Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research Background
With the rapid development of computer science and internet, the way ofpeople’s communication has been greatly influenced. Language is an important tool incommunication. However, means other than language itself have become more andmore conspicuous in modern communication, such as image, sound, video, gesture,movement and other semiotic means, which are integrated in human communicationwith the development of information and technology. This phenomenon makesmultimodality become a focus in linguistic field since the 1990s. As an importantaspect of multimodal research, the concept of 'multimodal discourse analysis'occurred for the first time in Handbook of Visual Analysis. (van Leeuwen & Jewitt,2017)Since the emerging of multimodality, it has attracted much attention. As a newperspective, multimodality is widely applied in many research fields. Multimodalityhas been used in the area such as advertisement, poster, newspaper, textbook andother static discourses. In recent years, the researches on film, website, academicspeech, classroom, situated discourse and other dynamic discourses also have begunto flourish.It has been admitted that the integration of language and other semiotic resourcescalls for multimodal discourse analysis. In order to fully understand humancommunication and communicators’ intended meaning, monomodal analysis is notenough. In modern society meaning in communication can be realized throughvarious modalities, including language, image, gesture, motion, sound, tone, etc.College English teaching contest as a representative of college English teachinghas attracted more attention. Shu Dingfang (2017: 34) points out that through collegeEnglish teaching contest, more research needs to be conducted on basic principles ofclassroom teaching and teacher development, thus helping teachers focus on theeffectiveness and efficiency of classroom practice and activities. Therefore, from thisperspective, the college English contest has a substantial influence on college Englishteaching. Therefore, an analysis of the college English teaching contest has greatsignificance.The multimodality in college English teaching contest has become a hot point,which means the teaching channels are diversified. As a special kind of Englishteaching, college English contest has the features of multimodality. With the popularuse of multimedia, PPT course ware is commonly used. Teacher’s language, bodyaction, gesture, and means of image, sound, video incorporated in PPT are combinedin classroom teaching.
...........
1.2 Significance of the Research
This research is to make a multimodal discourse analysis of presentations in thecollege English teaching contest based on Halliday’s functional grammar and Kress &van Leeuwen’s visual grammar. The college English teaching contest is held once ayear in our country. College teachers nationwide can take part in the contest.Therefore, it has become a conventional teaching practice. As a special kind ofteaching practice, it has some substantial influence on college English teaching.Firstly, the analysis will help teachers design and achieve an efficient teachingpractice. The results will provide some ideas for the multiliteracy of modern Englishand make some contribution to multimodal college English teaching. The analysis ofpresentations in the college English teaching contest will have a certain effect oncollege Engl，英语论文题目，英语论文 |
