Mapping Modes in Children’s Play and Design:

An Action-oriented Approach to Critical Multimodal Analysis

A companion to Chapter 12 byKaren E. Wohlwend

From the companion website for Rogers, R. (2011). An Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education, 2nd edition. New York: Taylor and Francis at www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415874298

Aim of Presentation

To suggest ways of representing and focusing analytic attention on multimodal data, including video and artifacts.

To highlight how decisions about representation and transcription affect analysis.

Multimodal Design

Artifacts as Dense Realizations of Complex Processes:

Produced and Productive

Anchor prior meanings and uses

Anticipate trajectories and future uses

Invite a set of tactics (moves) (de Certeau, Foucault)

Transcription: Putting Action/Context First

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A B C D E F G H I

10:39:33

Marshall returns to the table, sets the puppet on the table and using his index finger, smudges and blends the wet red marker, turning the tape a dull pink.

I'm just playing around. I'm just pre- I'm just play, playing around so, so I could draw SpongeBob.

Uh-huh. Tell me about--you put the tape part on. Tell me why you did that.

10:39:50

As I ask about the puppet, Marshall uses a red marker to color blank or lighter pieces of tape. He recaps the marker and Because, um, he's working.

He's wearing something for work?

10:39:54

Marshall begins peeling the tape off the puppet which leaves white spaces where reddish tape had been. Yeah.

(xxx) in the lunchroom today? To help in the lunchroom?

10:40:11

Marshall volunteers to help Janet set up the tables in the lunchroom. Other children chime in, "Can I go? Can I help?" I will! I'll go!

Get yourselves cleaned up and you can.

10:40:24

Marshall leaves the table to throw away a clump of tape. He returns and continues to peel off tape, holding the puppet down with his left hand while peeling with his right.

10:40:26An unknown child asks, "Why you ripping that off?"

10:40:37

Marshall is fascinated with the dramatic contrast produced by peeling away the bright red tape.

Because, so so I will want to know what it looks like. Who:::a.

Oo::h. I like that.

10:40:42 Marshall peels off an entire column of tape. I [xxx] go looking 'at good. Hey!

10:40:46

Shaking his finger, Marshall drops the crumpled tape onto the table. The lights go off, signalling cleanup time. Get here. Ack.

Transcript with action/context in first column (Ochs, 1999) to privilege action given left-to right reading.

Frame by Frame Multimodal Analysis

A frame freezes a slice of time-space

Changes in spatial position produce (representation of) action

Films: linear text made up of a sequence of individual frames

Making SpongeBob: Modes in Activity

Based on analyticapproach suggested by Norris (2004, p. 108).

Handling Objects: Mediated Actions

Cutting: Modal Intensity

Layout of Built Environment

art table

cardboardscreen

art supply shelf

(off-camera)

Movement

art table

art supply shelf

(off-camera)

cardboardscreen

Proxemics: Relationships Across Space

Sports Fans Play Group

Gaze: Subjectivities and Shared Space

Visibility: Seeing in Crowded Places

Backgrounding and foregrounding

Modes circulate discourses; discourses influence which modes get foregrounded

Overlapping modes—some are foregrounded; others backgrounded

Overlaps and dense places as productive sites for transformation

Discourses and Social Spaces

Skills MasteryDiscourse

Multimodal LiteracyDiscourse

IntentionalityDiscourse

Suggested Readings

Hull, C.A., & Nelson, M.E. (2005). Locating the semiotic power of multimodality. Written Communication, 22(2), 224–261.

Kress, G. (2004). Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition, 12(4), 5–22.

Norris, S. (2004). Analyzing multimodal interaction: A methodological framework. London: Routledge.

Ochs, E. (1999). Transcription as theory. In A. Jaworski & N.

Coupland (Eds.), The discourse reader (pp. 168–182). London: Routledge.

Scollon, R., & LeVine, P. (Eds.). (2004). Discourse and technology: Multimodal discourse analysis. Washington, DC: Georgetown

University Press.

Voithofer, R., & Foley, A. (2007). Digital dissonances: Structuring absences in national discourses on equity and educational technologies. Equity & Excellence in Education, 40(1), 14–25.