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A Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) Approach to Science Literacies in Secondary School Chemistry textbooks. Liu Yu Multimodal Analysis Lab National University of Singapore.
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A Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) Approach to Science Literacies in Secondary School Chemistry textbooks Liu Yu Multimodal Analysis Lab National University of Singapore
Background: Significance of science education • Highly valued in the school curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) • Governments’ generous financial investment on science education (Rose, 1997: 3)
Scientific Literacy vs. Science Literacy • Scientific Literacy: Students’ individual cognitive development and the ability to understand scientific concepts. • Science Literacy: Scientific talking, reading and writing as representations. (Bennett 2003: 148)
Literacy challenges posed by multimodal construction of scientific knowledge • Language • Images • Graphs and tables • Mathematical symbols • Chemical symbols
Research questions • How to bridge scientific literacy and science literacy and incorporate their insights in chemistry education? • Why did modern chemical symbolism emerge complementary to language? • What are the special functions of chemical symbolism and their implications for teaching and learning?
Outline • Revisiting a classic psychological model in chemistry education (Johnstone 1982, 1993) and incorporating its insights into the SF-MDA approach (O’Halloran 2007) • Investigating semogenesis of modern chemical symbolism and analyzing its functional affordances • Discussing teaching and learning implications from Bernstein’s (1990) sociology of education
Scientific literacy: The psychological approach Macroscopic Level Submicroscopic Level Representational Level Adapted from Johnstone (1993: 703)
Different descriptions of the rusting of iron Adapted from Chittleborough (2004: 22)
Science literacy: Social semiotic approach Based on Martin (2007: 34)
Systemic functional linguistic approach to chemistry verbal texts
Recent research on Multimodal Discourse Analysis from Systemic Functional perspectives (SF-MDA) • Displayed art (O’Toole 1994) • Visual design (Kress and van Leeuwen 1996) • Scientific and mathematical visuals (O’Halloran 1996, 1999a, 2000, 2005, 2007b ; Baldry and Thibault 2006; Guo 2004; Jones 2007) • Mathematical symbolism (O’Halloran 1996, 1999a, 2000, 2005) • Three-dimensional objects (O’Toole 1994, 2004; Kress and van Leeuwen 2006) • Embodied action (Martinec 1998, 2000) • Music (Van Leeuwen 1999)
SF-MDA approach to science literacies in secondary school chemistry textbooks
Semogenesis of modern chemical symbolism • Quantification requirements of chemistry • Theoretical revolution of chemistry in the late 18th century • Meaning making potentials (language vs. symbolism) • Ratio rate between elements (e.g. calcium chloride / CaCl2) • Medium in an Ergativity configuration [e.g. Charcoal is burned. / C + O2]
Lexicogrammatical strategies: The Reactive process • The Reactive process [[C + O2]]CO2 [[Fe + O2]] Fe2O3 • The Reactive/Operative process [[2Fe + 3O2]] 2Fe2O3
Lexicogrammatical strategies: Multiple rankshift • Clause: 2H2 + O2 → 2H2O • Expression: H2, O2, H2O, 2H2, 2H2O (i.e. word group /phrase) • Atom: H, O, 2, +, →(i.e. word) [[[[2[[H2]]]] + [[O2]]]] → [[2[[H2O]]]]
Lexicogrammatical strategies: Multiple rankshift • Step 1: Write the formula H2 + O2 → H2O • Step 2: Count the atoms 2 2 2 1 • Step 3: Add ‘2’ in front of H2O H2 + O2 → 2H2O • Step 4: Count the atoms again 2 2 4 2 • Step 5: Add ‘2’ in front of H2 2H2 + O2 → 2H2O Adapted from (Onn, Ang and Khoo 2006: 59)
Lexicogrammatical strategies: Ellipsis of the Reactive/Operative process at the rank of Expression Symbolic representations of ‘copper oxide’ • Congruent representation: Cu + O (Berzelius 1813, see Brock 1993: 154) • Rank-shifted representation: CuO
The semo-genetic codification of copper oxide Copper Oxide Cu + O CuO
Viewed from Bernstein’s (1990) classification of pedagogical devices Intra-individual Psychological approach (e.g. Johnstone 1982, 1993) Acquisition Transmission SF-MDA approach (e.g. O’Halloran 2007 ) Inter-group
Concluding remarks • Developing scientific literacy with science literacies • Chemical symbolism as powerful meaning potential for semantic expansions rather than a jargon • Towards a SF-MDA meta-language for developing literacies with a visible pedagogy