Representing culture in OpenCourseWare Lectures: A Corpus-based Semantic Analysis

This paper explores the representation of culture in a corpus based on fifteen OpenCourseWare (OCW) lecture transcripts available from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University. The corpus is divided into three components of five lectures each from the broad disciplinary areas of humanities, soft sciences, and hard sciences, thus allowing for a contrastive analysis of cultural references across different domains of specialized knowledge. The analytical approach is based on the concept of a “cultureme”, i.e., a unit of analysis for a culture-specific phenomenon and its linguistic expression. The corpus was processed with the semantic annotation tool of Wmatrix that automatically assigns lexical items in a corpus to pre-established semantic domains. The lexical items in domains associated with human cultural experiences (e.g., education, religion, history, food and drinks, sports, the media, entertainment, geographical names, proper names) were then examined to identify culturemes. Extensive follow-up cross-domain analysis was necessary to tease out culture-specific meanings across the corpus. The results indicate that, although not present in high frequencies, a number of culturemes were dispersed throughout the corpus, with most referring to the domain of education, followed by government & politics and entertainment. The paper concludes with some reflections on the pedagogical implications of the findings in the context of helping L2 learners cope with the comprehension challenges of culture-specific meanings in lecture discourse

Shifting identities: Executives’ use of first person pro-forms in financial Q&A sessions

An important function of company executives is to communicate the corporate identity, or the vision, values, and defining attributes of their organizations. Yet we know that identity is often a multi-faceted phenomenon that is dynamically constructed during interaction, involving aspects of both collective identity as a member of a group and individual identity as the expression of self as a unique person. This study aims to identify the different facets of executive speakers’ identity that emerge during the Q&A sessions of earnings calls as a key oral business genre during which teams of executives interact with financial analysts who participate via teleconferencing. The dialogic Q&A sessions follow prepared monologic presentations delivered by executive team and are relatively impromptu in nature, thus providing for a rich interactional context. The data for the study consist of the transcripts of the Q&A sessions of the quarterly earnings calls of ten major US-based companies. The analytical approach integrates both quantitative and qualitative methods to tease out the linguistic expression of identity in the form of the first person pro-forms we, us, our, ours, I, me, my and mine. Previous research on the pragmatic functions of such pro-forms has suggested that they are important indexical expressions that serve to establish roles and relationships in situated interaction, and therefore act as markers of identity. Text analysis software was used detect first-person pro-forms as particularly prominent features of the Q&A sessions and then to investigate patterns of usage through cluster analysis. Follow-up qualitative analysis of the most frequently used pro-forms in their context of usage revealed a range of nuanced identities that involved both institutional and organizational identities (plural forms), as well as individual and professional identities (singular forms), which allowed the executives to effectively interact with the financial analysts, in order to respond to challenging questions and convey a message that promotes both the company and themselves as successful business leaders. The findings of the analysis can be applied in financial communication courses help aspiring executives acquire competence in the effective use of first person pro-forms

Harnessing multimodal literacy for knowledge dissemination in ESP settings

Ongoing progress in digital technology continues to have a growing impact in all areas of life and the field of language teaching is no exception. With particular reference to ESP, it is now crucially important to incorporate multimodal digital resources in the classroom that can be leveraged to help learners construct knowledge in specialized discourse domains and exploit the interplay of verbal and non-verbal meanings for a deeper understanding. Towards this goal, researchers at the University of Pisa have compiled a multimodal corpus of video clips representing disciplinary areas of particular interest to ESP students (i.e., business/economics, political science, law, medicine, tourism), as well as a variety of web-mediated genres that can be adapted for classroom use, including OpenCourseWare lectures, TED Talks, and digitally available films, television series, documentaries, interviews, and docu-tours. This contribution provides an overview of the methodological issues involved in designing, collecting, and analysing a multimodal corpus to be exploited by linguists and practitioners working in ESP in higher education

Persuasion in earnings calls: A diachronic pragmalinguistic analysis

This study investigates persuasive language in earnings calls. These are routine events organized by companies to report their quarterly financial results. The analysis is based on the earnings calls of 10 companies in the third quarter of 2009, when financial markets were still suffering from the global financial crisis, and the third quarter of 2013 when markets had largely recovered. Earnings call transcripts were compiled in two parallel corpora (Crisis Corpus and Recovery Corpus), thus providing a diachronic perspective. Semantic annotation software was used to extract pragmalinguistic resources of persuasion. The Crisis Corpus had a higher frequency of persuasive items, as executives often emphasized progress and future hopes. However, the types of items were largely the same across the corpora. This suggests a well-consolidated linguistic protocol within this discourse community that transcends financial performance. The findings offer insights into how earnings call participants use persuasive language strategically to achieve their distinct professional objectives as responsible providers of information (executives) vs. discerning seekers of information (analysts)

Detecting ideological stance in an economics lecture: A multi-faceted approach

The discipline of economics encompasses both theoretical concepts and empirical methods for the study of human behaviours, as well as competing schools of thought and ideologies that students need to engage with and reflect upon. During an economics lecture, the lecturer has an important role in helping students accomplish this goal. However, as an individual, the lecturer also holds personal ideological positions that may emerge during the lecture and elude L2 listeners. The aim of this paper is to propose a systematic and comprehensive procedure for detecting ideological stance in a university lecture. In a case study, I apply Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis to show how ideological stance emerges in an economics lecture and how semiotic resources beyond verbal language contribute to its expression. This process was facilitated by the use of multimodal annotation software to analyse verbal expressions of ideological stance (e.g., evaluative language, rhetorical elements) and co-occurring nonverbal cues (e.g., prosodic features, gaze direction, gesturing). The method was able to shed light on how the lecturer’s contemporaneous use of multiple semiotic modes worked synergistically in the expression of ideological meanings in relation to a controversial issue (i.e., access to healthcare in the United States) in subtle but distinctive ways that were linked to the lecturer’s background and to the broader socio-political issues of the research context. The method could be leveraged to inform ESP settings to assist L2 learners in acquiring a better understanding of lecturers’ stance towards content, thus resulting in a more complete, effective, and satisfying lecture experience

Is Gender a Driver of Topic Choice? A Comparative Keyword Analysis of Political Cable News Interviews

Cable news networks have become an increasingly important source of political news in the United States. They wield considerable influence on public opinion, particularly in relation to current issues involving social roles and gender dynamics. This study offers insights into how the choice of topic in political cable news interviews may be influenced by the gender of participants. A corpus of 40 political cable news interviews was compiled and analyzed on the basis of various combinations of male and female interviewers and interviewees. Corpus software was implemented to extract keywords that were then grouped to identify prominent topics according to gender. Topics discussed exclusively among male participants were more issue oriented (i.e., immigration, healthcare, the economy, and gun control) as compared to those discussed exclusively among female participants that were more in social nature (i.e., personal matters, the Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination, and tech giants in the context of social justice). Results showed that topics emerging from the female participants’ discourse were aligned with some widely held perceptions of women’s speech. At the same time, other features of the female participants’ speech appeared to be driven largely by their professional and institutional roles, and thus, not aligned with stereotypical perceptions. The findings have implications for the role of media and cable news in contemporary American society in avoiding the perpetration of gender-related topic bias

Towards developing multimodal literacies in the ESP classroom: methodological insights and practical applications

In this article, we provide an introduction to this special issue of Multimodal Communication entitled “Multimodal approaches in ESP: Innovative research and practice”. The Special Issue showcases innovative research presented at the 2019 International Conference on Knowledge Dissemination and Multimodal Literacy: Research Perspectives on ESP in a Digital Age. After briefly discussing the multimodal approach in language teaching and specifically in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and its key role in developing multimodal competence, each of the five featured contributions is reviewed. The contributions offer theoretically grounded and research-informed applications of the multimodal approach in the ESP classroom

The impact of online technologies and English Medium Instruction on university lectures in international learning contexts: A systematic review

This paper addresses how the university lecture is evolving in response to new realities in international higher education driven by two important trends: innovative online instructional technologies and the rise of English Medium Instruction (EMI). Following a brief review of the lecture as the core instructional channel in universities, we offer a detailed overview of the new technology-driven lecture formats that are now available to learners worldwide. We then shift the focus to the role of EMI, with particular attention to understanding how both instructors and students view this relatively new approach to learning. This was accomplished through a systematic review of EMI-related literature available on scholarly databases. Findings showed that most research has focused on the language-related issues of learners, and little attention has been paid to the crucial issue of lecture comprehension, which is mainly caused by the low level of proficiency of students/instructors and domain-specific vocabulary. Moreover, studies have almost exclusively addressed face-to-face settings, indicating a need to expand EMI research to include online lecture settings that are increasingly frequent in international higher education. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge relating to new trends in how lectures are experienced and perceived in international educational settings

An interdisciplinary approach to brand association research

Purpose. This paper discusses the current role of qualitative research in the analysis of the relations between brands and consumers in new market spaces, with particular reference to how it can be enhanced with quantitative techniques to study interactions in online communities. Design/methodology/approach. The paper reviews key scientific contributions in the area of qualitative marketing research. Drawing from this theoretical background, the authors then propose the integration of digital ethnography (a qualitative approach) with quantitative text mining as an innovative approach to gain insights into perceptions of brand associations among online consumers. Findings. The paper contributes to a greater awareness of both limitations and new perspectives in relation to qualitative market research, while suggesting innovative paths for future research. Practical implications. The new methodological approach described can be used to better understand brand knowledge based on consumer brand associations. These insights can then be applied towards developing and implementing effective branding strategies. Originality/Value. The authors propose an interdisciplinary methodology to study consumer behaviour in online communities which incorporates digital ethnography and computer-assisted textual analysis. Particularly the latter technique (borrowed from the field of linguistics) has not yet been exploited extensively in marketing research, but is capable of offering new types of knowledge with important implications for strategic brand management

Chapter 24. Lectures

Although often criticized as an old-style instructional method associated with passive learning, the much-maligned lecture remains a core genre of higher education. Lectures are still the most practical way to teach large numbers of students in a globalized academic world in which universities are under growing pressure to increase enrollments for competitive and economic reasons. Lectures are therefore a crucial but often challenging component of the higher education experience of the vast numbers of international students who study in English-medium universities around the world. Indeed, the cognitive and linguistic complexities of lectures can cause significant difficulties for nonnative speakers of English, even those at relatively advanced proficiency levels. This chapter will open with an overview of the evolution of the lecture as a teaching method, including recent ICT-driven transformations of the genre, e.g. ‘virtual’ lectures available through OpenCourseWare digital platforms. The focus will then shift to lectures in the context of EAP, with particular reference to critical aspects of listening comprehension for nonnative learners who must decipher oral language in order to construct meaning. These include not only skills necessary to assimilate the phonological, lexical, syntactic, discursive and pragmatic features that all come into play during a lecture, but also the ability to activate knowledge from prior educational and world experiences. This discussion will be followed by a review of key research that has analyzed authentic lecture discourse from a variety of methodological perspectives, aiming to gain insights into which features of lectures create obstacles for nonnative listeners, and thus need special attention in EAP settings. Current instructional practices that have been proposed in the literature to meet these needs will also be discussed. The chapter will conclude with recommendations for further actions to help nonnative listeners successfully cope with lectures delivered in English, also with reference to innovative ICT resources that are now available in higher education