A Comparative Study On Image-Text Relations Between New Senior English For China And Senior High English

As the main tool for foreign language teaching,textbooks are not only cultural and ideological carriers but also have the most direct impact on teachers and students.Among the studies on multimodal textbooks,the study of English teaching materials is a hot area.Therefore,this study focuses on the multimodal discourse analysis of English textbooks to investigate the characteristics of the image-text relations in our high school English textbooks and the implications for second language acquisition.Based on Martinec and Salway’s theory of image-text relations,this study chooses the latest version of the two serials of high school English textbooks New Senior English for China and Senior High English as research objects to answer the following two questions.(1)What are the similarities and differences of the relative status relations of the images and texts in listening and speaking sections of NSEC and SHE?(2)What are the similarities and differences of the logico-semantic relations of the images and texts in listening and speaking sections of NSEC and SHE?This study chooses the listening and speaking section in the latest version of the two English textbooks which are "Listening and Speaking" in NSEC and "Lesson 2" in SHE.With the data coded from the perspective of relative status relations and logico-semantic relations,data are analyzed by Excel 2021.The results are as follows:(1)In relative status relations in NSEC,three types of relative status relations(complementary relations,image subordination relations,and text subordination relations)are found with complementary relations occupying the largest portion,77%.When it comes to the relative status relation in SHE,only complementary relations and image subordination relations appear which is quite different from the relations in NSEC.Moreover,the proportion of the two types of relation almost shares an even distribution.Lastly,for the comparison of the relative status relations of the two textbooks,complementary relations in NSEC fluctuate and the other two relations present a stable or even decreasing trend.The complementary relations and image subordination relations in SHE are basically complementary.In both serials of textbooks,complementary and image subordination relations take a dominant role,leaving a huge gap between independent and text subordination relations.(2)As for the logico-semantic relations in NSEC,a total of seven relations(elaboration,extension,enhancement,elaboration plus extension,elaboration plus enhancement,extension plus enhancement,and elaboration plus extension and enhancement)are found.Among them,the elaboration relation takes the largest proportion,80%.In SHE,five types of relations(elaboration,extension,elaboration plus extension,elaboration plus enhancement,and extension plus projection)are discovered.The elaboration relation ranks first,85.7%and the development route of it shows a downward trend due to the increasing content difficulty of textbooks.Moreover,we compare the logico-semantic relations in two serials of textbooks.In NSEC,almost all books share a similar trend,when the proportion of elaboration is at its maximum,the combination of elaboration and extension is at a lower proportion.Besides,the two series of books share a common trait in that the elaboration relation takes the dominant role and the projection relation does not appear individually.(3)In studying the implications of image-text relations on second language acquisition.The image-text relations facilitate second language acquisition which manifests in many aspects including input enhancement,incidental vocabulary acquisition,listening and speaking facilitation,and enhancing students’ motivation to learn.This study contributes to the understanding of the multimodal characteristics of teaching materials.It also provides implications for English teachers and textbook compilers.For teachers,they should establish their own multimodal awareness and draw on multimodal resources so as to cultivate students’ multiliteracies.As for textbook writers,it is important to maintain diversity as well as balance in textbook image-text relations and to update teaching materials timely.