are the differences of multimodal contents across Oxford English textbooks in terms of ideational meanings?2)What are the differences of Image/Text relations in terms of construing ideational meaning in Oxford English textbooks? The data of the thesis are Primary English textbooks, Junior and Senior High School English textbooks, which are all published by Oxford University Press (China) Limited and Yilin Press. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted in the study. The quantitative research mainly involves comparing the six different categorizations (including Types of image, Proportion of image to text, Location of image, Text blocks, Fonts&Font size) across three levels of Oxford English textbooks. The qualitative research explores the differences of Image/Text relations in terms of construing ideational meaning.Detailed analysis of both quantitative and qualitative research yields the following findings: Firstly, in terms of Types of image, Cartoons are the most favorable type used in Oxford English textbooks. Compared with Primary English textbooks, Junior and Senior High School English textbooks are more likely to employ Photographs. The percentage of Tables in Junior and Senior High School English textbooks shares similar amount of numbers, which is almost four times as much as those in Primary English textbooks. Besides, the visual density is higher in Primary English textbooks than in Junior and Senior High School English textbooks. In addition, the distribution of Location of image on page is in random order across Oxford English textbooks and no rules can be found. However, the analysis confirms Kress and van Leeuwen’s claims that the top place of the page represents Idea, and the bottom place represents Real. Nuclear information and subservient information are presented in the Centre and Margin places respectively. As for the text blocks, T1(Running text) accounts for the largest proportion in different levels of Oxford English textbooks, and the percentage of T2(Hightlighted terms in running text which are in italics, bold, colour or capitalized) remains steady at about30%from Primary English textbooks to Senior High School English textbooks. The percentage of T1(Running text) and T2(Hightlighted terms in running text which are in italics, bold, colour or capitalized) is over8times as much as the percentage of T3(Label of image) and T4(Caption of image). Finally, in print layout, the typography of Oxford English textbooks is generally serif fonts such as Georgia, single line spacing and the font size is Size4. The various print layouts not only enhance visual effects but also make language knowledge more vivid. At the same time, it can strengthen the student’s memory.Secondly, in Multimodal Discourse Analysis stage, Len Unsworth’s model is used to annotate twenty-seven image-language pair samples to construe ideational meaning from the perspective of Concurrence, Complementarity and Connection. In terms of Ideational concurrence, the cohesive relation between Text and Image is relatively equal. The ideational meaning is conveyed through the following three ways:Exposition, Image instantiates text and Text instantiates Image. However, the linguistic elements of the text are different at different levels of Oxford English textbooks. In Primary English Textbooks, as primary school students are at the beginning level of learning English, the meaning of image is concretized by only one word. In Junior High School English textbook, declarative sentences are used to depict the image, which makes the image meaning clearer. In Senior High School English textbook, noun phrases and gerundial phrases are used to represent the content of image. In terms of Ideational complementarity, the cohesive relation between Text and Image is depending on each other or augmenting each other. The ideational meaning is realized by two ways:Image extends text, Text extends image. However, it is found that the higher the levels of the textbooks, the fewer words are used to depict the image. In terms of Ideational Connection, the cohesive relation between Text and Image is interconnection. The ideational meaning is construed by two ways:Projection and Conjunction. In Projection, the speech and thought of persons or animals are represented by both Locution and Idea. In Conjunction, the visual elements of causal relations can be in the form of photographs, cartoons, persons or animals with Locution and Idea. The temporal relations are illustrated by showing the activity sequences about how to do or what happened in the story. And the spatiality in the image is equal to the place mentioned in the language in spatial relations.In light of the findings, this paper makes some pedagogical implications both for textbook compilers and teachers. For textbook compilers, they should combine the text into various genres because diverse genres have the potential to motivate, excite, and engage all the learners. Moreover, the arrangement of location of image should be in line with the degree of importance. The new information should be placed on the right of page and the given information should be placed on the left of page. For teachers, the investigation into the multimodality nature of Oxford English textbook discourse demonstrates from a semiotic perspective the way in which multiple semiotic resources are involved in the meaning-making. It suggests that, in order to have a better understanding to the text, teachers should remind students to pay attention to the fonts, font size, colour, tables and illustrations in the text, showing how multiple semiotic resources can be manipulated to understand the text.