<p>Research shows that there is a literacy crisis in many South African primary schools, especially in the Foundation and Intermediate Phases (Grades 1 &ndash / &nbsp / ). The latest Annual National Assessments (ANA) results released in 2011 indicate that learners performed below the acceptable literacy levels as&nbsp / the national pass rate for Grade 3 learners was 35% and was 28% for Grade 6 learners (ANA, 2011:6). Research on literacy focuses on reading and&nbsp / there is little known about how young learners develop writing skills. This qualitative ethnographic study investigated how writing skills are developed in Grade 1 learners by looking at the writing processes as well as the teaching methods used by teachers to develop learners&rsquo / writing skills. The research also&nbsp / analyzed the texts produced by Grade 1 learners and the languages used in their written texts. The sample group in this research was the Grade 1 learners&nbsp / to a multicultural school in Cape Town. Data were collected by means of classroom observations, interviews and document analysis. The thematic&nbsp / arrative approach was used to analyze data and the analysis was informed by the Writing Developmental Continuum model and the Multimodal&nbsp / Approach to literacy in order to gain a better understanding of how young learners use language and other forms of writing such as visuals and gestures to&nbsp / onstruct and convey meaning.&nbsp / The findings of this research show that Grade 1 learners make use of semiotic resources including the language(s)&nbsp / &nbsp / &nbsp / available in their immediate context to create multimodal texts that incorporate both visual and written features. This shows that young learners represent&nbsp / their world experiences through interpersonal and experiential meanings in language(s) exposed to them. The teacher has a big role to play in developing&nbsp / learners&rsquo / writing skills and has to employ a variety of pedagogical strategies that support learners to move through the different writing phases before they develop into early writers. The study concludes that writing is not a linear process but it is a gradual process which depends on a variety of resources and&nbsp / factors which build on learners&rsquo / prior experiences and creativity.</p>

This thesis focuses on how different semiotic resources, such as spoken and written texts, artefacts and activities interact with classroom design and classroom communication in three school subjects in Swedish secondary school: Home and Consumer Studies, Biology and Chemistry. The research process has been concerned with the affordances that are created through different semiotic resources in classroom design and in classroom communication in the three school subjects, focusing on academic language and student participation. The study used an ethnographic approach, employing multiple methods for material production and analysis. Video and audio recordings formed the foundation for analysis. Material production also includes field notes, photographs and interviews with teachers and students. The research draws on sociocultural theory using a three-legged theoretical framework based in sociocultural theory. Basil Bernstein’s sociological theories were used as an overarching theory for understanding the results. The sociosemiotic theories of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Social Semiotic Multimodality were adopted for analyzing classroom design and classroom communication. This study shows that classroom design and classroom communication are tied together. Classroom design presents affordances for a subject’s ideational and interpersonal meaning. These affordances are reproduced in classroom communication. In classrooms with subject-focused design, classroom communication is school-focused. Learning is segmented without connection between school subjects or other contexts. In one classroom, designed to create relevance for both school and everyday knowledge, communication is both school-focused and also creates relevance for students’ use of the contents in other contexts. Learning in this classroom is cumulative and students’ participation and meaning-making is integrated in teaching and design. This study also shows how different semiotic resources influence teacher’s and students’ linguistic choices. Vertical discourse, i.e. abstract and distant academic language, is realised in written texts such as text books and whiteboard texts. Few other artefacts introduce and encourage participants’ vertical discourse. Teacher and student communication realises mainly horizontal discourse, i.e. context embedded everyday language. Classroom communication provides few opportunities for students to appropriate academic language through semantic waves, as academic language is only unpacked into everyday language and not repacked into academic language.

I denna studie har jag genom att observera mig själv utforskat hur jag som blivande musiklärare undervisar vuxna, som har funktionsnedsättningar, i ensemble. Syftet har varit att undersöka vilka semiotiska resurser jag använder mig av då jag undervisar, hur de används och hur de förändras under arbetets gång. Som metod har jag använt mig av videoinspelning och kompletterande loggboksanteckningar. Ensemblegruppen bestod av ca tio vuxna med funktionsnedsättningar och två till fem lärare som vanligtvis arbetar med gruppen. Tillsammans hade vi fyra lektioner där jag undervisade i sång, instrument och ensemblespel. Resultatet presenteras med hjälp av följande teman: Lektion 1, Lektion 2 &amp; 3 och Lektion 4. Vilka resurser jag använder mig av och hur dessa används beror i dessa fall främst på vilka instrument gruppen spelar. Resultatet diskuteras därefter utifrån vilka förutsättningar jag haft, det multimodala perspektivet och tidigare forskning. / In this study I have, by observing myself, analysed how I as a future music teacher educates adults with learning disabilities in ensemble situations. The purpose has been to study which semiotic resources I use during classes, how they are being used and in which way they are changing as the lessons progresses. My method has been video recordings and supplementing logbook notes. The ensemble group consisted of approximately ten adults with learning disabilities and two to five teachers who usually work with the group. Together we had four lessons in which I taught them about singing, instruments and playing in ensemble. In the result I have used the following themes: Lesson 1, Lesson 2 &amp; 3 and Lesson 4. Which resources I use and how they are being used depends in these cases foremost on which instruments the group are playing. The result is discussed subsequently based on preconditions, the multimodal perspective as well as previous research.

This thesis draws on a video ethnography of music activities in a preschool setting in Sweden. It focuses on the participants’ co-construction of music activities and on their use of semiotic and material resources to constitute and sustain these activities. The videos document musicking (Small, 1998), that is, events involving a series of musical activities: work with instruments, dancing and movements, singing and listening. The data were collected during one year and includes 24 hours of video films (altogether 30 musicking events). The participants in the study are 1-3 years old children and their music pedagogues (preschool staff members who worked in the preschool on a daily basis). In terms of theoretical influence, the study is inspired by conversation analysis (Sacks, 1992), linguistic anthropology and work on aesthetic processes (Duranti &amp; Black, 2012; Sawyer, 1997; 2003), as well as sociocultural theorizing (Lave, 1996; Rogoff, 1995; Wenger, 1998). The findings show that the individual young children (2-year-olds) engage in musicking, and that they also initiative various novel activities: such as conducting, dancing, singing, and exploring instruments. In these activities, mobility in the room is essential for the children`s access to instruments and other artifacts and for their possibility to participate in specific activities. The musicking events evolve as multimodal events, where different participation strategies are allowed and creative improvisations involve both musical and extra-musical actions. But a major finding is that the music pedagogues’ responsive uptake and creative improvisations are critical for the individual children`s ability to participate in specific activities and for bringing together the individual child and the group in collaborative musicking. / Forskarskolan: Globalisering, literacy och utforskande lärprocesser: Förskolebarns språk, läsande, skrivande och matematiserande (GUL).

Magister Educationis - MEd / Research shows that there is a literacy crisis in many South African primary schools, especially in the Foundation and Intermediate Phases (Grades 1 – ). The latest Annual National Assessments (ANA) results released in 2011 indicate that learners performed below the acceptable literacy levels as the national pass rate for Grade 3 learners was 35% and was 28% for Grade 6 learners (ANA, 2011:6). Research on literacy focuses on reading and there is little known about how young learners develop writing skills. This qualitative ethnographic study investigated how writing skills are developed in Grade 1 learners by looking at the writing processes as well as the teaching methods used by teachers to develop learners’ writing skills. The research also analyzed the texts produced by Grade 1 learners and the languages used in their written texts. The sample group in this research was the Grade 1 learners to a multicultural school in Cape Town. Data were collected by means of classroom observations, interviews and document analysis. The thematic arrative approach was used to analyze data and the analysis was informed by the Writing Developmental Continuum model and the Multimodal Approach to literacy in order to gain a better understanding of how young learners use language and other forms of writing such as visuals and gestures to onstruct and convey meaning. The findings of this research show that Grade 1 learners make use of semiotic resources including the language(s) available in their immediate context to create multimodal texts that incorporate both visual and written features. This shows that young learners represent their world experiences through interpersonal and experiential meanings in language(s) exposed to them. The teacher has a big role to play in developing learners’ writing skills and has to employ a variety of pedagogical strategies that support learners to move through the different writing phases before they develop into early writers. The study concludes that writing is not a linear process but it is a gradual process which depends on a variety of resources and factors which build on learners’ prior experiences and creativity. / South Africa

Syftet med detta självständiga arbete är att utifrån ett designteoretiskt perspektiv, utforska hur jag med olika resursers hjälp designar mina mentala förberedelser inför framträdanden eller provspelningar. Forskningsfrågorna lyder: Vilka semiotiska resurser använder jag när jag mentalt tränar inför musikaliska framträdanden och provspelningar? På vilka sätt transformeras mina tankar, känslor och mitt beteende under en period av mental träning? Studien baseras på självobservationer i form av loggboksskrivande och videoobservation av den mentala lärandeprocessen som pågått under tre månaders tid. Analysen av lärandeprocessen redovisas i resultatet i två teman, Stöd och resurser i min mentala träning som visar vilka hjälpmedel jag använt mig av i min mentala träning och Transformationer som visar hur mina tankar, känslor och mitt beteende har förändrats under lärandeprocessen. Avslutningsvis diskuteras det analyserade resultatet i relation till litteratur som utgår från det designteoretiska perspektivet och tidigare forskning inom området. / The purpose with this self-observation study, based on the design theory, is to explore how my mental preparations in front of a concert or audition is designed with help of different resources. The research questions read as follows: Which semiotic resources do I use during mental training before a concert or audition? How do my thoughts, feelings and behaviour transforms during a period of mental training? The study is based on self-observations consisting of logbook writing and video recordings during a three-month period of mental training. The result of the analysis is presented in two different themes, Support and resources in mental training which describes the different resources in my mental training and how the resources cooperate with each other. The other theme Transformations shows how my thoughts, feelings and behaviour changes and transforms during my process. Finally, I discuss the result of the analysis in relation to literature based on the design theoretical perspective and previous research in the field of mental training.

Dansundervisning som förkroppsligad multimodal praktik En studie om kommunikation och interaktion i dansundervisning. ABSTRACT Dance teaching as embodied multimodal practice A study about communication and interaction in dance teaching.   The overall aim of this study is to increase the knowledge about how communication and interaction between students and teachers is manifested in dance teaching and learning, with a special focus on the students’ agency and how that can be assumed to affect their conditions for learning. In a dance class, teachers and students engage in the dance practice by using different semiotic modes of communication; body movements and gestures, touch, hearing, gaze, sound and speech. The teaching and learning situation can be described as a complex multimodal configuration of signs in different time and space based modes. The object of study is to examine students’ and teachers’ interaction and communication in detail, with a focus on how different semiotic resources are being used and how that affects the design of the dance class. The data consist of video recordings of dance classes in dance college education and more specifically the daily dance practice, the dance class. Video recordings were made in jazz dance, contemporary dance and ballet classes. These genres are, in various degrees, bearers of a tradition of dance teaching where students repeat the movement material that the teacher demonstrates. I base my choice on the fact that this is a common way of teaching dance both in dance college education and elsewhere.  By using a multimodal analysis, different modes of communication and their interplay were brought into focus. Employing the perspective of a social semiotic multimodal theory the analyzed data were interpreted and discussed.  The result has shown the importance of the body in communication and interaction between students and teachers in dance teaching and learning. Communication and interaction involve and combine different embodied semiotic resources. Signs are being made, interpreted and remade/redesigned with, through and in the body. The way the teachers use their voices in combination with body movements and gestures in instructions and feedback, makes these resources appear hierarchically more important than the verbal language. The result shows that the students make rhetoric choices in their learning processes. It is shown by the way they choose to attend to what the teacher communicates. The students’ choices in responding are mostly by showing how they understand. Further the results show that the teacher is responsible for the overall design of the dance class. The study material consists mostly of movements that the teacher has created in relation to a genre’s esthetics, the teacher chooses what aspects to focus on and how time is disposed. The students’ agency seems limited in terms of how they can affect and influence the design of the dance class. This means that the knowledge that is produced to a great extent is dependent on the teacher’s choices, her esthetic values and her own knowledge. From a didactic point of view this needs to be addressed in dance education in terms of how dance classes are designed, it concerns questions of esthetics, values and power. Keywords: dance teaching and learning, communication, interaction, multimodality, semiotic resource, design

The aim of this investigation is to describe assessment as a meaning-making process in individual supervision of students in higher education of the aesthetic field. The qualitative analyses focus on how assessment is expressed within the supervision, in relation to the artistic professional field. The study was conducted within a multimodal socio-semiotic perspective. Sadler’s notion of quality and Bourdieu’s field concept of habitus, contributes to the social practice within the professional field, and in the full analysis of the empirical material. The case study examines assessment in an authentic environment. The data consists of video recordings from ten supervisions that took place in two different courses at two different colleges. The video recordings were transcribed through a multimodal framework and focused on the teachers’ and student’s speech, body movements, gazes and gestures during the sessions. Four selected supervision sessions were analysed based on the research questions and on the theoretical framework. The analyses revealed that assessment in higher education of the aesthetic field can be expressed as a process whereby the quality is related to the professional field. The students, as well as their teachers, are immersed in relationships, traditions and institutions that shape their artistic choices and judgments. The results indicate that students' meaning-making is linked to their previous experience in the artistic field. Teachers’ expectations of this experience have crucial implications for how the supervision sessions are shaped and designed. The shift of focus in the supervisions goes from the fulfilment of goals stated in the curriculum, to the meaning making, values, and perspectives that are recognized within the field of the arts. The study underlines the importance of conceptualization of the artistic processes. The overall results confirm previous studies showing that instruction and supervision in higher education of the aesthetic field develops in relation to the teacher's authority, expertise and in relation to students' independence.

I det digitala samhället har reklamens utveckling och användning genomgått förändringar, där den visuella reklamen i sociala medier har blivit den mest framträdande formen av reklam. En särskilt kontroversiell typ av reklam är alkoholreklam, eftersom den kan påverka människor till ökad alkoholkonsumtion, vilket kan få negativa konsekvenser. För att reglera marknadsföringen av alkoholdrycker har Sverige infört restriktioner genom alkohollagen, vilket har skapat utmaningar för svenska företag. Som en följd av dessa restriktioner har företag börjat använda visuella resurser för att skicka implicita eller dolda meddelanden till sina målgrupper. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur svenska alkoholföretag använder semiotiska resurser för att skapa och förmedla dessa dolda meddelanden i sin marknadsföring på sociala medier. En fallstudie av Hernö Gin genomförs, där fokus ligger på semiotisk analys för att belysa vilka strategier som används för att marknadsföra alkohol i en social kontext där marknadsföringen av alkohol är begränsad. Genom att besvara dessa frågor kommer uppsatsen att bidra till forskningsområdet inom reklam på sociala medier genom att belysa hur reklamen har utvecklats och skapat nya strategier för att väcka intresse hos mottagarna och samtidigt hantera de juridiska begränsningarna. Reklamens natur är ständigt föränderlig, och strategierna anpassas kontinuerligt i takt med framväxten av nya kanaler och trender. Den ökade digitaliseringen har gett företagen nya möjligheter att nå ut med sin reklam till olika målgrupper genom olika digitala kanaler. Sociala medier har blivit en dominerande plattform för reklam, och visuell reklam har blivit en viktig del av skapandet av intresseväckande och effektiv reklam. Genom att använda sociala medier kan företag samla in data och analysera exponeringen av sin reklam för att snabbt kunna anpassa sina marknadsföringsstrategier. Semiotiska resurser används genom både visuella och narrativa former såsom objekt, ordspråk och beskrivningar för att skapa indirekta meddelanden som riktas till mottagarna. Dessa resurser kan vara symboler eller tecken som har en inneboende betydelse eller associeras med specifika känslor eller värden. Genom att använda sådana resurser kan alkoholföretag kommunicera med sin målgrupp på ett subtilt sätt, trots de begränsningar som alkohollagen innebär. Genom att förstå dessa strategier kan forskningen inom reklam på sociala medier vidareutvecklas och ge insikt i hur reklambranschen anpassar sig till de juridiska restriktionerna och samtidigt skapar effektiva marknadsföringskampanjer. Det kan även vara värdefullt för beslutsfattare och reglerande myndigheter att få insikt i hur företagen försöker nå ut till konsumenterna trots de begränsningar som är på plats. Slutligen kan en ökad medvetenhet om dessa semiotiska strategier hjälpa konsumenter att vara mer kritiska mot marknadsföringsbudskap och fatta mer informerade val när det gäller alkoholkonsumtion. / In the digital society, the development and use of advertising have undergone changes, where visual advertising on social media has become the most prominent form of advertising. A particularly controversial type of advertising is alcohol advertising, as it can influence people to increase their alcohol consumption, which can have negative consequences. In order to regulate the marketing of alcoholic beverages, Sweden has introduced restrictions through the alcohol law, which has created challenges for Swedish companies. As a result of these restrictions, companies have started using visual resources to send implicit or hidden messages to their target audiences. The purpose of this essay is to examine how Swedish alcohol companies use semiotic resources to create and convey these hidden messages in their marketing on social media. A case study of Hernö Gin is conducted, with a focus on semiotic analysis to highlight the strategies used to market alcohol in a social context where alcohol marketing is limited. By addressing these questions, the essay will contribute to the research field of advertising on social media by illustrating how advertising has evolved and created new strategies to generate interest among recipients while also dealing with legal constraints. The nature of advertising is constantly changing, and strategies are continuously adapted with the emergence of new channels and trends. Increased digitalization has given companies new opportunities to reach different target groups through various digital channels. Social media has become a dominant platform for advertising, and visual advertising has become an important part of creating engaging and effective advertisements. By using social media, companies can gather data and analyse the exposure of their advertisements to quickly adapt their marketing strategies. Semiotic resources are used through both visual and narrative forms such as objects, proverbs, and descriptions to create indirect messages directed at recipients. These resources can be symbols or signs that have inherent meaning or are associated with specific emotions or values. By using such resources, alcohol companies can communicate with their target audience in a subtle way, despite the limitations imposed by the alcohol law. Understanding these strategies can advance research in advertising on social media and provide insight into how the advertising industry adapts to legal restrictions while creating effective marketing campaigns. It can also be valuable for decisionmakers and regulatory authorities to gain insight into how companies attempt to reach consumers despite the constraints in place. Lastly, increased awareness of these semiotic strategies can help consumers be more critical of marketing messages and make more informed choices regarding alcohol consumption.

This ethnographic study is located in the field of literary didactics, covering an intersection of the subjects of Swedish and theatre. It investigates construction of text understanding while its participants work with staging Molière’s The affected ladies (Les précieuses ridicules, 1659). Studies of classroom interaction connected to reading drama text are rare in the Swedish field of literary didactics. The main research interest is the participants’ use of interwoven semiotic resources, including spoken language, body, voice and various artifacts. Based on a general need to understand how Swedish students develop reading skills (related to decreasing results internationally) and a growing research interest in the field for embodied knowledge connected to literacy competencies the study sets out to answer the following questions: How do the participants construct text understanding using semiotic resources with a focus on: a) matching of repertoires b) in-role re-presentation c) negotiations. The first aspect draws on theories used in literary didactics including McCormick’s (1994) literary and general repertoires and Langer’s (1995) envisioning literature. The second aspect draws on aesthetic learning and embodied knowledge  (Molander, 1996; Saar, 2005) and theatre semiotics (Heed, 2002). The third aspect draws on sociocultural theory (Vygotskij, 1978; Säljö, 2014) and sociocultural theory applied in the field of drama and theatre (Davis, Clemson &amp; Ferholt, 2015). Seven upper secondary school students, a teacher of Swedish and a teacher of theatre were observed over a period of seven months, starting with the students’ first encounter with the drama text, lasting to the final performance of a one-hour theatre production. The researcher occasionally became participant in the creative process. Analyzed data include field notes, video and sound recordings. Major findings are that: a) Students continuously match their own repertoires with the repertoires of the drama text by references to popular culture, language and body expressions, thereby gradually constructing new understanding. b) By becoming co-creators of a fictional text in a process of aesthetic learning the students developed several perspectives on the literary text, which is one of the main goals in studies of literature in the subject of Swedish. c) The participants’ negotiations involving a number of semiotic resources showed a development of text understanding on an advanced level. It also showed knowing as something emerging out of social interaction where teachers play an essential role by providing aesthetic as well as traditional scaffolding. A central conclusion is that exploring ways of learning where various semiotic recourses are given focus in the process of shaping a final product, e.g. a theatre show, host potential for students’ development of text understanding. The potential for learning seems to relate to producing knowledge rather than reproducing. Verbal and physical expressions of text understanding form new understanding in an on-going spiral. A contribution of the study to the field is showing the potential of embodied knowledge in literary didactics without a master-servant relationship between school subjects. It is suggested that increased focus on embodied knowledge and aesthetic learning might help students to develop reading skills.