Investigating intersemiosis: a systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis of the relationship between language and gesture in classroom discourse

TLDR

Researchers face difficulty describing and discussing interactions across semiotic resources in multimodal classroom discourse. The study applies Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis to examine how teachers’ language and gesture interact with students to create multimodal meanings. The authors extend language–image concepts to explain how language and gesture combine to generate meaning. The analysis proposes the emergent meaning of “structured informality,” suggesting it enables teachers to design effective learning experiences with multimodal resources.

Abstract

A challenge for researchers working with multimodal classroom discourse is to be able to describe and discuss the interaction and interplay across various semiotic resources. This article adopts the Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis approach to examine the relationship between language and gesture used by the teacher, in interaction with the students, and the emergent meanings made multimodally. It discusses the mechanisms by which language and gesture combine to make meaning by extending concepts originally developed for language–image relations. From the analysis and interpretation of the teachers’ multimodal selections in the lesson, the emergent meaning of ‘structured informality’ is proposed. Structured informality offers a way to consider how a teacher can design an effective learning experience for their students using multimodal resources.