A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Visual Representation in English Language Textbooks at the Elementary Level: A Social Semiotic Perspective

Abstract

Textbooks serve as a significant and comprehensive resource for language learners. This study focuses on a Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Visual Representations found in English Language Textbooks, employing a Visual Social Semiotic Perspective. Utilizing the framework established by Kress & van Leeuwen (2020), which comprises Representational, Interactional, and Compositional modes, this research investigates the multimodal elements present within these textbooks to assess their role in enhancing comprehension through visuals. Adopting a qualitative descriptive methodology, the study analyzes a purposively selected sample of 158 images from elementary school textbooks. The findings reveal a disproportionate representation of males compared to females across the images, with non-human elements also appearing frequently. The data indicate that conceptual meaning is most predominant, where the symbolic category of meaning plays a critical role. In terms of the interactional mode, the analysis shows a greater prevalence of ‘offer’ images as opposed to ‘demand’ images, with a notable medium social distance. Furthermore, the attitudes conveyed through these images are characterized by horizontal frontal and vertical eye-level angles, which are more prominent. The color modality and contextualization in 6th and 8th-grade textbooks exhibit maximal values, while the 7th-grade textbooks reflect moderate modality values. The compositional mode reveals that the center-margin information value is the most significant, with salient framing types indicating integrated connections and disconnections through separation. In conclusion, the study highlights that incorporating visual images and multiple modes, alongside textual components, significantly contributes to language learning. This multimodal approach enhances the meaning-construction capabilities of language learners, underscoring the vital role that textbooks play in educational contexts.