<p>The work in this thesis addresses design and development of multimodal dialogue recommender systems for the home context-of-use. In the design part, two investigations on multimodal recommendation dialogue interaction in the home context are reported on. The first study gives implications for the design of dialogue system interaction including personalization and a three-entity multimodal interaction model accommodating dialogue feedback in order to make the interaction more efficient and successful. In the second study a dialogue corpus of movie recommendation dialogues is collected and analyzed, providing a characterization of such dialogues. We identify three initiative types that need to be addressed in a recommender dialogue system implementation: system-driven preference requests, userdriven information requests, and preference volunteering. Through the process of dialogue distilling, a dialogue control strategy covering system-driven preference requests from the corpus is arrived at.</p><p>In the development part, an application-driven development process is adopted where reusable generic components evolve through the iterative and incremental refinement of dialogue systems. The Phase Graph Processor (PGP) design pattern is one such evolved component suggesting a phase-based control of dialogue systems. PGP is a generic and flexible micro architecture accommodating frequent change of requirements inherent of agile, evolutionary system development. As PGP has been used in a series of previous information-providing dialogue system projects, a standard phase graph has been established that covers the second initiative type; user-driven information requests. The phase graph is incrementally refined in order to provide user preference modeling, thus addressing the third initiative type, and multimodality as indicated by the user studies. In the iterative development of the multimodal recommender dialogue system MADFILM the phase graph is coupled with the dialogue control strategy in order to cater for the seamless integration of the three initiative types.</p> / Report code: LiU-TEK-LIC-2004:08.

This thesis explores how activities that young children are engaged in within the preschool environment, can be understood in terms of early language and literacy processes. The overall aim is to construct knowledge about young children’s spontaneous sign processes as well as meaning making and early literacy processes in preschool. A wider aim is to contribute to the theoretical understanding of young children’s multimodal use of language. More specifically, there is an interest to show how preschool educators describe and analyse young children’s literacy and how young children construct language in interaction with other children and technology. The overall theoretical view of is a social constructionist perspective of language and knowledge. Young childrens’ early literacy is seen from Early Childhood Literacy and multimodal views. The results are presented in four studies that together construct knowledge about the overall aim. The first two studies, based on focus groups, give insight into preschool educators’ views, and professional language about young children’s literacy. Young children’s interactions with each other and an interactive board (IWB), were then explored by video recordings in the third and fourth studies. The interactions are discussed in relation to sign- and meaning making, imagination and creativity. The professional language of Swedish preschool educators is eventually discussed as a dialogism of earlier theoretical and leading voices. The use of concepts such as bodily alliterations and pictographic writing are proposed as ways to expand the theoretical approach to young children’s literacy processes in preschool. By observing childrens interactions and view their bodily activities and their use of resources as doing literacy- and language their literacy could be challenged in preschools in its own right, and seen as literacy education.

This dissertation focuses on minoritized youth digital literacy practice and participation, drawing on an 8-month video ethnography in a 6th grade language arts classroom with primarily bilingual Mexican-American students in a Southwestern public middle school. The case study utilized ethnographic and video analysis methods to examine interactions through, with, and around laptops in a one-to-one laptop classroom. Multiple simultaneous videos of student onscreen activity and webcams paired with a tripod-mounted camera captured whole class and small group interactions. Students, sometimes in different classrooms, were captured communicating online while interacting with their peers around them. Interview data with individuals and small groups focus on out of school digital media use and involvement in participatory cultures. From the large corpus of data, a few literacy events were picked out to represent broader trends among students. I argue that informal digital literacy practices of one group of girls playing a fashion themed massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) were more complex than formal, assigned practice. Like many of their more affluent peers at other schools, the girls harnessed the affordances of digital media to connect with interest-driven online/offline communities, whereas their classmates generally did not connect deeply with participatory online cultures. In doing so, the focus peer group co-constructed a classroom underlife (Goffman, 1961) that simultaneously created space for their sub rosa (Gilmore, 1986) digital literacy practices while resisting without disrupting the official curriculum or their performance as successful students. I conclude that designers of learning environments, teachers included, can foster literacy development by utilizing technology to draw flexibly on student digital funds of knowledge (González et al., 2006) while providing a basis for broader social participation.

In this dissertation, I use arts-based inquiry, performance ethnography, and spatial rhetorics to analyze the role of play and relational literacies within multimodal community performance focused on the exploration of queer youth sexuality and gender expression. I ground my study in an analysis of the effects of neoliberalism on sexuality research, noting the ways in which the erasure of cultural politics, in concert with the risk-resilience binary through which queer youth are often framed, forecloses queer youth futures. In my study, I argue that play--as a rich, complex critical thinking practice--offers a way to understand queer community performance as a moment of critique that reimagines everyday spaces outside of oppressive cultural logics. Throughout my analyses, I propose and illustrate the value of sensate engagement as an embodied, performative rhetoric and research practice that opens up an awareness of the transformative potential of everyday play in the con/texts of multimodal community performance. Specifically, I argue that an embodied, multisensory engagement with multimodal performance can make recognizable--but not singularly knowable--the value of play as a critical, everyday practice for performing provisional, queer/ed utopian spaces of youth community.

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of a blog in the classroom. This paper describes why the teacher created the blog and how the blog is used by teachers and pupils in and outside the classroom. The study also describes teachers’ thoughts regarding future use of the blog. Seven primary school teachers were interviewed and the material was analysed using a multimodal design theoretical perspective on learning (Selander &amp; Kress 2010). The conclusion of the study was that the teachers created and designed blogs to give parents, pupils, relatives and others an opportunity to have an insight into the pupils’ school day. The blog is used mostly by teachers and pupils’ school work is published on the blog. The pupils in some classes use the blog to write weekly journals, make films and interviews that are published. Several teachers mention that publishing school work on the blog improves the quality of the school work. It seems that pupils try harder when the school work is published on the blog. Some teachers mention pupils’ age and their ability to write when discussing pupils posting work on the blog. The blog is though a multimodal way to communicate. It seems that the blog has the ability to support both pupils’ writing development and their competencies in multimodal communication. Regarding future use of the blog the teachers have many ideas and all teachers agree that pupils will be given the opportunity to use the blog more in the future. The ideas of future use can be related to the idea of the blog as a virtual third space, a link between home and school. In this third space pupils are able to use knowledge from home when carrying out school tasks.   Since there are few studies regarding blogs in the classroom and especially regarding younger pupils, this study has given a wider perspective regarding the use of blogs in the classroom.

RODRIGUES, Maria Coeli Saraiva. Tradução discursiva no anúncio publicitário de automóveis: permanências e mudanças do impresso ao digital. 2016. 142f. – Tese (Doutorado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística, Fortaleza (CE), 2016. / Submitted by Gustavo Daher (gdaherufc@hotmail.com) on 2017-01-26T12:23:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_tese_mcsrodrigues.pdf: 5436169 bytes, checksum: 35023b050d9865093f87776045662840 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-01-30T14:30:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_tese_mcsrodrigues.pdf: 5436169 bytes, checksum: 35023b050d9865093f87776045662840 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-30T14:30:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_tese_mcsrodrigues.pdf: 5436169 bytes, checksum: 35023b050d9865093f87776045662840 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016 / This research aims to characterize the factors that contributed to the transformation of multimodal aspects used in Brazilian cars advertisements, published in the pages of YAHOO and MSN sites, the transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. Our hypothesis allows us to think that, with the change of web 1.0 to web 2.0, were added new technological resources that led, over time, a multimodal reconfiguration of advertising car advertisements posted on sites such as YAHOO and MSN. Therefore, to achieve our goal, we will develop initially a discussion grounded in the theory of multimodality developed by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996). Then, to better understand the changes that have occurred throughout the history of that genre, we will construct on the concept of transmutation proposed by Bakhtin ([1929] 1997), studied by Araújo (2004; 2006) in his research on the chats and expanded in other categories by Zavam (2009); and the notion of rewriting, approached by Costa (2010) in his study on the re-elaboration of audiovisual genres in the era of transmedia. As regards the preparation of the corpus, we leave for the selection of 20 car advertisements in the second half of the 1990s and 40 advertisements of the 2000s from Ford and Chevrolet companies, because they were the first Brazilian car companies. / Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo caracterizar os fatores que contribuíram para as transformações dos aspectos multimodais utilizados em anúncios brasileiros de carros, veiculados nas páginas dos sites YAHOO e MSN, na transição da Web 1.0 para a Web 2.0. Nossa hipótese nos permite pensar que, com a mudança da web 1.0 para a web 2.0, foram agregados novos recursos tecnológicos que permitiram, com o passar do tempo, uma reconfiguração multimodal dos anúncios publicitários de carros publicados em sites, como o YAHOO e o MSN. Diante disso, para alcançarmos nosso objetivo, desenvolvemos, inicialmente, uma discussão alicerçada na teoria da multimodalidade, desenvolvida por Kress e Van Leeuwen (1996). Em seguida, para melhor compreendermos as mudanças ocorridas ao longo da história do gênero anúncio, tomaremos como base a noção de reelaboração proposta por Bakhtin ([1929] 1997), estudada por Araújo (2004; 2006; 2011) em suas pesquisas sobre gêneros digitais e ampliada em outras categorias por Zavam (2009), e estudada também por Costa (2010) em seu estudo sobre os gêneros audiovisuais na era da transmídia. Quanto à elaboração do corpus, partimos para a seleção de 20 anúncios de carros da segunda metade da década de 1990 e 40 anúncios da década de 2000 das empresas Ford, Chevrolet, por terem sido as primeiras empresas de carro do Brasil.

Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo geral defender o ato de jogar como processo de leitura, concebida como construção de sentido(s), da qual o jogador participa como coautor. Para realização dessa tarefa, sugerimos uma descrição do game como gênero discursivo hipermodal. Teorias da área do estudo de games foram articuladas a teorias da área de Letras, a fim de respaldar com coerência teórica os objetivos aqui pretendidos. O corpus a ser estudado compõe-se de uma transcrição de uma jogada completa do game Heavy Rain e de gravações de cenas fílmicas e controláveis do mesmo jogo. Nesta pesquisa, defendemos a atividade lúdica como um processo de leitura bastante enriquecedor, que exige do jogador uma postura ativa, na qual ele precisa concretizar habilidades diversas para dar conta de construir sentidos a partir da multiplicidade semiótica do game / This research aims to defend the general act of play as the reading process, conceived as the construction of meaning(s) from which the player participates as co-author. To perform this task, we suggest a description of the game as a speech genre hipermodal. Theories of the study area games have been articulated to the area of Humanities in order to endorse theoretical coherence with the objectives pursued here. The corpus to be studied consists of a transcript of a play full game Heavy Rain and records of film scenes and controllable same game. In this research, we advocate a ludic activity as a reading process very enlightening, which requires an active player, in which he must fulfill different skills to realize construct meaning from the multitude of semiotic game

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / Nesta pesquisa, analisamos a construÃÃo do ethos gay masculino no blog katylene.com, considerando os recursos multimodais mobilizados pelos usuÃrios do blog e a manifestaÃÃo de gÃrias gays que revelam traÃos orais da fala dos gays masculinos. Para alcanÃar nosso objetivo, desenvolvemos uma discussÃo alicerÃada no conceito de Ethos Discursivo, tomando-se como base os estudos de Maingueneau (1993; 1998; 2005; 2008) e Amossy (2005). Em seguida, discutimos sobre a teoria multimodal desenvolvida por Kress e Van Leeuwen (2006) e sobre o conceito de gÃria, realizado por Castro (1938), GuÃrios (1979), Preti (1982; 1983; 1984; 2000; 2001) e AraÃjo (2008). Quanto à elaboraÃÃo do corpus, partimos para a seleÃÃo de 22 posts coletados nas onze categorias de postagens presentes na primeira pÃgina do blog katylene.com. Na anÃlise dos dados, utilizamos o modelo trÃptico de dimensÃes do espaÃo visual, proposto por Kress e van Leeuwen (2006). Com base nesse modelo, foi possÃvel verificar que os dados extraÃdos do blog revelam uma alternÃncia de saliÃncia dos elementos multimodais que caracterizam cada um dos ethà formadores do ethos gay masculino. AlÃm disso, devido Ãs caracterÃsticas composicionais do blog, os dados apontaram para a necessidade da reconfiguraÃÃo do modelo trÃptico proposto por Kress e van Leuween (2006). Por sua vez, ao direcionarmos nossa lupa para composiÃÃo das gÃrias gays apresentadas no blog, verificamos que as estratÃgias de escrita fonÃtica nÃo evidenciam uma oposiÃÃo entre os ethà formadores do ethos gay masculino, visto que figuram em cada um dos ethÃ, conspirando a favor da construÃÃo desse ethos. / In this research, we analyze the construction of the male gay ethos in the blog katylene.com, considering the multimodal resources used by the blog user and the manifestations of gay slangs, which show elements of orality from male gays. To achieve our objective, we develop a discussion based on the concept of Discursive Ethos, grounded on studies as Maingueneau (1993; 1998; 2005; 2008) and Amossy (2005). In the sequence, we discuss Kress and van Leeuwenâs (2006) multimodal theory about the concept of slang, used by Castro (1938), GuÃrios (1979), Preti (1982; 1983; 1984; 2000; 2001) and AraÃjo (2008). Concerning the corpus collection, we selected 22 posts collected in the eleven post categories from the blog homepage katylene.com. In the data analysis, we make use of the triptych model of visual space dimensions, proposed by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006). Based on this model, it was possible to verify that data extracted from the blog show an salience interchange of the multimodal elements that characterize each one of the ethà that compose the male gay ethos. Besides that, due to the compositional characteristics of the blog, the data pointed out that the triptych model proposed by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) should be redesigned. When we proceed to the analysis of gay slangs composition presented in the blog, we verified that the strategies of phonetic writing are not an evidence of an opposition between the ethà that compose the male gay ethos. On the other hand, they are present in each one of the ethÃ, in favor of the construction of this ethos.

Dentro de uma abordagem pós-colonial acoplada a um embasamento teórico propiciado pela perspectiva da experiência e guiada por uma metodologia pautada pela Análise do Discurso, investiga-se criticamente o texto multimodal de autoria indígena. Para isso, adotase o conceito de interculturalidade e reconhece-se transculturação na forma de tradução cultural e hibridismo que ocorre no \"espaço intersticial\" da escola para índios no qual o texto multimodal de autoria indígena está inserido, com o intuito de desbancar a \"diferença colonial\". Parte-se do pressuposto de que narrativa é local privilegiado do conhecimento de um grupo social. A narrativa indígena vertida em escrita alfabética é estudada com o intuito de chegar-se a uma apreciação da temporalidade - tempo e espaço - que anima os construtos culturais desse grupo social. Surge, a partir da leitura crítica de narrativas indígenas, a evidência da centralidade que a experiência do corpo inserido em lugar (place) ocupa na episteme indígena. Lugar desbanca a soberania linear de tempo e espaço e implica processos complexos, não-lineares. Em posse de um entendimento dessa lugaridade, o passo seguinte é realizar uma análise crítica do texto multimodal - composto de texto alfabético e texto visual - tendo em vista a dinâmica intercultural encenada no encontro da oralidade com a escrita sobre a superfície do papel. Conclui-se que a cisão tempo-espaço e a cisão oral-escrita, firmemente imbricadas no senso comum que orienta as ações voltadas para o letramento indígena, tendem a uma eliminação da diferença e conseqüente homogeneização do discurso cultural, na contramão, portanto, do objetivo de preservação da cultura indígena tão propalado pelos atores envolvidos com a educação escolar indígena no Brasil. / Within a post-colonial approach associated to a theoretical support found in a phenomenological perspective and guided by a methodology based on Discourse Analysis, the indigenous multimodal text, a by-product of the intercultural dynamic found in the \"contact zone\" of the indigenous school, is here critically investigated in view of the concepts of cultural translation, hibridity and colonial difference. The assumption is that narrative is a privileged local of the knowledge of a social group. The indigenous narrative, translated into alphabetic writing, is studied with the aim of appreciating the temporality - time and space - that animates that social group\'s cultural constructs. From a critical reading of indigenous narratives rises the evidence of the centrality that the experience of the body inserted in place holds for the indigenous episteme. Place dislocates the linear overpowering of time over space and implicates complex, non-linear processes. Once an understanding of place as the organizing centre of indigenous narratives is achieved, the next stage is to carry out a critical interpretation of the multimodal text - compounded by alphabetic text side by side with visual text - from the perspective of the intercultural dynamic as it is played out in the convergence of orality and writing on the surface of the paper. The conclusion is that the time-space chasm and the oral-writing chasm, solidly imbricated in the discourse of common sense that underlies the actions taken in regard of indigenous literacy tend to efface difference and promote cultural homogeneization, counter, therefore, to the goal of preservation of indigenous cultures promoted by the actors involved with indigenous schooling in Brazil.

Esta pesquisa analisa a inter-relaÃÃo entre a linguagem verbal e a nÃo-verbal na construÃÃo da argumentaÃÃo do anÃncio. Para verificar esse entrelaÃamento entre as semioses verbal e visual, utilizamos duas teorias que concebem o ato de linguagem como um testemunho das prÃticas sociais e culturais de um grupo: a semiÃtica social (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2006; KRESS, 2010) com a multimodalidade e a semiolinguÃstica (CHARAUDEAU, 2008). Durante a pesquisa, executamos as seguintes etapas: anÃlise do dispositivo argumentativo (CHARAUDEAU, 2008) para investigar a realizaÃÃo da linguagem verbal e/ou visual em cada etapa do dispositivo; verificaÃÃo do significado interativo da composiÃÃo visual (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2006) e sua relaÃÃo com o propÃsito de convencer e seduzir o leitor; e, por Ãltimo, anÃlise do significado composicional (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2006) do texto publicitÃrio para verificar como o texto à estruturado, com o objetivo de construir a argumentaÃÃo do anÃncio. Para a anÃlise do objeto de estudo, constituÃmos uma amostra de 20 anÃncios de turismo do Cearà extraÃdos de revistas impressas especializadas em turismo e adotamos os procedimentos metodolÃgicos preconizados pelas teorias de base mencionadas (unimos as duas teorias) e pela metodologia da pesquisa cientÃfica. Os resultados da pesquisa comprovaram uma maior presenÃa da linguagem verbal na proposta do dispositivo argumentativo (CHARAUDEAU, 2008) e a importÃncia da imagem na etapa da persuasÃo do mesmo dispositivo. Na anÃlise do significado interativo dos elementos visuais, constatamos uma regularidade de imagens oferecidas como objetos de contemplaÃÃo a uma distÃncia social mediana e uma atitude de envolvimento com o leitor. No significado composicional dos anÃncios, notamos uma predominÃncia da composiÃÃo Ideal/Real trabalhando a promessa do produto no plano do Ideal e a possibilidade de sua realizaÃÃo no Real. Jà na saliÃncia, encontramos as imagens como os itens mais evidentes na amostra e no enquadre, observamos que os elementos do anÃncio estÃo conectados e integrados pelas linhas divisÃrias fracas e pela repetiÃÃo de cores e formas. Por fim, os dados revelam que o entrelaÃamento entre as linguagens verbal e visual para a construÃÃo da argumentaÃÃo do texto ocorre de forma estrategicamente planejada em todo o anÃncio, com o propÃsito de valer-se dos benefÃcios significativos de cada semiose e da junÃÃo entre as linguagens para o convencimento e seduÃÃo do pÃblico-alvo. / This research examines the relation between verbal and nonverbal argumentation in the construction of the advertisement. To verify the entanglement between the verbal and visual semiosis, we used two theories that conceive the act of language as a testimony of the social and cultural practices of a group: the social semiotics (Kress, Van Leeuwen, 2006; KRESS, 2010) along with multimodality and semiolinguistics (Charaudeau, 2008). The present research had the following steps: analysis of argumentative device (Charaudeau, 2008) to investigate the performance of verbal and/or visual at each stage of the device; verification of the interactive meanings of visual composition (KRESS, van Leeuwen, 2006) and its relation to the purpose of convincing and seducing the reader; and finally, the meaning of composition analysis (Kress, Van Leeuwen, 2006) of the advertising text to see how the text is structured in order to build the argument of the advertisement. For the analysis of the study subject, we formed a sample of 20 ads of tourism in Cearà extracted from printed magazines specialized in tourism and chose the methodological procedures advocated by the theories mentioned (we united the two theories) and by the methodology of scientific research. The survey results showed greater presence of verbal language in the proposition of the device argumentative (Charaudeau, 2008) and the importance of image in the persuasion stage of the same device. The analysis of the interactive meaning of the visual elements, we found a regularity of images offered as objects of contemplation from a social distance social and an attitude of engagement with the reader. In the meaning of the composition of the ads, we noticed a predominance of the composition Ideal/Real working the promise of the product in terms of ideal and the possibility of its realization in the Real. About salience, we found the pictures as the most evident items in the sample and in the frame, we observed that the elements of the ad are connected and integrated by weak dividing lines and the repetition of colors and shapes. Finally, the data shows that entanglement between the verbal and visual languages for the construction of argumentation in the text occurs in a strategically planned around the advertisement, in order to take advantage of the significant benefits of each semiosis and the junction between the language for persuasion and seduction of the audience.