Topic: The Theory and Practice of Multimodal Discourse Analysis

Speaker: Feng Dezhen (Associate Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

Time: 14:30-16:00, June 28, 2022 (Tuesday)

Tencent Meeting: 838 924 185 (Meeting ID)

All faculty members and students are welcome to participate actively.

Speaker Introduction:

Feng Dezhen holds a Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore and is an associate professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of English and Communication at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is also the Deputy Director of the Center for Professional English Communication Research, with primary research interests in multimodal discourse analysis, communication studies, and language teaching. In recent years, he has published over 60 papers in such international (SSCI/A&HCI) journals as Journal of Pragmatics, Discourse and Communication, Pragmatics, Pragmatics and Society, and Visual Communication, as well as domestic journals like Foreign Languages, Contemporary Linguistics, Modern Foreign Languages, Foreign Language World, and Chinese Foreign Languages. He serves on the editorial boards of such journals as Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Multimodality and Society. He is currently leading or participating in over 10 projects funded by the state, Ministry of Education, Hong Kong government, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In 2016 and 2017, he received the College of Humanities Excellence Award (Research) from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Lecture Content:

In contemporary society, human communication behaviors and modes of information dissemination have undergone profound changes. Computers and mobile phone screens have largely replaced printed books while images, videos, and multimodal texts that combine graphics and text have replaced single linear texts. In terms of career development, whether in advertising, news media, or education, a deep understanding of images (such as PPT design) is indispensable. In this context, foreign language majors should not only study and research language but also master the meaning-making mechanisms of complex symbols, including images. This means that students should possess not only verbal literacy but also visual literacy. This lecture will introduce the basic theory of image analysis, known as visual grammar, and its application in various communication contexts. Through the analysis of numerous image examples, the audience will be made aware of the complexity of images and grasp the basic analysis methods. Additionally, the lecture will discuss the thinking processes involved in academic research and paper writing, including data collection, establishing analysis frameworks, qualitative and quantitative analyses, and the basic steps of results and discussion so that everyone can master visual grammar as a fundamental analytical tool to conduct related research