Multimodal Discourse Analysis On Network Video-teachings In Business

With the development of science and technology, the traditional communication methods and teaching ways have been taking great changes. In the past, teaching is mainly confined in the classroom with a blackboard, books and chalks. But currently, the emergency of network in information age has changed this structure. The network video teachings provide learners a new way in which learners are able to acquire the latest knowledge about nearly every field.Though network teaching develops rapidly all over the world, few studies on teaching pay attention to the modality choice in realizing meaning. Therefore, based on Multimodal Discourse Analysis(MDA), this thesis attempts to make a study on the realization of modes in constructing meaning. The author combines Systemic Functional Linguistic(SFL), Visual Grammar(VG) and Zhang Delu’s analysis framework(analysis modes from cultural, content, expression and context level) to propose a tentative analysis framework aiming at solving the following questions:(1) What are the features in network video teachings in business when they are constructing representational meaning, interactive and compositional meaning?(2) How are different modes distributed in network videos teachings in business?(3) How do visual and auditory modalities work together to achieve an integrated discourse and fulfill powerful meaning?This thesis combines quantitative research with qualitative research method to fill in the gap of quantitative research in previous studies on network video teachings from the perspective of MDA. Based on the theory SFL, VG and synthetic framework of Zhang Delu, the author proposes a concrete analysis framework and applies ELAN to analyze ten videos downloaded from Youku. With the help of ELAN, all the videos are annotated in segmentation tier and annotation tier. The segmentation results are annotated in the names of the proposed model before the time and hit ratio of each mode are calculated. Subsequently, the qualitative research is carried out from the following aspects: firstly, the modes calculated are analyzed from culture, situation, expression and content level. Content level mainly discusses how each mode realizes representational meaning, interactive meaning and compositional meaning. And during this process, the author illustrates the feature of network video teachings as well. Secondly, the relations between the modes are analyzed so as to explore how the modes integrate into a complete meaning.Some findings of this research are as follows: firstly, from Zhang Delu’s culture level, different cultural backgrounds may lead to different modality chosen and time distribution. Results show that teachers from different countries have distributed different time in various teaching phases. Foreign teachers spend more time in initiation and introduction teaching phases than Chinese teachers. And foreign teachers also prefer to choose more modes than Chinese teachers. The time distribution and hit ratio of each mode show uneven. Secondly, one outstanding feature in network video teachings is that no learners take part in the class interaction. Without learners’ feedback, this kind of teaching provides teachers with a rather tough challenge. Consequently, it is advisable for teachers to be equipped with modality theory and technology so as to make better use of semiotic modality in network. Thirdly, it is feasible that network video teachings are investigated from multimodal discourse analysis. Besides, not all modes can express representational meaning, interactive meaning and compositional meaning at the same time such as facial expression conveys representational and interactive meaning but it fails in realizing compositional meaning. Fourthly, coexisting with and extending auditory modality, visual modality takes up more percentage in network video teachings than auditory modality within the annotated aspects. Fifthly, the modes in network video teachings in business are closely related to the relations of complementary in visual modality of some body-actions and auditory modality of teachers’ speech. And they are also non-complementary in visual modality of beat action and auditory modality of embedded sound videos.Through the exploration of modes in network video teachings in business, this thesis hopes to enrich the studies on MDA and to provide some suggestions for future network video teachings by making better use of semiotic modality modes.