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ERIC Number: EJ1282390
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1029-8457
EISSN: N/A
Intersemiotic Complementarity in Namibian Physical Science Teachers' Classroom Practice
Nakakuwa, Tomas; Jawahar, Kavish
African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, v24 n3 p387-399 2020
The world we live in is increasingly multimodal, necessitating multiliteracy for learners to engage meaningfully with knowledge and skills. While verbal language is the primary medium for constructing, communicating and learning scientific knowledge and concepts, visuals can help learners to gain knowledge that they may not develop from verbal explanations alone. Verbal and visual semiotic modes have the potential to function in a complementary way, working together to strengthen meaning. This paper explores the dynamics of verbal-visual intersemiotic complementarity in the classroom practice of three junior secondary physical science teachers in the Oshana region of Namibia. It reports on a qualitative case study employing Systemic Functional Linguistics in the analysis of multimodal discourse. The results revealed how the content selections in the verbal and visual modes of the science teachers' practice are related in terms of the meanings and their relationships through all five intersemiotic sense relations. The results also showed that some teachers consistently employed fewer visuals. The results further highlighted low frequency of the use of intersemiotic antonymy (opposites) and hyponymy (hierarchy) by each teacher compared with intersemiotic repetition, synonymy (synonyms) and meronymy (whole-part relationships). It is recommended that Namibian science teacher training programmes incorporate intersemiotic complementarity in order to help teachers harness the full potential of this approach.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Namibia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A