A Study on the Representational Meaning of the Images in English Textbooks Based on Visual Grammar

Qi Jiaming

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Nanjing University of Science and Technology Zijin College,Nanjing,China

Email:29720397@qq.com

[Abstract] The current studies on English textbooks are mainly based on the theories of pedagogy and cognitive psychology.This paper conducts a multimodal analysis of the junior high school English textbooks published by YiLin Press based on visual grammar,and explores the features of representational meaning construction of the images in reading material.It is found that narrative representation is the major process to realize representational meaning,and action process and symbolic process are dominant in narrative representation and conceptual representation respectively.Some suggestions are also offered to improve the image design for YiLin English textbooks.

[Keywords] representational meaning;image;YiLin English textbooks;visual grammar

Introduction

English textbooks are the main tools to achieve English curriculum objectives and important source for learners to develop language knowledge and skills.English textbooks have been using non-text resources such as images al⁃most since their emergence (Cheng &Cong,2020).In the 21st century,imagery resources like color photos,car⁃toons,maps are widely used in English textbooks.As an important component of the textbooks,they play an irre⁃placeable role in assisting teachers in teaching and inspiring students'learning interests in English.Therefore,it is necessary to study English textbook as a multimodal discourse.However,the studies on multimodal discourse analy⁃sis of English textbooks are insufficient at present,especially for the junior high school English textbooks,and the ex⁃isting researches are mainly based on the theories of pedagogy and cognitive psychology.This paper conducts a mul⁃timodal analysis of the junior high school English textbooks published by YiLin Press (YiLin English textbooks)based on visual grammar.It explores the features of the representational meaning construction of the images in read⁃ing material.It intends to provide a new perspective for the analysis and evaluation of English textbooks and offer some suggestions to improve image design for YiLin English textbooks.

Visual Grammar

Kress and Van Leeuwen(1996)assumed that there should be an underlying structure that people can rely on to interpret the meaning of visual texts.In their bookReading Images:The Grammar of Visual Design,they created a framework for image analysis by comparing the three metafunctions of language identified by Halliday(1985)in Sys⁃temic Functional Grammar.According to Visual Grammar,the images are considered as meaning-making resources and likewise build three meanings,namely representational meaning,interactive meaning and compositional mean⁃ing,respectively corresponding to ideational meaning,interpersonal meaning and textual meaning—the three meta⁃functions of language.

The representational meaning means that an image "has to be able to represent objects and their relations in a world outside the representational system"(Kress&Van Leeuwen,2006,p.42).There are two major processes in the representational meaning making:narrative and conceptual processes.Narrative processes "serve to present unfold⁃ing actions and events,processes of change,transitory spatial arrangements"(Ibid.,p.59),while conceptual process⁃es "represent participants in terms of their generalized and more or less stable and timeless essence" (Ibid.,p.59).They are distinguished by a concept "vector" which is formed by depicted elements that form an oblique line.The narrative processes have the "vector" to connect the participants in the image while the conceptual processes never do.

On the basis of the kind of vector and the number and kind of participants involved,narrative process can be subdivided into action process,reactional process and speech and mental process.In action process,some kind of physical action serves as the vector and relates the represented participants.The participant from whom or which the vector departs is called anActor,while the passive participant at which the vector is directed aGoal.In reactional process,the vector is formed by an eyeline,by the direction of the glance of the represented participants.Andthe Actorandthe Goalare mentioned asthe Reactorandthe Phenomenonin reactional process.With regard to the action and reactional process,they can both be transactional where there are two or more participants,and non-transaction⁃al where there is only one participant.In speech and mental process,there is a special kind of vector:thought bal⁃loon and dialogue balloon that relate the speaker or thinker to their speech or thought.

Kress and van Leeuwen(2006)recognize three major kinds of conceptual processes:classificational process,an⁃alytical process and symbolic process.Classificational processes are those which"relate participants to each other in terms of a 'kind of' relation,a taxonomy" (Ibid.,p.79).Analytical processes are those which "relate participants in terms of a part-whole structure"(Ibid.,p.87).Symbolic processes are about"what a participant means or is"(Ibid.,p.105).There are two types of symbolic process.One is calledSymbolic Attributive,in which there are two partici⁃pants:the Carrier,the participant whose meaning or identity is established in the relation andthe Symbolic Attribute,the participant which represents the meaning or identity itself.The other process is calledSymbolic Suggestive,in which there is only one participant,the Carrier.

Visual grammar provides a strong theoretical framework for analyzing imagery resources.This paper mainly ana⁃lyzes the images in junior high school English textbooks in terms of representational meaning,so interactive meaning and compositional meaning are not discussed here.

Research Design

Research Questions

The following two questions will be studied in detail:

(1)What are the types of images in reading material of YiLin English textbooks?

(2)How do the images in reading material realize the representational meaning?

Research Subject

The junior high school English textbooks published by YiLin Press in 2012 are studied and the research sub⁃jects are those images used in reading material,i.e."reading"part A.

As the English textbooks recommended by Ministry of Education of the people's Republic of China,YiLin Eng⁃lish textbooks have been widely used by students from Grade 7 to 9 in Jiangsu Province.There are totally six text⁃books in the series,and each book contains 8 units,except for the last one which has only 4.Each unit is composed of 8 parts,among which "reading" is the key learning part for students."Reading" part A provides reading material related to students'study and life,followed by part B providing targeted exercises.Filled with rich image and text re⁃sources,YiLin English textbooks are typical multimodal discourses,and the reading material is a case in point.

Research Procedures

First of all,all the images in reading material of YiLin English textbooks are collected and classified.Then,in order to explore how the images realize the representational meaning,a quantitative analysis is adopted to show the distribution of narrative and conceptual processes as well as their sub-processes.And a qualitative analysis is also adopted to illustrate the meaning-making features of the images with some specific examples.

Results and Discussion

The Types of Images

After an exhaustive analysis,it is found that all reading articles but one are illustrated with images.There are 92 images in total,of which 66 are cartoons,22 are photographs,and 4 are other types.Cartoon is most popular type accounting for 71.7% of the visual images used in reading material,whereas photograph covers about one fourth.In addition,it is worth mentioning that all photographs appear in the three textbooks for higher grades,i.e.the second volume of Grade 8 and the two volumes of Grade 9.

Cartoon is the most acceptable form for junior high school students because it is not difficult to understand,and the cute pictures are easy for cognitive processing(Myer&Moreno,2003).Photograph captures the reality and is re⁃lated to students'daily life.With the cognitive maturation of students,the number of photographs increases,which can help students to understand situated contexts of verbal texts.

The Realization of Representational Meaning of Images

To figure out the features of representational meaning construction of images in reading material,the proportion of narrative representation and conceptual representation are calculated and presented in Table1.

Table 1.Statistics of Representational Meaning of Images in Reading Material

Conceptual Representation Total 1(1.1%) 1(1.1%) 4(4.3%) 11(12%) 15(16.3%) 6(6.5%) 38(41.3%)92（100%）

As is shown in Table 1,narrative representation occupies a dominant position with a percentage of 58.7%,while conceptual representation occupies 41.3%.Narrative representation deals with depicted actions and events,and the context usually makes clear what kind of action/event the vectors represent.Therefore,students could have a better understanding of the article with the images,which helps to improve students'multiliteracies.On the other hand,students could obtain a sense of involvement through the vectors in narrative representation,which contributes to building a friendly relationship between students and the represented participants in images,thereby attracting students'attention and arousing their interests.

In addition,Table 1 shows that the percentage of conceptual representation in reading material is 12%in G8-2,16.3%in G9-1 and 6.5%in G9-2 respectively,exceeding that of narrative representation in the corresponding vol⁃umes.Conceptual representation represents the participants in terms of class,structure or meaning.It deals with de⁃picted states of being which have the essence of constancy.The reading articles in Book G8-2,G9-1 and G9-2 are relatively longer and more complicated compared to those in the first three volumes.Therefore,conceptual represen⁃tation could help students gain a clear comprehension and acquire knowledge.

Narrative Representation

The features of narrative representation are further explored,and the number and proportion of three narrative processes are shown in Table 2.

Table 2.Statistics of Three Processes of Narrative Representation

According to the statistics demonstrated in Table 2,action process which stands at 68.5% of the total occupies the largest proportion,while reactional process and speech&mental process account for 27.8%and 3.7%respective⁃ly.

Physical action usually serves as the vector in action process,and in reactional process,the vector is usually formed by an eyeline.Thanks to the"vector",the represented participants are related and a particular relationship is formed,which can draw students'attention and get them involved.By adopting action and reactional process,the im⁃ages aim to interact with students actively.

Figure 1 is an example extracted from Unit 4,Grade 7-1.In Figure 1,the image in the upper left corner shows that two girls are looking at each other and chatting happily,which gives us an impression of a harmonious communi⁃cation.Both of the participants in the image have a reaction in the communication,so they are reactor and phenome⁃non interchangeably,which are connected by the eyeline.This transactional reactional process is designed to arouse students'interests in the relationship between the participants.In this case,students are more likely to read the arti⁃cle actively to find the information.The image in the lower right corner shows that a girl is playing volleyball.The girl is stretching one of her arms holding the ball,and raised the other arm aiming to hit the ball.This is a typical transactional action process,in which the girl is the actor and the volleyball is the goal,and the arms form the vector.This kind of image conveys to the viewers what the participant is doing,which corresponds to the title of the article"School life",thereby deepening students'understanding about the article.

Figure 1 Action and Reactional Process

Figure 2 Symbolic Process

According to the statistics,speech and mental process accounts for little proportion in reading material.It is found that this kind of process usually appears in language exercises,because it is a good way to display language patterns as a model for students to practise.

Conceptual Representation

Table 3 shows the number and proportion of three conceptual processes.

Table 3.Statistics of Three Processes of Conceptual Representation

It is obvious that there is a predominance of symbolic process in conceptual representation.The proportion of symbolic process in reading material is 86.8%,which is in sharp contrast to that of analytical process (7.9%) and classificational process(5.3%).

Classificational process relates participants to each other in terms of a taxonomy.This kind of image is rare in the reading material,but common in language exercises and tasks because it can make abstract concepts concrete and offer a direct impression of the content to students clearly.Analytical process relates participants in terms of a part-whole structure.It can help students acquire knowledge from both part and whole perspectives.Similarly,this type of image more often appears in language exercises and tasks.For example,exercise B2 of reading part in U5,G8-1 presents a growth chart of Xi Wang,a giant panda,which unfolds six different stages of the panda's growth pro⁃cess.As there is not enough space in the reading article to show the whole growth process with images,the exercise serves as a useful supplement to help students have a clear idea about the characteristics at each stage.

Symbolic process deals with the quality or essence of a participant.It is observed that symbolic attributive pro⁃cess is the major type for the images in reading material,which represents meaning and identity as being conferred to theCarrier.The symbolic images can activate more relevant information of the viewers through imagination,knowl⁃edge and thoughts.Figure 2 is an example extracted from Unit 3,Grade 8-2.The image in the upper right corner shows an American flag which is the symbol of the country,while the musicalCatsexhibited in the image in the low⁃er left corner symbolizes Broadway.The symbolic processes can bring these immediately to mind for the students and prompt them to recall more tourist attractions in New York.With regard to junior high school students in higher grades,symbolic process is an appropriate mean to train imagination and thinking ability.

Conclusion

Through the multimodal analysis,it is found that most of the images in reading material of YiLin English text⁃books are cartoons and photographs,and when the images realize representational meaning,narrative representation plays a dominant role,indicating that the major function of images in reading material is to unfold what is happening or how the events and actions happen,so as to attract students'attention and arouse their interests.

Furthermore,action and reactional processes are dominant in narrative representation.The "vector" could cre⁃ate a sense of involvement for students,so that they are more likely to read the text actively and get a better under⁃standing.In terms of conceptual representation,symbolic processes far outnumber the classificational and analytical processes in reading material,whereas the latter two are more common in language exercises and tasks.The symbol⁃ic images can offer chances for students to practise their imagination and thinking ability,which is particularly signif⁃icant for junior high students in higher grades.

On the whole,the images in reading material of YiLin English textbooks fully realize the representational mean⁃ing and work together with the texts to construct meanings.However,there are still some issues worthy of attention.Some articles aim to guide students to develop good character and positive moral values,but the images have nothing to do with the theme and just show the setting.In other cases,although the images are relevant to the theme,the rep⁃resentational processes adopted are inappropriate and fail to impress students with the positive moral value.It is also suggested that more photographs with symbolic meaning should be used in reading material to develop junior high school students'imagination and thinking ability.

Acknowledgements

This paper was financially supported by 2021 Jiangsu Social Science Application Research Project (Foreign Language Project)(Project No.21SWB-06).