The orchestration of modes and EFL audio-visual comprehension: A multimodal discourse analysis of vodcasts

This thesis explores the role of multimodality in language learners’ comprehension, and more specifically, the effects on students’ audio-visual comprehension when different orchestrations of modes appear in the visualization of vodcasts. Firstly, I describe the state of the art of its three main areas of concern, namely the evolution of meaning-making, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and audio-visual comprehension. One of the most important contributions in the theoretical overview is the suggested integrative model of audio-visual comprehension, which attempts to explain how students process information received from different inputs. Secondly, I present a study based on the following research questions: ‘Which modes are orchestrated throughout the vodcasts?’, ‘Are there any multimodal ensembles that are more beneficial for students’ audio-visual comprehension?’, and ‘What are the students’ attitudes towards audio-visual (e.g., vodcasts) compared to traditional audio (e.g., audio tracks) comprehension activities?’. Along with these research questions, I have formulated two hypotheses: Audio-visual comprehension improves when there is a greater number of orchestrated modes, and students have a more positive attitude towards vodcasts than traditional audios when carrying out comprehension activities. The study includes a multimodal discourse analysis, audio-visual comprehension tests, and students’ questionnaires. The multimodal discourse analysis of two British Council’s language learning vodcasts, entitled English is GREAT and Camden Fashion, using ELAN as the multimodal annotation tool, shows that there are a variety of multimodal ensembles of two, three and four modes. The audio-visual comprehension tests were given to 40 Spanish students, learning English as a foreign language, after the visualization of vodcasts. These comprehension tests contain questions related to specific orchestrations of modes appearing in the vodcasts. The statistical analysis of the test results, using repeated-measures ANOVA, reveal that students obtain better audio-visual comprehension results when the multimodal ensembles are constituted by a greater number of orchestrated modes. Finally, the data compiled from the questionnaires, conclude that students have a more positive attitude towards vodcasts in comparison to traditional audio listenings. Results from the audio-visual comprehension tests and questionnaires prove the two hypotheses of this study.

Notebook of Obadiah Ayer, 1708-1716

The leather-bound notebook contains academic texts copied by Obadiah Ayer while he was a student at Harvard, and after his graduation in 1710. There is a general index to the included texts at the end of the volume.

Journal of Charles Coffin and David Gurney, 1781-1785

This diary appears to have been kept by two different students, both members of the Harvard College class of 1785. The first two pages contain entries made by a student named David, believed to be David Gurney because the entries relate to the freshman curriculum and Gurney was the only student named David who was a freshman in 1781. Gurney originally titled the volume "A Journal or Diary of my concerns in College of important matters." He made entries from August 28 through October 21, 1781, recording his lessons on Virgil, Tully, Homer, the Greek Testament, Hebrew grammar, English author John Ash's "Grammar," and a text called "The Art of Speaking." At the top of one of the pages recounting these studies, Gurney wrote in large, bold letters: "About how I misspent my precious time." Charles Coffin's entries begin on October 25, 1781 and fill the bulk of the journal. Coffin kept this diary while a student at Harvard College from 1781 to 1785. Although most of Coffin's entries are written in Latin, an account of his July 1781 examination for admission to the College is in English.

An abridgment of what I extracted while an undergraduate at Harvard College, 1766-1769

The bound volume contains excerpts copied by Benjamin Wadsworth from books he read as a student at Harvard in the late 1760s. The volume includes almost no personal commentary on the readings. The excerpts are arranged by year of study for the academic years 1766-1769, beginning when Wadsworth was a sophomore. Each entry begins with a title indicating the book title and author for the passage, and there is an alphabetical index at the end of the volume. Wadsworth selected “extracts” from both religious and secular texts including several histories of England, American histories (with a focus on Puritans), the Bible, and in his senior year, “the Koran of Mohammed.” He also read several books on the art of speech and the art of preaching. There are few science texts included, though the final five-page entry is titled, “What I thought fit to note down from Mr. Winthrop’s experimental Lectures” and contains notes both on the content of Professor John Winthrop’s lectures as well as the types of experiments being performed in class. Wadsworth’s commonplace book offers a window on the state of higher education in the eighteenth century and offers a firsthand account of academic life at Harvard College.

Martine's hand-book of etiquette and guide to true politeness : a complete manual for those who desire to understand the rules of good breeding, the customs of good society, and to avoid incorrect and vulgar habits : containing clear and comprehensive directions for correct manners, dress, and conversation, instructions for good behavior at dinner parties and the table : together with the etiquette of the ball and assembly room, evening parties, deportment in the street and when traveling, and the usage to be observed when visiting or receiving calls : to which is added the etiquette of courtship, marriage, domestic duties, and fifty-six rules to be observed in general society /

"Almost every gentleman has wine at his table whenever he has invited guests"-- p. [74].

Of William Morris and his work /

Illustrations of mss. pages of the translated Eyrbyggja saga and Bandamanna saga on p. 29-30.

Tell-Trothes New Yeares gift ... And The passionate Morrice. 1593.--John Lane's Tom Tell-Troths message, and his pens complaint. 1600.--Thomas Powell's Tom of all trades. Or The plaine path-way to preferment ... 1631.--The glasse of Godly loue. (By John Rogers?) 1569.--

"The glasse of Godly loue" forms part of a tract entitled: The school of honest and vertuous lyfe ... by T[homas] P[ritchard] Also a ... discourse, of the worthynesse of honorable wedlocke ... by I[ohn] R[ogers]" It is uncertain who is the author. cf. Forewords.

Syllabus of a course of six lectures on prose fiction in America ...

I. The art of fiction.--II. Washington Irving.--III. James Fennimore Cooper.--IV. Hawthorne and Poe.--V. The realistic movement.--VI. Later tendencies.

Catalogue of the science collections for teaching and research in the South Kensington Museum ...

At head of title: Department of Science and Art of the Committee of Council of Education.

Ars pictoria, or, An academy treating of drawing, painting, limning, etching : to which are added XXXI copper plates, expressing the choicest, nearest, and most exact grounds and rules of symmetry /

Errata for Ars pictoria, p. [8] of preliminaries. Errata for Appendix, p. 39.

The elements of navigation; containing the theory and practice. With the necessary tables, and compendiums for finding the latitude and longitude at sea. To which is added, a treatise of marine fortification. Composed for the use of the Royal Mathematical School at Christ's Hospital, the Royal Academy at Portsmouth, and the gentlemen of the Navy ...

"A dissertation on the rise and progress of the modern art of navigation," by James Wilson: v. 1, p. [i]-xxx.

The Oceana of James Harrington, esq; and his other works: with an account of his life prefix'd,

The dedication -- The preface -- The life of James Harrington [by J. Toland] -- The grounds and reasons of monarchy consider'd -- The commonwealth of Oceana -- The prerogative of popular government -- The art of law-giving -- A word concerning a House of peers -- Six political tracts ... viz. I. Valerius and Publicola. A dialogue. II. A system of politics ... III. Political aphorisms. IV. Seven models of a common-wealth ... V. The ways and means of introducing a common-wealth by the consent of the people. VI. The humble petition of divers well affected persons; with the Parliament's answer thereto -- Plato redivivus: or, A dialogue concerning government ... 3d ed. with additions.

Hopes and fears for art /

Previous ed. 1882 by Robert Brothers, Boston.

Proceedings of the Elliott Society of Natural History of Charleston, South-Carolina.

Title from volume title page.

Capitol centennial papers : papers prepared for the centennial observation of the completion of the Illinois State Capitol, 1988 /

Cover title.