Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / There is increasing awareness among linguists that discourse analysis inevitably involves analyses of meanings arising from the combination of multiple modes of communication. The evolving multimodal pedagogic environment for teaching English as a foreign language (henceforth EFL), among other communicative contexts, calls for a social, semiotic, and linguistic explanation. Situated within the theoretical landscape of social semiotics and in the pedagogic context of EFL education, the present study aims to elucidate how linguistic and visual semiotic resources are co-deployed to construe interpersonal meaning in multimodal textbooks. The data drawn upon are eighteen EFL textbooks for primary and secondary schooling, published by People’s Education Press between 2002 and 2006. The research design consists of three complementary sub-studies. First, it investigates the ways in which the semantic regions of ENGAGEMENT and GRADUATION can be modelled in multimodal texts, with special reference to the interplay of voices in textbook discourse. The second sub-study analyzes how verbal and visual semiotic resources are co-deployed to construe the ‘emotion and attitude’ goal highlighted in curriculum standards, with a particular focus on verbiage-image relations. Third, it extends the linguistic concept ‘modality’ to multimodal discourse, exploring coding orientation in texts for different educational contexts and between different constituent genres. The main findings of this thesis are as follows: (1) A range of multimodal resources (i.e. labelling, dialogue balloon, jointly-constructed text, illustration and highlighting) are identified as enabling editor voice to negotiate meanings with reader voice and character voice. It is found that the way in which an ENGAGEMENT value can be scaled is strongly associated with the intrinsic property of the given multimodal resource. The interaction between multiple voices is closely related to contact, social distance, and point of view. (2) It is shown that images play an essential role in realizing attitudinal meanings. Together with verbal APPRAISAL resources, visual semiotic features work to position the readers in ways that align them to set pedagogic goals, guiding them in completing jointly-constructed texts. Moreover, an attitudinal shift from an emotional release to a more institutionalized type of evaluation can be identified as students advance through the school years. (3) It is argued that what counts as real in multimodal texts is socially defined and specific to a given communicative context. The nature of pedagogic discourse should be taken into account when visual displays are produced for pedagogic materials. The implications of this study include both theoretical and pedagogic aspects。Theoretically it adapts and extends APPRAISAL analysis to multimodal discourse, exploring the intersemiotic complementarity and co-instantiation in construing global evaluative stance. This semiotic exploration, in return, suggests ways in which discourse analysis may help textbook users better understand and interpret the multimodal features. With the affordances as well as limitations of semiotic resources made explicit, we may have one step further towards a comprehensive and critical understanding of multimodal construal of interpersonal meaning in pedagogic materials.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / There is increasing awareness among linguists that discourse analysis inevitably involves analyses of meanings arising from the combination of multiple modes of communication. The evolving multimodal pedagogic environment for teaching English as a foreign language (henceforth EFL), among other communicative contexts, calls for a social, semiotic, and linguistic explanation. Situated within the theoretical landscape of social semiotics and in the pedagogic context of EFL education, the present study aims to elucidate how linguistic and visual semiotic resources are co-deployed to construe interpersonal meaning in multimodal textbooks. The data drawn upon are eighteen EFL textbooks for primary and secondary schooling, published by People’s Education Press between 2002 and 2006. The research design consists of three complementary sub-studies. First, it investigates the ways in which the semantic regions of ENGAGEMENT and GRADUATION can be modelled in multimodal texts, with special reference to the interplay of voices in textbook discourse. The second sub-study analyzes how verbal and visual semiotic resources are co-deployed to construe the ‘emotion and attitude’ goal highlighted in curriculum standards, with a particular focus on verbiage-image relations. Third, it extends the linguistic concept ‘modality’ to multimodal discourse, exploring coding orientation in texts for different educational contexts and between different constituent genres. The main findings of this thesis are as follows: (1) A range of multimodal resources (i.e. labelling, dialogue balloon, jointly-constructed text, illustration and highlighting) are identified as enabling editor voice to negotiate meanings with reader voice and character voice. It is found that the way in which an ENGAGEMENT value can be scaled is strongly associated with the intrinsic property of the given multimodal resource. The interaction between multiple voices is closely related to contact, social distance, and point of view. (2) It is shown that images play an essential role in realizing attitudinal meanings. Together with verbal APPRAISAL resources, visual semiotic features work to position the readers in ways that align them to set pedagogic goals, guiding them in completing jointly-constructed texts. Moreover, an attitudinal shift from an emotional release to a more institutionalized type of evaluation can be identified as students advance through the school years. (3) It is argued that what counts as real in multimodal texts is socially defined and specific to a given communicative context. The nature of pedagogic discourse should be taken into account when visual displays are produced for pedagogic materials. The implications of this study include both theoretical and pedagogic aspects。Theoretically it adapts and extends APPRAISAL analysis to multimodal discourse, exploring the intersemiotic complementarity and co-instantiation in construing global evaluative stance. This semiotic exploration, in return, suggests ways in which discourse analysis may help textbook users better understand and interpret the multimodal features. With the affordances as well as limitations of semiotic resources made explicit, we may have one step further towards a comprehensive and critical understanding of multimodal construal of interpersonal meaning in pedagogic materials.

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In communicative and task-based classrooms learners spend much of their time in interactions with one another, and it is through the practices of small-group and pair work that many learners experience language education. The present study aims to shed light on what learners do when engaged in these small-group interactions in Japanese university EFL classrooms. In particular, the study aims to shed light on the relationship between identities, interaction practices and potentials for learning. One of the motivations for doing this project is that, while much research has investigated teacher-student interactions, less attention has been paid to peer interactions in the classroom, and our understandings of learners' interactions with one another are arguably less developed than our understandings of their interactions with the teacher. The findings of this study should be of interest to practicing teachers who wish to gain insights into how learners in small groups organize their classroom practices, as well as researchers investigating classroom interaction. Analysing two groups of 15 participants over one university semester, the approach that I adopted was informed by the methodological framework of Multimodal Interaction Analysis, which combines moment-by-moment analysis of interactions with an ethnographic approach to data collection. The interaction analysis also made use of concepts and tools from Conversation Analysis. This allowed me to come to understandings not only about the structure of classrooms interactions, including turn-taking and repair practices, but also about the learners as social beings. The study found that participants often followed predictable turn-taking practices in small-group interactions, which gave the interactions a fairly 'monologic' character. However, it also found that, over the course of the semester, certain participants began to perform off-task personal conversations in English, which more resembled the sort of conversational talk found outside of the classroom. These conversations provided students with opportunities to negotiate meaning in more dialogic interactions in which they performed a wider range of actions, which also included some use of the L1. I argue that this personal talk can play an important role in the language classroom, and suggest that teachers may need to rethink attitudes to off-task talk and also to learners' use of the L1 in the classroom. This was a localized study of just two groups of learners, and further research would thus be needed to confirm how far we can generalize these findings. Furthermore, more research is needed to investigate whether or not the learning opportunities provided in off-task classroom conversations actually do lead to long-term learning.

Along with an increased online presence, as well as expanded trade agreement between EU countries, the Swedish online gambling market has been facilitated and made more accessible than ever before. As a consequence, this growing gambling market has also correlated with increased gambling-related health- and economical issues amongst Swedish gamblers. At the same time online gambling companies keep increasing their investments in external communication and marketing activities. In order to protect the public, the governmental initiative “Spelinspektionen” initiated the new law, spellagen (2018:1138), which from the 1st of January 2019 is supposed to regulate marketing from online gambling companies. Based on a multimodal critical discourse analysis, the purpose of this study is to examine how spellagen (2018:1138) has affected marketing strategies from three different gambling companies; Leovegas, Ninja Casino and No Account Casino. The analysis studies a material based on six movies before the introduction of spellagen, and six movies after the introduction. Four central discourses has been identified, called The Hero, Action, Escapism, and Alonetime. Based on these discourses, the analysis used different tools from a multimodal discourse analysis in order to distinguish the strategies upon which the hidden- or open message was communicated. The analysis found that the gambling companies regularly used Per Binde ́s motives for gambling in their commercials. At least three out of five motives were identified through identity-creating strategies and emotional strategies which could be connected to Bindes motives “chances of winning”, “the jackpot-dream” and “moodswings”. The most prominent strategy for all of the commercials was the use of symbols and representation, which allows the company to communicate hidden or subtle meanings through connotations the company know that their target group will make. This main strategy did not make any drastic changes after the introduction of spellagen (2018:1138). The same message was still communicated, but now more often through visual elements rather than linguistic ones. The conclusion pointed out that in order for spelinspektionen to protect Swedish gamblers, spellagen (2018:1138) must be more concrete and descriptive, so that no alternative interpretations can be made. Other measures for spelinspektionen to consider is the amount of gambling commercials which the Swedish public are exposed to today.

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.

This thesis aims at contributing to the research on academic conference paper presentations, particularly to the discussion sessions that follow them. The main purpose of this study is to explore the speaker's expression of evaluation in the discussion session of two specialised conference paper presentations in Linguistics and Chemistry from a multimodal approach. I set out to investigate evaluation in spoken academic discourse beyond the traditional linguistic approach to foreground the role of kinesics and paralanguage that co-occur with the linguistic expression of evaluation. To meet the objective of the thesis, the theoretical framework was embedded in techniques of genre analysis (Bhatia 1993, Swales 1990) and discourse analysis, including the theoretical orientations of systemic functional linguistics (Halliday 1978, 1985a), conversation analysis (Schegloff & Sack 1973), pragmatics (Brown & Levinson 1978, 1987), and multimodal discourse analysis (Kress & van Leeuwen 2001). This framework allowed me to identify the structure of the interaction, the rhetorical moves in which the interaction is organised, and finally the linguistic and multimodal expression of evaluation that articulates the rhetoric of the interaction.

This thesis explores two related purposes. First, it theoretically investigates how the broad literature on globalization is nested in debates concerning the nature of concepts such as space and territory. When doing so, it suggests that studies of globalization can be advanced by escaping territorialist understandings where the nation state is reproduced as a natural arena appropriate for studying all aspects of ‘the social’. The theoretical part of the thesis is used as a basis for articulating a framework for empirical studies that rest upon a conceptual grammar fashioned through a combination of so called assemblage thinking and governmentality analysis. This framework is then put to work as the second, empirical, purpose of the thesis is pursued. More precisely this means that the governance of Swedish regional development is analyzed as an assemblage of discourses, practices and subjects where (re)production of globalization occurs. The (re)production of globalization is studied in three interrelated case studies, all based on a corpus of 81 documents pertaining to the governance of Swedish regional development. By paying attention to how power operates in terms of political rationalities, governmental technologies and the production of social actors, the thesis shows how notions of a perpetual and omnipresent global competition marks the assemblage with particularly salient modes of rationale. Specifically, entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity are represented as the primary means for becoming competitive in the age of globalization, and it is shown here how this have inclusionary and exclusionary effects in terms of desired social actors throughout Swedish regions. The thesis then ends with a concluding chapter where the current regimes of regional development are identified as complex forms of neoliberal rule with far reaching effects for democratic principles and practices. / In an age often understood as globalized, questions of space and territory are pushed to the forefront of political rule. This thesis explores how contemporary regimes of governing are not only practices of ‘state craft’, but also ‘space craft’ as power operates in relation to perpetual and encompassing notions of global competition among states, regions and subjects. In the thesis a conceptual grammar based on so called assemblage thinking and governmentality studies is put forward in order to investigate how globalization is articulated as a problem for governing regional development in Sweden. It is shown how this is nested in specific political rationalities and governmental technologies that emerge in attempts to produce competitiveness. By approaching the governance of regional development as an assemblage, a vibrant junction of discourses, practices and subjects, the thesis shows how political analysis can rid it self from notions of methodological nationalism, or in other words, a reification of the nation-state as the most appropriate scale for the study of social relations. When doing so it also highlights how complex forms of neoliberal rule lies at the heart of regional development, posing challenges for democratic principles and practices throughout the world.

When describing the company’s ethos and brand, the creative director of Swedish oat drink producer Oatly, John Schoolcraft, routinely declares the company’s intention to be not a brand, but a voice. As popular activist causes become utilized by companies and commodified for advertising use, identifying the ways in which communication is used to create meaning becomes a relevant skill. This thesis takes Schoolcraft’s statement as a basis of inquiry into the ways in which a company can present itself through language. Through a multimodal discourse analysis of three different semiotic materials produced by Oatly in Germany; the text of a 2019 petition, two 2019 advertising posters and a selection of product packaging collected during the summer of 2020, the thesis seeks to identify the relevant discourses evoked by Oatly, the ways in which Oatly is represented within those discourses and the way in which Oatly’s semiotic resources might serve to create a myth of Oatly, the voice, not the brand. The relevant discourses represented in the texts were sustainability, food consumption and production, government power and the empowerment of consumers. In these discourses Oatly positioned themselves (as well as the reader) as an agent of change, trying to affect progress. The discourses were often found to be connected to Oatly as a brand, but somewhat removed from Oatly’s products. A potential myth of Oatly as a leader in a political effort, might be substantiated within a small sphere of influence amongst consumers. As the research design relies largely on the author’s own interpretations of the material, none of the inferences from the analysis may be considered absolute or objectively true.

Background, Problem Statement and Gap - Political agendas informed by the negative impacts of increasing consumption (including fashion consumption) have allocated major parts of the responsibility to contribute to sustainable development to individual consumers. These agendas subsequently highlighted the need to provide more information, including through media and social media, about the negative impacts of fashion consumption - and consumption at large - to the consumer. Within our paper, this depicted approach, which is sometimes criticized by scholars, is conceptualized as ‘Consumer Responsibilization’ and viewed through the theoretical lens of discourse. However, despite consumers having increased access to information, products, and services related to sustainability and sustainable fashion (SF), changes of consumption habits are stagnant. This phenomenon, which is a serious problem hindering sustainable development, is widely defined as the knowledge-to-action-gap (KAG) within the literature. Scholars whose studies were limited to the offline world have criticized Consumer Responsibilization and have linked this approach to the KAG. There exists a gap in knowing which role the social media platform Instagram, plays for the Consumer Responsibilization approach in SF communications and it’s potential to expedite the KAG. Consumption from the perspective of culture is understood in this research as socially integrated, complex, and not always rational. Purpose - Our research purpose is to fill the identified gap and investigate the Consumer Responsibilization discourse on Instagram used within SF communications. We want to find out which actors are taking advantage of this discourse, the way it is represented and how users of Instagram react. We also investigate how the unique affordances of Instagram and its potential as a site for discourse affect the discourse in question and could influence the KAG. Method - Multimodal discourse is the theoretical perspective used to detect and understand the representation of consumer responsibilization on Instagram. Meaning that we, informed by literature, see discourse as not only communicated through entities of text but also through other semiotic elements called modes. We adopted a culturalist perspective situated within qualitative marketing research and followed passive and immersive netnographic procedures, whereby ethnographic approaches are adapted to observe social media data. Our ontological and epistemological framing of this research is within interpretivism and constructivism, as we acknowledge that our role as researchers involves constructing meaning through subjective analysis. Through exploratory and iterative understanding, we followed abductive logic and hermeneutic philosophy to produce knowledge. We followed exploratory and selective sampling to find publicly accessible Instagram posts that used SF-related hashtags and communicated Consumer Responsibilization. Triangulation developed through the quantification of follower counts, likes and comments, reinforced patterns in our findings. Additionally, each researcher contributed an immersion journal of rich descriptions of our experiences navigating Instagram as users. Through multimodality, all the different elements of a post were analyzed as contributors to the discourse (e.g., text, image, and engagement). An iterative combination of Descriptive coding, Initial coding and Axial coding were applied for analysis and synthesis of themes from patterns that emerged in the data (Saldaña, 2009). Findings - Consumer Responsibilization discourse is being represented by SF communications on Instagram by various actors, through posts following the logic of rationalization, sharing call to actions, compelling imagery and self-auditing tools (such as checklists or bullet-point step-by-step guides). We identified categories of prominent account types, namely individuals or groups of individuals with the status of Opinion Leaders, Brands/Businesses, NGOs / Activist Organizations, and News or Media accounts. The majority of collected posts address consumers with a call to action to contribute to SF, through multimodal elements, and they follow either an Information Approach, Activism / Charity Approach or Consumption Approach with their suggested actions. According to the literature, Instagram's unique affordances as a social media platform favors visual content, which is deemed more effective with persuasion and gaining attention among users (Laestadius, 2016; Russman and Svensson, 2016; Schroeder and Borgerson, 2005). While we found patterns of visual communication which are typical of an account type, there are other patterns of engagement from users observed throughout the data which indicate the tone and intended message of a post influences the public’s response. Discursive polyphony and confusion, terms coined by Markkula and Moisander (2012), seem to arise from varying conflicting messages and SF principles, highlighting the ambiguity of SF discourse. This can, according to Markkula and Moisander (2012), be a contributor to KAG. Our data, based on the responses found in the comments, hints towards users experiencing feelings of conflict and confusion when being confronted with the different SF discourses. Users typically respond to SF posts framed by Consumer Responsibilization and rationalization with resistance, defensiveness, justification, support, gratitude, criticism, or skepticism. While reacting to SF discourses, users also replicate and further contribute to them. Practical implications and Theoretical limitations - Our thesis contributes to research of cultural forces that contribute to KAG, by locating our observations from Instagram, which is a compelling site to observe SF discourse. Previous research in this field has been conducted offline, with primary input from consumers, whereas our research gathered deep cultural insight from secondary data posted publicly online. As such, our findings are limited by users who post publicly not being representative of the public who are not active on Instagram, are unfamiliar with SF discourses or have set their accounts to be private. Our findings contribute to cultural marketing and SF research and elaborates on criticisms of Consumer Responsibilization. In future campaigns, social media managers, marketing managers and policy makers must consider the complex, overlapping and contradicting messages with SF discourse, and how they contribute to KAG. Discursive confusion, few suggestions of manageable solutions, and limited scope of information are risks to worsening the KAG. Our findings indicate that consumers also require public support from businesses and governments to tackle collective systemic issues.