Western museums are public institutions, open and accessible to all sectors of the population they serve. Increasingly, they are becoming more accountable to the governments that fund them, and criteria such as visitation figures are being used to assess their viability. In order to ensure their survival in the current climate of economic rationalism, museums need to maintain their audiences and attract an even broader demographic. To do this, they need to ensure that visitors feel comfortable, welcome and secure inside their spaces. They also need to give visitors clear entry points for engaging with and valuing the objects and knowledge on display in exhibitions. This thesis maps a grammar of three-dimensional space with a strong focus on the interpersonal metafunction. Building on the social semiotic tools developed by Halliday (1978, 1985a), Halliday and Hasan (1976), Martin (1992) and Matthiessen (1995), it identifies two interpersonal resources for organising space: Binding and Bonding. Binding is the main focus of the thesis. It theorises the way people�s emotions can be affected by the organisation of three-dimensional space. Essentially, it explores the affectual disposition that exists between a person and the space that person occupies by focussing on how a space can be organised to make an occupant feel secure or insecure. Binding is complemented by Bonding. Bonding is concerned with the way the occupants of a space are positioned interpersonally to create solidarity. In cultural institutions like museums and galleries, Bonding is concerned with making visitors feel welcome and as though they belong, not just to the building and the physical environment, but to a community of like-minded people. Such feelings of belonging are also crucial to the long-term survival of the museum. Finally, in order to present a metafunctionally diversified grammar of space, the thesis moves beyond interpersonal meanings. It concludes by exploring the ways textual and ideational meanings can be organised in three-dimensional space.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The distinctive objects designed by Dr Maria Montessori as the centrepiece of her approach to pedagogy are the topic of this study. The Montessori approach to pedagogy, celebrating its centenary in 2007, continues to be used in classrooms throughout the world. Despite such widespread and enduring use, there has been little analysis of the Montessori objects to evaluate or understand their pedagogic impact. This study begins by outlining the provenance of the Montessori objects, reaching the conclusion that the tendency to interpret them from the perspective of the progressive education movement of the early twentieth century fails to provide insights into the developmental potential embodied in the objects. In order to appreciate that potential more fully, the study explores the design of the objects, specifically, the way in which the semiotic qualities embodied in their design orient children to the meanings of educational knowledge. A meta-analytic framework comprising three components is used to analyse the semiotic potential of the Montessori objects as educational artefacts. First, Vygotsky’s model of development is used to analyse the objects as external mediational means and to recognise the objects as complexes of signs materialising educational knowledge. In order to understand how the objects capture, in the form of concrete analogues, the linguistic meanings which construe educational knowledge, systemic functional linguistics, the second component of the framework, is used to achieve a rich and detailed social semiotic analysis of these relations, in particular, material and linguistic representations of abstract educational meanings. Finally, the pedagogic device, a central feature of Bernstein’s sociology of pedagogy, is used to analyse how the Montessori objects re-contextualise educational knowledge as developmental pedagogy. Particular attention is paid to the Montessori literacy pedagogy, in which the study of grammar plays a central role. The study reveals a central design principle which distinguishes the Montessori objects. This principle is the redundant representation of educational knowledge across multiple semiotic modes. Each representation holds constant the underlying meaning relations which construe quanta of educational knowledge, giving children the freedom to engage with this knowledge playfully, independently and successfully. The conclusion drawn from this study is that the design of the Montessori objects represents valuable educational potential which deserves continued investigation, as well as wider recognition and application. To initiate this process, the findings in this study may provide insights which can be used to develop tools for evaluating and enhancing the implementation of Montessori pedagogy in Montessori schools. The findings may also be used to adapt Montessori design principles for the benefit of educators working in non-Montessori contexts, in particular, those educators concerned with developing pedagogies which promote equitable access to educational knowledge.

Interpreting studies has so far tended to concentrate on simultaneous interpreting over the consecutive mode. Note-taking – an integral part of consecutive interpreting – has therefore received very little scholarly attention. As an indispensable tool in consecutive interpreting, note-taking plays an important role in supporting the interpreter’s memory. This study argues, however, that the interpreter's notes should not be viewed merely as a memory storage tool, but as a third visual language with its own logic and meaning-making practices that need interpreting. The way in which interpreters read their notes is explored here from the perspective of Social Semiotics for two reasons. Firstly, Social Semiotics conceptualises signs as meaning-making resources which are realized in specific communicative contexts to convey specific communicative intentions – unlike previous approaches to note-taking, that have tended to categorise signs as static constituents of relatively finite sign codes. Secondly, Social Semiotics not only accounts for how written language is used in notes, but also how the pictorial component of communication is encoded and interpreted through interpreter’s notes. The interpreter, as a viewer, has to make use of semiotic resources deployed in the notes in order to reconstruct the information given by the speaker and to produce the target speech for the audience. Therefore, the interpreters’ note-reading stage, based on the interaction between signs, can be conceptualised by reference to the concept of visual grammar. This study draws on visual grammar (Kress and van Leeuwen 2006) to analyse interpreter’s notes with a view to gaining a better understanding of how linguistic and visual semiotic resources are deployed in the process of note-taking. Insight into interpreters’ meaning-making practices and note-taking patterns is gained through an experimental study of the notes produced by nine qualified, practising conference interpreters, during a consecutive interpreting task from English into Chinese. The patterns identified in my data set are then compared with the established prescriptive approaches to note-taking training – which are typically based on relatively stable correspondences between note-taking signs/symbols and their meaning. The analysis focuses on certain elements of the source speech (concepts that can be noted down through the use of vectors, geometrical shapes, specific classificational structures, margin, and salience) as reflected in the notes. The way in which interpreters read their notes involves the interaction between two core modes, such as image and language, and a range of sub-modes, such as vectors, geometrical shapes, composition, framing, salience and calligraphy. The results of the analysis indicate that the way in which interpreters arrange the contents of their notes reflects the depth of the information processing effort required by the note-taking process. The findings suggest that the narrative structure in notes seems to assist interpreters in retrieving information at a micro, lexical level, whereas the visual structure would appear to assist interpreters in retrieving information at a macro, contextual level, e.g. in representing the hierarchies of information value, constructing the structure of rendition, and showing the importance of specific signs.

This dissertation is comprised of three teacher-researcher studies carried out with the intention of showing teachers how to move beyond the monolingual paradigm to build upon linguistic and cultural diversity in their everyday practice. The monolingual paradigm is linked to ideologies regarding proficiency in English as the principle means of academic success and citizenship. These studies challenge this traditional way of viewing education by treating learning "as an emerging property of whole persons' legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice" (Lave, 1991, p. 63), whether these are interest-based communities of practice beyond the classroom or bilingual communities of practice within the classroom. In order to recognize and explain this learning and inform teaching practices, I adopt a social semiotic approach in order to explore how meaning is constructed through language, and also through social interactions with all modern aspects of society, including gesture, image, performance, and music (Kress, 2012; van Leeuwen, 2005). I explore how these interactions allow youth to create diverse identities, beyond immigrant, refugee, limited English proficient, learner, and "other", in three educational arenas: 1) Outside of the classroom in interest-based communities of practice at school, 2) in a secondary dual-language content classroom, and 3) online in an educational transnational telecollaboration project. In all three studies I triangulate quantitative data of student participation and academic achievement with qualitative participant narratives and teacher-researcher observations. What results is insight into the impact of creating multimodal trajectories for youth to perform identities and knowledge as language users in schools, where historically messages of youth's social identities are ascribed in much more constricting ways (Harklau, 2003). Viewing these youth as language users, rather than learners, sends a message to both educators and youth that in education, identity formation trumps skills development, and this can lead to higher expectations, more engaging learning, and opportunities for youth to question race-language educational legacies (Malsbary, 2014; Wenger, 1998).

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilken effekt tillämpandet av auditiva intryck hade för elevers läsupplevelse. Detta undersöktes genom en experimentell studie som genomfördes tillsammans med elever i årskurs 3. Eleverna fick då, under observation, läsa en text med och utan ljud. Resultatet från observationerna användes sedan för att urskilja eventuella likheter och skillnader i elevernas läsning utifrån de olika tillvägagångssätten. I samband med dessa observationer genomfördes även intervjuer med några av de elever som deltog i undersökningen, för att därigenom skapa en tydligare bild av elevernas individuella upplevelser av läsningen samt för att kunna stärka, bekräfta eller förkasta de tendenser som framgick under observationerna. Resultatet visade tydliga tendenser av ett möjligt samband mellan elevernas läsupplevelse och tillämpandet av auditiva intryck under läsning, där majoriteten av eleverna fick bättre inlevelse och kunde koncentrera sig mer under läsning. / The purpose of this study was to investigate which effect the application of auditory impressions had for students’ reading experience. This was investigated by an experimental study conducted together with pupils from the third grade. Students were then, under observation, reading texts with and without sound. The results of the observations were then used to identify similarities and differences in the students’ reading abilities in the two different scenarios. In conjunction with these observations, interviews were conducted with some of the students who participated in the study in order to create a clearer picture of their individual experiences of reading, and to strengthen, confirm or reject the trends that emerged during the observations. The results clearly showed tendencies of a possible connection between the students' reading experience and the application of auditory impression in reading, where the majority of students had a better involvement and could concentrate more during reading.

The overall aim of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of mathematical subject language regarding three semiotic resources, written language, images and mathematical symbols. The theses also investigates high- and low-performingstudents encounter with mathematical subject language. Based on previous research on language and from a theoretical foundation based on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and social semiotics, four meaning dimensions – packing, precision, personification and presentation – were identified as central in academic language in general and in mathematical subject language. A didactically based reception theoretical perspective has been used for an analysis of high and low achieving students' encounter with the mathematical subject language. The thesis comprises three studies each examining the mathematical subject language in TIMSS 2011 from various angles. The analyzes were conducted on four content areas algebra, statistics, geometry and arithmetic in the Swedish version of the international study Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2011 (TIMSS). In a summary, the results showed that the mathematical subject language was used in different ways in the four content areas in TIMSS where colloquial and subject-specific forms of languages had different roles and were expressed in varying degrees by the written language, images and mathematical symbols. Thus each content area was expressed by its own register which means that is not sufficient to talk about mathematical subject language as one single language. The result shows that two forms of language, subject specific and everyday language were used parallel in the TIMSS material. The subject specific forms were most salient in algebra and geometry and the more everyday forms of language were more common in statistics and arithmetic. The results from the correlation analyses indicated that fewer students managed the encounter with tasks in algebra and geometry when they were expressed by subject specific language. In contrast, the results indicated that students were able handle the encounter with the more colloquial expressions of the content areas statistics and arithmetic.

The present study explores informal English language teaching and learning (ELTL) on the social media platform of Facebook. In contrast to a formal second/foreign language (L2/FL) education setting which is institutionally sponsored and highly structured, the context of informal ELTL under investigation is "recreational" (Chik, 2015) in the sense that it is unconstrained by institutional structures and largely driven by personal interests and goals. With the unprecedented success of social media and social networking sites (SNSs), this new form of learning and teaching can be found in a variety of languages and discourses across diverse digital landscapes. This study pays particular attention to the context of Thai speakers in three ELTL communities formed on Facebook Pages (FPs). The aim is to describe the participants' SNS-mediated L2 literacy practices as informed by Thai culture, beliefs, and values. This research project is grounded in the concept of new literacies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011) and the multimodal social semiotic approaches to analyzing digitally-mediated communication (Kress, 2010; Jewitt, 2009; Van Leeuwen, 2005). The analysis is also informed by the interpretative framework of positioning theory (Davies and Harré, 1990; Harré & van Langenhove, 1991) and sociolinguistic approaches to stances (Du Bois, 2007; Jaffe, 2009a). The integration of various theoretical and analytical models offers a holistic understanding of the participants' Facebook-based literacy practices from different perspectives. A mixed method approach that combines qualitative (e.g., multimodal analysis, online ethnographic observation) and quantitative (e.g., survey, user statistics) data analysis also helps describe the users’ semiotic productions and interactions from a diachronic point of view. While the purpose of the project is to examine contemporary L2 literacy engagement in an underexplored historical and cultural context, the analysis does not simply discuss the way Thai SNS users teach and/or learn English online. Rather, the findings also shed light on other important issues relating to digital literacies including multimodal production, identity construction, social relationship formation, stance-taking acts, and language ideology. These emerging literacy practices are presented in three separate but interrelated analysis chapters. They are comprised of: 1) the multimodal analysis of the interplay between Facebook affordances and the users' semiotic activities; 2) the investigation of the participants’ self- and other-positioning strategies; and 3) the discussion of the participants' stance-taking acts in various aspects relating to English language teaching, learning, and use in contemporary society. Altogether, the findings pinpoint the complex and interconnected relationships among digital media, self, community, and ideology as fundamental to meaningful learning experiences on SNSs. They also support the view of language learning as a social practice, which highlights the fact that meaning and knowledge are socially and culturally situated, shaped by contexts, and shared by members within particular communities (Gee, 2010; Lankshear & Knobel, 2011; Thorne, 2013). The dissertation, therefore, has implications for pedagogies and practice because it provides insights about how to design equitable learning materials and activities that address these contemporary social practices. Ultimately, the research suggests the use of a social media-enhanced ELTL site to develop meaningful interactions between learner, language, media, and community during the process of learning.

The aim of this study is to gain a greater understanding of how companies use the social media platform Instagram to represent and promote a place. More precisely, it is of interest to analyze the media production of luxury tourism and how communication tools are applied in order to affect the consumers’ perceptions and increase tourism. In this study we examine the city Dubai’s official tourism account Visit Dubai on Instagram. We focus our research on how the social actors are represented in both image and text, but also the environments in which they are located. In order to investigate how the marketing company Visit Dubai uses semiotic tools to portray its city as a luxury city, we apply a multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA). The theoretical framework is therefore based on research regarding social semiotics and place branding. To achieve the aim of the study, the following questions are formulated: In what ways are social actors and the environments in which they are visually represented? In what ways are social actors and the environments they are placed represented linguistically? In what ways are visual and linguistic resources combined to create performances of Dubai as a tourist destination in the material? What discourses are articulated in Visit Dubai´s material and which relevant discourses are excluded? The result of the analysis shows that all 18 images examined can be related to either luxury, power or status. It is clear that Visit Dubai via their Instagram account, encourages and reinforces the need to achieve high social status, financial status and also to promote luxury consumption.

Os processos de representação do conhecimento químico permeiam os mais diversos processos de ensino, aprendizagem e construção acadêmica da Química. Assim, nas múltiplas formas de se representarem fenômenos e nos mais diversos modos de se expressar sobre eles, foram caracterizadas diferentes mídias escritas, visuais e audiovisuais produzidas por alunos em uma sequência didática sobre o tema Transformações. As categorias que emergiram da análise dos materiais foram inspiradas na Gramática do Design Visual (GDV) proposta por Gunther Kress e Theo van Leeuwen e pela perspectiva da Semiótica Social de Michael Halliday. Assim, adota-se no trabalho o enfoque da abordagem multimodal da comunicação, segundo o qual diversos modos orquestrados (textos, imagens, gestos, sons e outros) potencializam a carga de significados de uma representação. Neste sentido, as análises desta Dissertação confirmam que as representações são mais informativas quando os diversos modos se complementam em objetos audiovisuais, propiciando características dinâmicas e conceituais mais amplas do que aquelas possíveis nas expressões escritas e em imagens estáticas. Na perspectiva do ensino de Química, os resultados deste trabalho permitem concluir que as abordagens multimodais, ao facilitarem a expressão das representações mentais dos alunos, podem ter grande importância para a ressignificação de múltiplos aspectos associados a elas e para incentivar a discussão coletiva das ideias, contribuindo para a melhoria da aprendizagem nesse campo do conhecimento. / Representation of the chemical knowledge underlies the processes of teaching and learning Chemistry as well as its development and communication. There are multiple forms of representing the chemical phenomena in the most diverse ways: written texts, visual and audiovisual media, drawings. In the present work, we developed a Teaching/Learning Sequence to High School students concerning Transformations in a multimodal approach. The analysis of the material produced by the students was done on the grounds of the Grammar of Visual Design (GDV) proposed by Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen and in the perspective of Social Semiotics. The categories that emerged from this analysis indicate that the multimodal approach facilitates the communication of the students because orchestrated modes of expression (texts, images, gestures, sounds and others) potentiate the meanings of a representation. In this sense, the results of this Dissertation confirm that the representations are more informative when the diverse modes complement each other in audiovisual objects, providing broader conceptual and dynamic characteristics than those possible in written expressions or in still images. From the perspective of teaching chemistry, the results of the multimodal approach implemented during this graduate work show that it is advantageous, by facilitating the expression of students´ mental representation. This aspect is essential for the re-signification of multiple elements associated with the representations as promotes the discussion of ideas, contributing to the improvement of learning in this field of knowledge.

Os processos de representação do conhecimento químico permeiam os mais diversos processos de ensino, aprendizagem e construção acadêmica da Química. Assim, nas múltiplas formas de se representarem fenômenos e nos mais diversos modos de se expressar sobre eles, foram caracterizadas diferentes mídias escritas, visuais e audiovisuais produzidas por alunos em uma sequência didática sobre o tema Transformações. As categorias que emergiram da análise dos materiais foram inspiradas na Gramática do Design Visual (GDV) proposta por Gunther Kress e Theo van Leeuwen e pela perspectiva da Semiótica Social de Michael Halliday. Assim, adota-se no trabalho o enfoque da abordagem multimodal da comunicação, segundo o qual diversos modos orquestrados (textos, imagens, gestos, sons e outros) potencializam a carga de significados de uma representação. Neste sentido, as análises desta Dissertação confirmam que as representações são mais informativas quando os diversos modos se complementam em objetos audiovisuais, propiciando características dinâmicas e conceituais mais amplas do que aquelas possíveis nas expressões escritas e em imagens estáticas. Na perspectiva do ensino de Química, os resultados deste trabalho permitem concluir que as abordagens multimodais, ao facilitarem a expressão das representações mentais dos alunos, podem ter grande importância para a ressignificação de múltiplos aspectos associados a elas e para incentivar a discussão coletiva das ideias, contribuindo para a melhoria da aprendizagem nesse campo do conhecimento. / Representation of the chemical knowledge underlies the processes of teaching and learning Chemistry as well as its development and communication. There are multiple forms of representing the chemical phenomena in the most diverse ways: written texts, visual and audiovisual media, drawings. In the present work, we developed a Teaching/Learning Sequence to High School students concerning Transformations in a multimodal approach. The analysis of the material produced by the students was done on the grounds of the Grammar of Visual Design (GDV) proposed by Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen and in the perspective of Social Semiotics. The categories that emerged from this analysis indicate that the multimodal approach facilitates the communication of the students because orchestrated modes of expression (texts, images, gestures, sounds and others) potentiate the meanings of a representation. In this sense, the results of this Dissertation confirm that the representations are more informative when the diverse modes complement each other in audiovisual objects, providing broader conceptual and dynamic characteristics than those possible in written expressions or in still images. From the perspective of teaching chemistry, the results of the multimodal approach implemented during this graduate work show that it is advantageous, by facilitating the expression of students´ mental representation. This aspect is essential for the re-signification of multiple elements associated with the representations as promotes the discussion of ideas, contributing to the improvement of learning in this field of knowledge.