THE REPRESENTATION OF EXPERIENCE IN UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS STUDENTS’ TEXTS: A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF MULTIMODAL MEANING MAKING RESOURCES IN MARKETING TEXTS

From the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) standpoint, experiential meanings reflect our experience, perceptions, and consciousness. Research on experiential meaningmaking in tertiary contexts has traditionally focused on areas such as mathematics, journalism and media, science and computing, nursing, and history. This paper aims to investigate the experiential multimodal meanings in an undergraduate marketing course. The data comprised three written assignments and the tutor’s two model texts. The study employed a multidimensional approach by Alyousef (2013), which is framed by SFL (Halliday 2014) and O’Halloran’s (2005, 1998, 2008, 1999) multisemiotic framework for the analysis of semiotic codes in mathematics. The results showed that the experiential meanings in the students’ marketing plan texts were primarily construed through material processes and both explicit and implicit relational identifying processes. The findings indicated how mathematical symbolism is encoded in the multisemiotic texts, in the most economical manner, by using grammatical strategies of structural condensation. The results also noted the extent to which the different modes of meaning were integrated in the texts

A study of cohesion in international postgraduate Business students’ multimodal written texts: an SF-MDA of a key topic in finance

Empirical research studies of finance students’ language use have investigated students’ performance in finance courses and the effect of class attendance on students’ performance.Similarly, research on accounting students’ texts has been directed at readability of accounting narratives and lexical choices. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) based research in multimodal communication and representation has been confined to school and workplace contexts. Whereas multimodal communication investigations in tertiary contexts has been conducted across the fields of mathematics, science and computing, and nursing, business courses have not been explored. The purpose of this paper is to report on a case study designed to investigate the key multimodal academic literacy and numeracy practices of ten international Master of Commerce Accounting students enrolled at an Australian university. Specifically, it aims to provide an account of the salient textual and the logical patterns through the analysis of cohesive devices in a key topic in the Principles of Finance course, namely capital budgeting techniques and management reports. This study is pertinent as most international ESL/EFL students’ enrolments in Australia and elsewhere is in business programs. This study is underpinned by Halliday’s (1985) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach to language and Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) cohesion analysis scheme. The study employs a Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) for the analysis of cohesive devices in the participants’ multimodal texts. Lexical cohesion formed the largest percentage of use, and in particular repetition of the same lexical items, followed by reference.The findings contribute to the description of the meaning-making processes in these multimodal artefacts. They provide a potential research tool for similar investigations across a broad range of educational settings. Implications of the findings for finance students and educators are finally presented

English-Arabic Translator Education Through Systemic Functional Linguistics: Analysis of Cohesive Devices in Investopedia Business Texts

In translation courses, students are asked to practice translation skills by translating a source text (ST) in a specific field. While teachers usually select texts based on topic and language accuracy, some such texts do not provide rich textual features that help students practice and improve their translation skills. This study aimed to analyze the cohesive features in business texts collected from “Investopedia” to investigate their suitability for use as STs to practice translation skills in the field of finance and administration. It was framed by Halliday’s (1978) systemic functional linguistics (SFL) approach to language and Halliday and Hassan’s (1976) cohesion analysis scheme. The findings demonstrated that the most prominent type used was lexical cohesion, followed by reference and conjunctions. Ellipses and substitution were rarely used. The findings indicated that the intensive use of lexical cohesion and the various subcategories used in these texts can help enrich the background knowledge of financial terminology and provide a communicative understanding of the ST while practicing various elements of textual features. The study provided a demonstration of the significance of SFL in providing coherent and cohesive STs that facilitate the needs of translation instructors and students in the field of finance and administration. Other SFL tools can be employed to provide a better understanding of these texts

Improving the Effectiveness of the Peer Feedback Technique: The Impact of Focusing EFL Student-writers on Macro Level Features

Abstract The study on which this article is based suggests a new form of the peer feedback technique that focuses learners on providing their fellow students with macro peer feedback alone, leaving the provision of micro feedback to the teacher. It investigated the impact of the new form on learners' overall writing quality, and on macro and micro level writing features. The participants were 41 Saudi EFL undergraduate students undertaking an English programme. The design of the study consisted of two phases: during phase 1 the conventional form was introduced, and during phase 2 the new form was introduced to the participants. The participants developed and practised giving and receiving peer feedback on 10 argumentative essays in total, two drafts each. Pre-, mid-and post-tests and mid-and post-interviews were administered. The findings of the study suggest that each form of the technique had a significant impact on the participants at a statistical level, with the new form having even International Journal of English Language Educatio

A MOVE STRUCTURE MODEL FOR DENTISTRY RESEARCH ARTICLE ABSTRACTS: A GENRE-BASED STUDY OF VARIATIONS AND SIMILARITIES IN EIGHT DENTISTRY SUBDISCIPLINES

The abstract is one of the most important sections in a research article (RA) because it is the first section researchers read to determine whether it is relevant to their research. The abstract provides an overview or summary of the entire article. In the dentistry discipline, the RA abstract can either be structured using headings or written as a summary. However, subdisciplinary investigations of intradisciplinary (within the same discipline) variations of move structures in dentistry RA abstracts are lacking. This study aimed to investigate the prototypical rhetorical move structure realizations of 119 English RA abstracts in eight dentistry disciplines: Oral Sciences, Periodontics, Restorative Dentistry, Endodontics, Operative Dentistry, Prosthodontics, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and Orthodontics. It also aimed to investigate whether there are any intradisciplinary variations and/or similarities between the eight dentistry subdisciplines in terms of move sequence and length. The findings showed a lack of intradisciplinary variations in the rhetorical four-move structure (Purpose-Method-Result-Conclusion) across the eight dentistry subdisciplines. The Introduction/Background move was not present in all the dentistry subdisciplines; therefore, it is optional in five subdisciplines but conventional in the Oral Sciences, Endodontics, and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery subdisciplines since its occurrence exceeded 60 per cent of investigated RA abstracts of those subdisciplines. The analysis of the move lengths indicated the importance of the Methods and the Results moves in dental research discourse because each move constituted over 25 per cent of text space. The findings revealed the importance of drawing learners’ attention to the research gap when establishing the context for a study. Future studies may employ the proposed move-analysis model for RA abstract analyses in other academic disciplines

A multimodal discourse analysis of English dentistry texts written by Saudi undergraduate students: A study of theme and information structure

The study of multimodality in discourse reveals the way writers articulate their intended meanings and intentions. Systemic functional analyses of oral biology discourse have been limited to few studies; yet, no published study has investigated multimodal textual features. This qualitative study explored and analyzed the multimodal textual features in undergraduate dentistry texts. The systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA) is framed by Halliday’s (Halliday, M. A. K. 2014. Introduction to Functional Grammar. Revised by Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen. 4th ed. London/New York: Taylor and Francis) linguistic tools for the analysis of Theme and Kress and van Leeuwen’s (Kress, Gunther, and Theo van Leeuwen. 2006. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge) framework for the analysis of visual designs. Oral biology discourse intertwines two thematic progression patterns: constant and linear. Although a split-rheme pattern was minimally employed, disciplinary-specific functions of this pattern emerged. The SF-MDA of the composition of information in oral biology pictures extends Kress and van Leeuwen’s functional interpretations of the meaning-making resources of visual artifacts. Finally, the pedagogical implications for science tutors and for undergraduate nonnative science students are presented

An Investigation of Metadiscourse Features in International Postgraduate Business Students’ Texts

Metadiscourse analysis reveals the way writers engage with different texts and communicate with each other. Examining these linguistic resources is important because they play a vital role in maximizing the learning experiences of students in the Master’s program in Accounting. Yet, there is a lack of research investigating these features in a key topic in the Principles of Finance course: management reports that encompass tables and graphs. This study explores the use of metadiscourse markers in three multimodal management reports written by 10 international Master’s of Accounting students. It employs Hyland and Tse’s model and Hyland’s model for the multimodal analysis of metadiscourse markers in finance texts. The findings show a high frequency of interactive and interactional markers in the orthographic texts compared with a lack of implicit interactive markers and a high frequency of implicit interactional markers in the tables and graphs. Implications for the teaching of English for Business Purposes (EBP) are discussed

An investigation of postgraduate Business students' multimodal literacy and numeracy practices in Finance: A multidimensional exploration

Empirical research studies of finance have investigated students' performance in Principles of Finance courses and the effect of class attendance on students' performance. Similarly, accounting research has been directed at readability of accounting narratives and lexical choices. However, no published study has explored and analysed the multimodal literacy and numeracy social practices of international students in a core business module, and within a multidimensional research framework. This study is of interest as most international ESL/EFL students in Australia and elsewhere are enrolled in business programmes. This paper explores the literacy and numeracy social practices of 10 first-year Master of Commerce Accounting international students in a Principles of Finance module. It is underpinned by the proposed multidimensional framework which is framed by Halliday's systemic functional linguistic theory and by O'Halloran's multisemiotic framework for the analysis of mathematical symbolism. The findings are presented in terms of (1) the epistemologies of Principles of Finance, (2) a Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) of the experiential meanings in students' capital budgeting management reports, and (3) a description of the actual practices the participants engaged with to complete the assignment and their explanations of their texts. Implications of these findings and the research framework presented. The SF-MDA contributes to the description of experiential meaning in financial tables and graphs. It indicates a potential research tool for the systemic functional analysis of multimodal finance and accounting discourses. The multidimensional exploration of participants' literacy practices presented here could also provide a framework for similar investigation across a broad range of educational settings.Hesham Suleiman Alyouse