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

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>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. <jats:italic>Introduction to Functional Grammar. Revised by Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen</jats:italic>. 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. <jats:italic>Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design</jats:italic>. 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.</jats:p>

Text Cohesion in English Scientific Texts Written by Saudi Undergraduate Dentistry Students: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Textual and Logical Relations in Oral Biology Texts

“…As a result, temporal devices (e.g., "first," "second") were elided. Bullet points are used to elide information grammatically that is known or at least recoverable by the reader and to emphasize unknown (or new) information (Alyousef, 2020). Hence, elision is a form of presupposition.…”

Masculinidad(es) y feminidad(es) para público extranjero: asignaciones de género en el discurso publicitario comercial de Cubavisión Internacional

“…Se recurre al método bibliográfico-documental y a su técnica de revisión bibliográfico-documental, con el fin de sustentar teóricamente la investigación y describir el contexto de la construcción de género asumida por la sociedad cubana y al análisis del discurso multimodal (ADM). El ADM se ocupa de los recursos semióticos y las expansiones semánticas resultantes de la combinación de los diferentes modos a través de la orquestación semiótica (lingüística, sonora y visual) (Alyousef, 2020;Kress y Van Leeuwen, 2001;O'Halloran, 2016).…”

The Status of Theme in Research Article Abstracts in Seven Dentistry Subdisciplines: A Text-Based Study of Intradisciplinary Variations and Similarities in Thematic Choices and Thematic Progression Patterns

“…according to our findings), a writer's viewpoint (Surprisingly), and time/space (in brief, in figure x). Alyousef (2020) argues that a Theme is emphasized through intonation when it is moved into the Rheme position and replaced with adverbial or prepositional phrases.…”