A Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis SFMDA Approach to Science Literacies in Secondar

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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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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)

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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)

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Literacy challenges posed by multimodal
construction of scientific knowledge

• Language
• Images
• Graphs and tables
• Mathematical symbols
• Chemical symbols

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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?

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Outline

• Revisiting a classic psychological model in
  chemistry education (Johnstone 1982, 1993) and
  incorporating its insights into the SF-MDA
  approach (OHalloran 2007)
• Investigating semogenesis of modern chemical
  symbolism and analyzing its functional
  affordances
• Discussing teaching and learning implications
  from Bernsteins (1990) sociology of education

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Scientific literacy The psychological approach

• Macroscopic
  Level
• Submicroscopic Level
  Representational Level
• 
  Adapted from Johnstone (1993 703)

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Different descriptions of the rusting of iron
Adapted from Chittleborough (2004 22)
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Science literacy Social semiotic approach
Based on Martin (2007 34)
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Systemic functional linguistic approach to
chemistry verbal texts
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Recent research on Multimodal Discourse Analysis
from Systemic Functional perspectives (SF-MDA)

• Displayed art (OToole 1994)
• Visual design (Kress and van Leeuwen 1996)
• Scientific and mathematical visuals (OHalloran
  1996, 1999a, 2000, 2005, 2007b Baldry and
  Thibault 2006 Guo 2004 Jones 2007)
• Mathematical symbolism (OHalloran 1996, 1999a,
  2000, 2005)
• Three-dimensional objects (OToole 1994, 2004
  Kress and van Leeuwen 2006)
• Embodied action (Martinec 1998, 2000)
• Music (Van Leeuwen 1999)

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SF-MDA approach to science literacies in
secondary school chemistry textbooks
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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

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Lexicogrammatical strategies The Reactive
process

• The Reactive process
• C O2 CO2
• Fe O2 Fe2O3
  
• The Reactive/Operative process
• 2Fe 3O2 2Fe2O3
  

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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)
• 2H2 O2 ? 2H2O

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Lexicogrammatical strategies Multiple rankshift
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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)

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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

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The semo-genetic codification of copper oxide
Copper Oxide

• Cu

O
CuO
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Viewed from Bernsteins (1990) classification of
pedagogical devices

• 
  Intra-individual
• Psychological approach
• (e.g. Johnstone 1982, 1993)
• Acquisition
  Transmission
• 
  SF-MDA approach
  
• 
  (e.g. OHalloran 2007 )
• 
  
• 
  Inter-group

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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

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Thank you!