Using Non-Textual Sources

Abstract

Using Non-Textual Sources provides history students with the theoretical background and skills to interpret non-textual sources. It introduces the full range of non-textual sources used by historians and offers practical guidance on how to interpret them and incorporate them into essays and dissertations. In addition to this, the book posits a theoretical framework that justifies the use of these items as historical sources and explains how they can be used to further understand the past. There is coverage of the creation, production and distribution of non-textual sources; the acquisition of skills to ‘read’ these sources analytically; and the meaning, significance and reliability of these forms of evidence. Using Non-Textual Sources includes a section on interdisciplinary non-textual source work, outlining what historians borrow from disciplines such as art history, archaeology, geography and media studies, as well as a discussion of how to locate these resources online and elsewhere in order to use them in essays and dissertations. Case studies, such as the Tudor religious propaganda painting Edward VI and the Pope, the 1954 John Ford Western The Searchers and the Hereford Mappa Mundi, are employed throughout to illustrate the functions of main source types. Photographs, cartoons, maps, artwork, audio clips, film, places and artifacts are all explored in a text that provides students with a comprehensive, cohesive and practical guide to using non-textual sources.

The Roles of Non-Textual Elements in Sustaining ESL and EFL Learning: A Scoping Review

“…Pictures with multimedia methods were used most in education articles between 2018 and 2022. The author of "Using Non-Textual Sources: A Historian's Guide", Armstrong (2016) also points out that the use of the Internet has revolutionized the way learners study using non-textual sources [12]. For instance, Abdul Samat and Abdul Aziz (2020) report that the use of multimedia in language learning is impactful in developing indigenous pupils' comprehension skills [16].…”

“…Collin MacArthur's theory of iconography (1972; pp. [23][24], as cited in [12], also discusses how images on screen create a sense of genre for the audience. He points out that the ongoing forms of visual imagery support them in their understanding of the characters and elements of the plot and enable the audience to recognize swiftly the type of film they are watching.…”