Using Web Quest as Teaching Resource

http://algernon08.tripod.com/index.html

The link above is a Literature Web Quest my course mate & I had done last semester for one of our Literature pedagogical module. The aim of this Web Quest is to get Secondary One Literature students to explore deep into the short story, "Flowers for Algernon", written by Daniel Keyes.

In this Web Quest, different groups of students get the chance to explore issues, like, the accuracy of the measure of people's I.Q. & personality using the I.Q. test & the Rorschach Test (a.k.a. the Inkblot test) respectively. Other students will get to explore more of the story's content as they are tasked to produce a trailer for this story. As a result, students are made to think about the ideologies embedded in tests meant to gauge different aspects of humans.

As students are engaging in their tasks, they are rendered to think analytically & critically with regard to the issue they have at hands. This is an engagement of informal knowledge, for students are working with contents of a short story. At the same time, systematic knowledge is also employed as links are given to them in relation to the task they have been assigned to. FOr instance, groups which specialise in the I.Q. test are given weblinks to know more about the making & functions of I.Q. tests. Through this, these students will get to know more about everything involving I.Q. tests, thereby, tapping deep into the systematic knowledge. Lastly, students will also tap into their transformative knowledge as they have to interact what they have learned & create a product (in this case, an I.Q. test).

Note how multimodality is utilised to a high extent in this webquest, as students not only work with new media (the Internet, video-recording, movie-making programs), they also need to work with the traditional materials, such as, writings, amongst others. Furthermore, there is an online discussion board for students to air their views & any contributions they might have regarding their assignments or the short story in general.

The development of Students' cognitive skills is palpable here.

The Employment of Music Videos as Teaching Material

This is what I suddenly thought of when I was thinking about signs, symbols, connotations, denotations, & what we've learnt about the DUSTY programme in our previous lessons of Multiliteracy.

As you watch this MTV, you'll see how some words are being emphasised by having them spelt out & shown in the MTV itself, like, "enjoy", "trust me", "race", & "stretch", amongst others. This actually creates salience for the point the persona is trying to make.

Besides that, we also see connotations in the MTV, such as the employment of flowers to connote "The power of beauty of your youth" as said by the persona, in this case, Baz Luhrmann. Also, the image of someone cutting up a picture of a heart shape is shown as Luhrmann says, "Don't be reckless with other people's heart."

In terms of dennotation, there is the depiction of someone standing on a weighing machine with the scale pointing at 20kg, as the persona says, "you're not as fat as you imagine". These are just some of the images utilised to symbolised some of the points the persona tries to make.

Additionally, note how colours are used at various stages of the song/rap, as there are times the images are black & white, while in others, the images are colourful.

In teaching, I think this resource can be considered when we want students to think about how certain concepts are represented through the various aspects of images & sound. Students can be asked why certain ideas are represented by certain images/sounds, & what would happened if the music is taken off. Teachers can also get students to think about the impact of the conveyance of message if the lines are not read, & sung instead.

Students can actually be divided into mini groups to work on different aspects, so that, we have them as "specialised groups" - one group will work on the usage of colours in the music video; the 2nd group can work on the images used; while the 3rd group can work on the audio aspect; and so on. Then there can be a "Gallery Walk" in which each mini-group will showcase their "specialisation".

Thereafter, teachers can get students to come together to discuss whether each of these elements work independently or interdependently. This will allow all groups to think critically & analytically on the functions of each element vis-a-vis the others. This can be done by getting students to remove one of the elements & see if the impact & conveyance of message is still apparent & effective to viewers of the music video.

Teaching Ballads in the English Classroom

For this entry on “Teaching multiliteracies in the English classroom”, I would like to highlight ballads sung by female singers. For the benefit of everyone, I shall provide the definition of “ballads” with the help of dictionary.com: a simple narrative poem of folk origin, composed in short stanzas and adapted for singing.

As we all know that youngsters nowadays listen to music much more than people of other ages, we can safely presume that they are highly likely exposed to songs with certain ideologies most of the time.

The issue of the ostensibility of an egalitarian society in terms of the genders has always been widely & actively debated by both genders over the decades. Some women have argued that men have been constantly perpetuating patriarchalism, thus, refusing to give equal rights to women. Whether this is accurate is not on focus in this entry. I, however, would like to argue that there are women out there who are actually exacerbating the current situation by reinforcing ideologies, specifically on how women may not be able to survive without men, or, that women are still deemed inferior to men in terms of social status.

With the above thesis, I would like to zoom into ballads sung by female singers. Let me take 3 ballads as examples:

1. “Lost Without You” by Delta Goodrem
2. “Midnight Train to Georgia” by Jasmine Trias
3. “All Around the World” by Coco Lee

Looking at the lyrics of the 1st ballad, “Lost Without You” sung by Delta Goodrem, one will see how the singer describes herself as being “stubborn”, “a little righteous and too proud”, & “never giving in”. Based on the aforesaid descriptions, we see that righteousness &”never giving in” (in other words, “persistence”), which are normally deemed as good qualities in an individual, are deemed as negative qualities in a woman, as there is a sense of self-deprecation from the singer since she mixes these qualities with other negative qualities, like, “stubborn” & “too proud”. In this sense, it seems as if women are not supposed to be righteous & persistent before men.

As we move into the chorus of the ballad, the singer further depicts herself as a weak individual as the lyrics go,

All I know is I’m lost without you
I’m not gonna lie
How am I gonna be strong without you
I need you by my side
If we ever said we’ll never be together
and we ended with goodbye
Don’t know what I’d do
I’m lost without you.

The singer then continues in the next stanza to reinforce her weakness,

I keep trying to find my way
but all I know is
I'm lost without you
I keep trying to face the day
Lost without you.

The 2 stanzas above tell readers how the singer is “lost” when her lover is not with her. She seems to have lost control in every aspect – physically, mentally, & emotionally – as the lyrics state that she doesn’t know how to be strong, & that she has problem trying to find her way. It seems as if she couldn’t think straight anymore, as the lyrics state, “all I know is I’m lost without you”. All in all, she is a total wreck with no sense of direction in her thinking, behaviour, & feeling. This shows how she cannot survive being alone.

The 2nd ballad, “Midnight Train to Georgia” performed by Jasmine Trias, talks about the departure of a man & how the woman would “rather live in his world than without him in [her own]”. Once again, we see how the woman is willing to sacrifice her own “world” just so she could be with the man she loves. It seems she is unable to get the man to be in her “world” if one is to think about it in this angle.

The last example, “All Around the World” sung by Coco Lee, talks about the singer being too busy to spend enough time with her lover due to her commitment as a singer, which requires her to travel constantly.

From some parts of the lyrics, one can gather that this woman can be considered to be possessing some power/influence, for she can be heard on the radio & seen on TV, as the lyrics state,

All around the world, Hear me on the radio
Catch me on a TV show

The assumption of her power/influence can be made, as one of the elements in deciding Forbes’ most power/influential celebrities is radio & TV exposure.

Nonetheless, despite this woman being one who holds certain degree of power/influence, she says things like, “Forever I'll be your girl”. From this, one sees that, firstly, she belongs to another person instead of herself; and secondly, the description of herself as a “girl” belittles her status as opposed to her lover's. Thus, we see how a woman like her, who possesses a certain amount of power, is still seen as someone else’s property and of an inferior status.

Having analysed the 3 ballads, let me touch on the 3 different knowledge which are to be employed for teachers to teach students to see the above ideology – informal knowledge, systematic knowledge, & transformative knowledge.

In terms of informal knowledge, teachers can get students to think of songs, which they know of, that talk about boy-girl relationships. As mentioned earlier, songs are part of the popular culture, & students are presumed to listen to a significant amount of pop music, thus, students should be familiar with this genre of text.

Next, systematic knowledge requires students to analyse the lyrics of the songs, as shown above, to suss out the ideology embedded in the songs. Students are expected to pick out words or phrases which provide evidence to any claim they make. In addition, students are also to think about the gender of the singer. The tune & melody of the song is also crucial in determining the mood of the singer’s voice. These are essential aspects to delve into.

Lastly, transformative knowledge will see students thinking of ways to challenge/resist the ideology that has been uncovered – in this case, the perpetuation of women’s inferiority by women. This can be done by generating songs which promote & celebrate women’s independence, & their ability to survive without the help of anyone. Songs like,

1. “I Belong To Me” by Jessica Simpson
2. “Independent Women” by Destiny’s Child
3. “Love Don’t Cost A Thing” by Jennifer Lopez
4. “Can’t Hold Us Down” & “Fighter” by Christina Aguilera

will give weights to contest the perpetuated ideology.

With such a focus of study going on, students will be rendered to think critically & analytically & realise the prevalence of the permeation of ideologies in an ostensibly entertaining text (songs). Furthermore, students will also get to see the various ways to counter these ideologies.

Motivating students to engage in such a study should not be an issue as pop music is one that students generally can relate to due to their frequent exposure to it, hence, its feasibility should not be deemed as hitting a rock with an egg.

Words may not be Playing the role as a Second Fiddle Afterall

The article, “Multimodality, ‘reading’ and literacy’, written by C. Lewitt seems to centre on the dwindling state of the mode, writing, from a vital “must-have” position in meaning creation during its days of glory to that of a “supporting role” now.

The above is made palpable as Lewitt made an observation of two students interacting with a multimodal text that teaches the students the scientific process of the transformation of ‘liquid to solid’. The students were apparently oblivious to the linguistic text (“liquid to solid) that was stated in the screen they were looking at, & they were clueless about what they seeing at the centre of the screen. In other words, they had no idea what they were looking at even when there were linguistic texts that states ‘liquid to solid’ at one part of the screen. This, Lewitt comments, shows how “[s]tudents often privilege one mode over another when they read multimodal texts. In this case, the visual mode is privileged over the linguistic one.

Aside from the aforesaid, Lewitt also remarks that linguistic texts are seemingly used for minor purposes nowadays as they are often used for labelling. I would say this might be so when we are talking about multimodal texts which are catered for texts which are not very “academic”. In this case, “academic” refers to texts which are of tertiary level and higher. Think of the innumerable canons there are in the repertoire areas of studies in the world – Law, Literature, Business, Philosophy, Psychology, Anthology, Anthropology, amongst others – & we will realise that most of the contents in these canons are made up of a mostly words, rather than any other modes. So, if we consider this fact, we will probably see that words are still very much the most utilised, desired and respected mode when it comes to texts at the higher level of the literary world.

I suppose if the other modes are looming around in the higher level of the literary world, it would be due to the areas of studies which require them, such as Music, Art, Visual Art, and the likes. Other than that, canons are usually dominated by words.

To put it crudely, and not to sound condescending at the same time, any other modes, other than words, may be considered, by some, to be meant for amateur readers.

Just to lay a disclaimer in case I get lambasted for making the above statement, I am writing this as an observer; not an advocate. So, I do not endorse everything I state in this entry. These are just observations.

Moving on to the implications for the pedagogic aspect, I suggest that teachers should inform students right from the beginning that words are still very much desired and respected as one moves higher in the academic realm. This is to get students mentally and physically prepared that they might be in contact with more words and less images as they progress academically. This is also in accordance to what Lewitt states in his article that it seems there is this pattern of the reduction in the amount of images as one progresses higher academically. Thus, we can try to accustom students to this pattern by reducing the amount of images and presenting them with more words as the time goes. This, I think, will be beneficial to them in time to come.

In Response to Jennifer Tan's & Pippa Stein's Articles

After reading the 2 readings written by Jennifer Tan, as well as Pippa Stein, I generated my own little statement regarding my take on meaning-making – meaning-making is a process which is all-encompassing as it involves one’s culture, physical behaviour, mentality, creativity, and sensory.

Looking at the statement above, I think the writers’ stance on the pedagogical aspect would be to incorporate all of the aforesaid elements to help students establish their sense of “selves” as well as “identities”.

Something interesting, at least to me, was raised while we were discussing what the students in the DUSTY programme were doing. It is in relation to how some of the words these people use may be incomprehensible to people who do not understand their culture & way of using the English language, especially when there are so many slangs in theirs. Let us just say that everyone is encouraged to involve the above elements to (re)present themselves not only to the world, but also to their ownselves, but how will the world be able to see what these people are trying to (re)present themselves if the world does not even get the meaning of some of the way they express themselves through these elements?

One of my course mates, Syazwani (if I recall correctly), remarked that we do not need to understand, say, the linguistic elements of these people because we will still be able to see what these people are trying to express through other elements, like, their body language & facial expressions, for examples. Hearing that, I actually did agree with that. When I was pondering over it at home, however, I thought about the theory of relativism. To put relativism simply, I’ll use this saying to illustrate its definition – “One man’s meat is another man’s poison”. How does this link to the issue above? Let us have a look at the followings.

There’re many languages existing around the world currently, even though many have “died” over the millennium. Thus, language might already, in itself, be a source of “hindrance” when it comes to using it to bridge understanding between people. Even when two people are using English, do note that there’re many Englishes in the world too – Singapore English, British English, American English, and tonnes more! If I say “Porridge”, I mean congee as many Singaporeans use them interchangeably; but I believe the British would think of “Porridge” as “Oats” as that is what is known as Scottish porridge.

In terms of body gestures or languages, from the top of my mind with what I can think of, a thumb’s up in many countries implies “good”, “okay”, “yes”, and so on. These signifieds are not shared in either some parts of Australia, if not, Australia as a whole, however. The thumb’s up in Australia implies, “Up your ass” – to put it in a crude way, “F**k you!”

In terms of culture, just to quote an example from Stein’s article, the Americans deem it respectful when conversing with one another by looking at each other in the eyes, but this is considered rude in Africa, especially when one of the interlocutors is of a lower social rank than the other.

Looking at the 3 examples of relativism in 3 different aspects, how are we sure that what we intend to convey about ourselves to others are received in the way we intend to? Don’t you think every element is actually pretty much contextual? There is really not much everyone in the world share in common.

To answer the above issue, I suggest that we should all make an effort to try to our utmost to immerse ourselves, if not at least know a thing or two, into the cultures & lives of people we are not really familiar with. In addition, there should be no assumption made of anything we see, hear, smell, feel, & touch. Ask & clarify!

Yes, the suggestions I made may seem tedious as we might have to go to a huge extend to inquire about every single thing, but do note that nobody says this was going to be easy right from the start!

I read parts of the journal written by Captain John Smith, who is a real person (not just a fictitious character from the cartoon “Pocahontas”), & in it, he actually talked about immersing oneself to the culture of others in order to really know the people. It was only in the later stage that he came to a realisation that the Native Americans should not be considered as savages for they share numerous disparities in many aspects when compared with people of his own country.

I would like to emphasise that when we see the people in the DUSTY videos, we think we know what they are trying to express, but take a minute to think about whether we are interpreting everything we see of the video based on our own culture? Are our interpretations accurate if that is the case? Is it not important to know the author’s culture before generating any sort of interpretation of what we witness of them? This is just food for thought.

Getting Students to Resist Discrimination & Discover Their 'Real Selves'

Jane Elliot Video Clip Part 1
Jane Elliot Video Clip Part 2

When doing the presentation slides for my group’s presentation this week on using multimodal artefact to represent the videographer’s “true identity”, some issues struck me. One of which is the question on how do we, as teachers, get students to successfully recognise their “true selves” when they are made to believe they are of certain “selves/identities” based on the general society’s point of view?

Simply put, since the day an individual is borne, the individual has been subjected to a particular identity. As seen from the video of what Elliot did to her class of students with blue and brown eyes, we cannot help but see that students, who possess minds that are fresh and young, buy into whatever people say about them easily. As such, they internalise what is said of them and actually believe that they are what is said of them by others. As a result, they believe that they are of a certain “selves” which are given by the society. With such a phenomenon occurring, one cannot help but wonder how is it possible to get each student to see himself/herself as how they really are in person instead of how they are perceived by the society.

Let me draw a line between the definition of “identity” and “self” as they are not to be used interchangeably – “Identity” is imparted by others; while “self” is given by the person himself/herself. For instance, A male child may see himself as a girl, thus, he has defined his own “self”. However, due to his physicality which is of a boy, the people around him would identify him as a boy. From this, we see that the child’s “self” is a girl because this is what he has thought of himself as; but his identity is that of a boy because his identity is given by the people around him.

To me, it may be a tough road ahead if we are to make students see themselves as what they would see themselves as rather than what the society see them as. The reason is very simple. If one is to declare oneself as possessing a certain identity, one will have to get others to agree with one in order to successfully “possess” that certain identity. Let me give you an example – I can say that I am a girl. In fact, I can keep telling myself and everyone that. However, if nobody buys into this idea that I am a girl, I will forever be identified as being a boy. So, what is the point of me identifying myself as a girl when no one, other than myself, believes so? Hence, in this sense, we see that a person’s identity is very much bestowed by not the person himself/herself, but others.

Riding on the aforesaid point, we, as teachers, have to devise some ways to, first of all, get students to resist the identities given by others to them, and move on to discover their “true selves”. To do that, I think it would be helpful to show them the video clips of what Jane Elliot did, as well as the following video clip.

Taught to Self Hate Video Clip

Watching Jane Eliot’s clip and the clip above will let students see that everyone’s identity is actually given by other humans and everyone actually has the power to resist it. This can be done via disbelieving what others say about them, if they think what is said of them aren’t true. Then the next step is to get students to explore what their true selves are. This can be done by getting them to reflect on the things they do in their lives, their likes and dislikes, as well as getting responses from them based on given scenarios. One scenario could be:

One day, 10 children were told not to play at Railroad X because trains will be moving via it for the day. They are advised to play at Railroad Y, which will not be used that day, instead. However, 7 children did not heed the advice and were seen playing at Railroad X, while 3 other children heeded the advice and played at Railroad Y.
You are the worker who is in charge of shifting the directions of railroad. A train is fast approaching and there is not enough time for you to warn the children. You have to decide whether to shift the track to direct the approaching train to Railroad X or Y. What would you do? Why?

Students will have to reason with themselves and justify for their decisions, and through articulating their thoughts and exchanging views with their classmates, they will be able to know more of others, as well as their own selves. Additionally, after the discussion, they can write a short paragraph or two on what they think of themselves as well as what they think of some of their classmates, based on the answers and reasons they have given. Then, they will read them out, so that everyone will have an idea of how each student perceive his/her own self and how every student is being perceived by others.

After which, students will have some idea of what they “real selves” are, and they can get to the part where they create a multimodal artefact to show to others what they think they really are. The artifact would serve a persuasive function as I have mentioned earlier, we all need others to buy into our ideology in order to successfully possess identities that we want to have.

Using Films to Teach

I just watched the film, "Crash", & I thought films are actually great tools for teachers to inculcate certain things to students. Films provide the visual imageries for students to see and probably even experience theories/concepts which verbal aspects may lack. Note how some viewers actually cry when watching films with depressing contents. It says a lot about how films affect people, doesn't it?

In this case, "Crash" is seen as a film that is apt for inculcating the issue on Racism, something which doesn't seem to bemuch of an issue here on the surface, but still pretty much an issue underneath it all. Anyway, without having the teacher to say much about it, the message of how racism can be fatal is highly likely to be imprinted in the minds of the students after they have watched this film. This is how multiliteracy comes into play in our present classrooms.

Critical Reading in Everyday Life

Courtesy of http://www.advertolog.com/paedia/prints/2009/02/18/284562/show/

In breaking the code of this print advertisement, we see that this is a print anti-smoking advertisement from Romania. It is apparent because of the written text we see at the bottom right-hand corner of the print ad – “Give up smoking” – together with the “double-A” logo that bears the word “Romania”. Besides the written text, we also see a man with a lighted cigarette in the middle of the print ad. From this, we see the interplay between the written text and the image, as they compliment/support one another in conveying a notion.

To decipher the meaning this print ad is trying to convey to its readers, we see that the print ad further reinforces its stance/message against smoking by having a written text on the bottom left-hand corner that states, “It’s called suicide because it’s your choice”. As this written text is found in this print ad, it is obvious that this written text is in relation to smoking. Thus, readers will get the idea that “choosing to smoke is suicidal”.

Note also the font style of the written texts – its typography – it is very straight and can be considered as very “standard”. This may be a way to connote the seriousness of the message this ad is trying to convey – “it is of no joke/laughing matter”.

In this case, there are 2 kinds of readers the print ad is targeting – existing smokers, and non-smokers who are considering to pick up smoking. This is interpreted based on “It’s called suicide because it’s your choice”, which can be read in two ways. One way is that the sentence is meant for existing smokers who made the choice to continue to smoke; while the sentence can also be seen as a warning to non-smokers who are thinking of smoking that they are actually making a choice to die if they choose to pick up smoking.

The suicidal notion is further enhanced by the man at the centre of the print ad, which is the most salient figure in the ad, as we see him with a lighted cigarette, and he is at a position in which it seems he is actually being hung by the cigarette. The limpness of his body also creates the impression that he is already dead. Hence, here again, we see how the image and the written text enhance each other to generate more impact in conveying an idea to the readers.

In addition, the gloomy surrounding of the print ad creates a foreboding atmosphere, thus, making the act or the idea of smoking as something which is of a serious threat to anyone who picks up smoking.

Looking at the aforementioned so far, we can safely conclude that the print ad is trying to get its readers to do something after seeing this ad – to stave off smoking.

Taking up the role as a text analyst, we see that the target readers are firstly subjected to a subordinate position, as we see the written texts on both bottom corners are generally in declaratives. The idea of declarative sentences, in this case, means that the advertiser has more knowledge over the readers as the print ad is providing knowledge/information to the readers (which the readers presumably have no idea of) – through stating that smoking is suicidal and that there is a service helpline for readers to dial should they want to quit smoking or know more about giving up smoking.

The ad also interestingly tries to place the readers as someone who is witnessing the man being hung by smoking as the position/angle of the ad creates the impression that the reader is in the room, standing right in front of this man in the ad. This, in a way, produces more impact for the readers as a sense of solidarity is established in this sense. As solidarity is established, it is deemed that the readers will be more likely to heed whatever advice the ad is giving.

It is interesting to note how only a man is placed in the picture, which brings to the thought of whether this ad is only targeting at male smokers. Or is there a sense of sexism at play here with the exclusion of a female smoker? Is a man representative of both male and female smokers? This is something that is worth a thought.


In teaching a local class of Secondary 2 students, I would form the students into mini-groups of about 4 people per group. The print ad will be provided to them and some questions would be posed to them for discussion:

1. What is this print ad about? How do you know?
2. What kind of mood does the ad convey to you? Why do you get that kind of mood?
3. How does the man at the centre of the print ad help convey the message the print ad is trying to convey? Is it effective?
4. Do you think we would know what the print ad is trying to convey if there are no words in it? Why/Why not?
5. What kind of function do the words have in this ad?
6. Will there be a change of impact the ad gives if there is no image, with only the written texts? Why/Why not?
7. What kind of functions does the image have in this ad?
8. How does lighting/colour function in this ad?
9. Why is the smoker in the ad a guy?

These questions will be addressed as a class when the students are done discussing amongst themselves.

To address Question 4 & 5, students would be given another piece of the same print ad, without the written texts. This will allow the students to see how the print ad “changes” without any written text.

To address Question 6 & 7, students will be asked to write down the texts on a blank piece of A-4 size sheet, and think about whether the impact of the ad has changed, without any image on it.
In fact, for every question posed to the students, the teacher can actually them to execute it by doodling on blank sheets, so that they can see for themselves how each element in the print ad helps to enhance in the conveyance of the message intended by the ad. The teacher could also pose a question like, what difference would it make if the room in this ad is well lit & neat? Would it make a difference? Why/Why not? This is to get students to think about the reasons behind everything they see in the print ad.

In Response to Gee & Gutierrez et al's Concepts

How & how well do you think these concepts apply within Singaporean educational contexts?

How might these help us to think differently about language/literacy education as you understand it? What might some of the practical classroom implications be?

When we talk about the concepts Dominant Discourse and Primary & Secondary Discourse, we have to look at not only from our own point of view, but also that of the people around us. What I mean by that is that from our point of view – supposedly educated people who are currently undergraduates – we tend to think that the dominant discourse in our society is generally Standard English, Mandarin, Malay & Tamil. By thinking so, we have actually chosen to ignore what may be going on within the actual society itself. By this, I mean to say whatever is valued by the “society” may not necessarily represent the society’s values, as it may only be the values of a dominant group – which this group subjects the values to the subordinate groups – pretty much the act of hegemony in this case.

Moving the aforesaid into something more specific – let us just say that the people at the “top tier of the social class” sees the dominant discourse as Standard English, Mandarin, Malay & Tamil in Singapore. The people who are not at the “top tier of the social class”, however, might see the colloquial version of the aforesaid four languages as the dominant discourse. There are, in fact, a number of articles on the Straits Times (Singapore Official English Newspapers) which state that Singlish should not be seen as a language that is ungrammatical and be frowned upon. On another occasion, a returning-teacher actually told me how one of her students in her form class naturally speaks Standard English, but was deemed as being pompous & was thus ostracised by the rest of the class. The abovementioned, hence, show us how subjective dominant discourse is, as it might vary on different contexts, occasions & groups of people. Will it be deemed as natural & desirable if one were to speak in Standard English, Mandarin, Malay or Tamil when conversing with stall owners in a wet market, or, hawkers in a hawker food centre? Is that the dominant discourse in those cases?

Bearing what is said above in mind, I think the Singapore educational system is trying to socialise students into what the dominant group deems as dominant discourse in the society, while disregarding whatever is considered as dominant discourse to the students themselves. This, to me, seems to be an undesirable act as the teachers are generally telling the students that what they possess currently is flawed & deemed deficient, which is in line with the language-deficit hypothesis according to Basil Bernstein, & that these students ought to learn what is considered acceptable by the society instead.

In this case, I think teachers should adopt William Labov’s theory of language-difference hypothesis, in which it states that languages are seen as different, & that no language is to be seen as being inferior to another. As such, as teachers, we should inform the students regarding how the different varieties of a language are considered apt to be used in different occasions & contexts. In this way, we are telling students that there are actually more than one dominant discourse; and they vary in different contexts & situations. Thus, students can see that in school, the teachers are only teaching them one of the dominant discourses, the Standard English, so that they can use it whenever the occasion calls for it. With that, students who do not already possess the ability to speak Standard English will not be made to feel that they are suffering from deficiency as compared to others who have been speaking Standard English at home.

Thus, the concept of hybridity is very important. Teachers can incorporate the kinds of language the students already acquired at home to teach them what is needed to be taught – in our case, Standard English language. While doing so, the teachers are also roping in the students’ home cultures & backgrounds. This forms a sense of familiarity to the students while learning Standard English, & they will be able to feel motivated to learn whatever is taught to them without feeling insecure.

Critiquing an Image based on Semiotic Analysis

We see from the picture above that it has two modes, namely language & image. In terms of the image mode, it actually encompasses different elements which include colour, typography and positioning; while the language mode pretty much refers to the words used.

In the image mode, first, we see 6 different characters bordering along the 4 sides of the whole picture. It is quite apparent that the first 3 characters at the top half of the whole picture are used in line with the first half of the phrase, “Take your job seriously”, as we see an angry-looking chef, a document-tearing man, and a man hammering the keyboard of a computer. All of them can be said to look a tad too serious.

Then, we see the change in mood based on the characters at the bottom-half, as we see a goofy-looking clown, a man jumping for joy, and a clown-looking person laughing with one of his/her hands stretched out. These characters are seen to be in line with the second half of the phrase, “don’t take yourself seriously”.

Note how the “serious” and “goofy” elements take half of the page each – top-half & bottom-half respectively. Although there is no distinct framing, the segregation is marked by the word, “but”, the characters in the whole picture, as well as the amount of space given to “Take your job seriously” and “don’t take yourself seriously”, which is very much half of each page. In this case, we see framing at work (subtly, but apparently) as well as the significance of the spatial aspect and positioning because of the equal amount of space attributed to the “serious” and “goofy” aspects, thus conveying what the whole picture is trying to get across to the viewers – “relax & enjoy yourself while taking your job seriously, & that none of them should be compromised for another.”

Note also how the letters of the words at the top-half are neatly lined up as compared to those at the bottom-half, which are generally “jumpy-looking” – which is very much linked to the motion of the typography – once again, to connote a sense of “seriousness” at the top & “fun-ness” at the bottom.
We also see the colour red filling up the phrase at the top-half, which, in this case, connotes anger and danger; while a variation of colours that fill the bottom-half seem to suggest a sense of “cheeriness”. The cheeriness is also depicted through the use of a shade of yellow as a background colour. The gradual change of shade from a paler yellow (at the top-half) to yellow (at the bottom-half) also further portrays the serious mode at the top-half to the cheeriness at the bottom-half.

On another note, the text is to be read in a sequential manner, for it will not make any sense if read other wise.

Having said that, we see that the images compliment the linguistic aspects (the text) in helping to convey what the whole picture intended to communicate to its viewers. Without, the images, the whole message may not hold as much impact. Without the text (the full sentence), no one will understand what the whole picture is trying to convey if viewers are to look at the images only. Hence, texts and images can be said to be interdependent of each other.

Semiotic @ Work

Our tutorial group did a concept map today & I must say that had really helped me understand what I have been exposed to for the past 4 weeks, for we were all forced to make sense of the words given to us & link them to one another.

The informal presentations by every mini-group of the concept map certainly made me learn even more, as I began to realise things which I did not notice beforehand. Now, at least I am sure of the followings, which I was unsure of previously:

Semiotic work refers to the process of meaning-making.

Synchronic Description refers to making meaning of a particular item there & now – pretty much based on the interpreter’s current context.

Diachronic Description refers to making meaning based on historical contexts – how meanings of a particular item have evolved.

Semiotic Innovation – new creations of meaning(s) of a particular item.

Semiotic Import – meanings that are adapted from other cultures, individuals, etc.

At the same time, I also found out from another group’s presentation that many of the concepts actually work two ways. Take interpreting an image for example – we apply semiotic importation when interpreting some small aspects of an image, & as we combine these interpretations together & apply them on the image as a whole, we actually engage in knowledge-transforming, and thus, a new form of knowledge is formed. This is a theory associated with Flower & Hayes, who are into the study of human’s cognitivism.

I somehow think that we may actually be transforming knowledge in our everyday lives, if not, most days, but we just aren’t aware of it. One such instance is of the act of using a book to fan oneself in a warm weather already shows how a book, meant for reading, is being used for fanning to generate wind for the person using it. This is viewed as knowledge-transforming because we see the interaction between the human’s hand and the book that produces something else, fanning in this case, which is the product of the interaction.

Hence, all we have to do is to open up our senses and be more observant of the things around us, & try to “make strange” some of the things we do that are deemed normal, & we will actually see that many things are in fact more than what we see them as on the surface.

Thinking about Literacy as Metaphors

I was reading Bee Bee’s blog entry on the metaphors she had come up with for Literacy, & something triggered me to think of Literacy as the followings:

Literacy as Empowerment
I think when one is literate, one is able to see many things & issues in a wider way. By this, I mean that one may be more able to see certain things in more than one perspective, for one is most probably exposed to more knowledge as compared to another who is not as literate. Having said that, I was just thinking about some people who are considered literate in terms of educational qualification, but are still unable to see things in different perspectives; whereas there are some people who are not as educationally-qualified but are able to envision things in different perspectives.

The aforesaid seems very contradictory to the heading, Literacy as Empowerment, as we see educationally-qualified people are unable to see things in different perspectives as compared to others who are not as qualified as them. So, being literate, in this case, can be said to encompass more than just educational qualification, for it is probably just but one of several other criterions to determine if a person is literate or not. When one can see something in more ways than one, this person is more likely to be considered literate as compared to someone who manages to see something in only one way, even though the latter is more educationally-qualified.

Thus, in this sense, Literacy empowers one. One is able to be in control of oneself as well as the situations or people s/he faces.

Literacy as Subjugation
This is on the other end of the spectrum when comparing it with the metaphor above. In this case, Literacy is purely deemed as being literate in things that are taught to a person through the education system. The education system, to me, seems like an institution that is set up by the government to socialise people into the norms of the society. Thus, if a person just learns all the things that the education system has provided for him/her, s/he is pretty much a product the society has ‘manufactured’. This person is therefore pretty much subjugated to his/her social position which the society has placed, him/her. This is also known as hegemony, as devised by Antonio Gramsci.

With that, the person who is ‘literate’, in this case, would be helping the society to perpetuate all the norms which the society is inculcating.

Looking at the two metaphors, I would say the 1st metaphor is probably seen as undesirable, the the 2nd one as desirable to any government, as they certainly wouldn’t want people of their own country to go against everything that they are inculcating as norms.

In the case of an individual, I would say the vice-versa would be more desirable as one would get to see how people in a society is being made to see norms in their own society as the most natural things, as if created by God.

Read mor about Hegemony: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegemony

My Interpretation of the Flower Picture based on Van Leeuwen's Theory

Based on my personal background and life experiences which I posses thus far, I would see this picture of flower as the following:

With the flowers fore-grounded, it is the most salient object in this whole picture. Hence, it is apparent these flowers are the main subject in the picture. To me, the fresh flowers symbolise life, as we see the live flowers growing healthily, stretching themselves high up towards the direction of the sky. This is like a metaphor of an individual’s life, as the individual lives and constantly tries to reach new heights in his/her life. I’m not sure what the orangey parts of the flowers are, but I assume them to be the pollens. From this, we see that the “main body” of the flowers (the white petals) may only be able to reach a certain height, but the pollens seem to be helping the flowers to achieve a greater height by growing out of the “main body” & continuing to surge higher. This may be symbolical of how an individual would push himself/herself really hard to maximise his/her potential in order to attain more than what s/he thinks s/he is capable of.

Moving along the line of an individual’s life, we also see flowers which have wilted near the lower half of the picture. This seems to foreshadow what might happen to those healthy flowers. These wilted flowers also serve to remind us that life is really fragile and that everyone is believed to be constantly living at the edge of the precipice. So, we ought to live life to the fullest.

I think it would be apt to add that the colour white on the flowers would be symbolical of the innocence, purity and all things good about what white colour connotes. And in my case, these features are representative of the humans. I want to remind everyone, however, that the connotation of white colour is condescending due to its history – the perpetuation of the Whites discrimination against the “coloured people”. Thus, I am unwilling to add this connotation of white colour into my interpretation of this picture.

Do note that the aforesaid interpretation of the picture is only one of the many potential meanings the picture presents. There are, in fact, more affordances but these affordances are not teased out due to the limited life experiences and knowledge of the interpreter.

"Introducing Social Semiotics" - Van Leeuwen

The main person related to the semiotics is someone by the name of Ferdinand De Saussure. a familiar name who talks about the ‘signifier’ and the ‘signified’.

A ‘signifier’ basically refers to anything physical, while a ‘signified’ refers to a meaning that is associated to a ‘signifier’. To link this to the reading, and to put this in my own words, a ‘signified’ can be divided into denotation & connotation (p.37). In denotation, a ‘signifier’ means exactly what it is as according to any dictionary in general. As for connotation, the ‘signifier’ may possess some form of symbolism which is usually not found in the dictionaries. Do note that a ‘signifier’ can be a physical object or in linguistic form. I will provide one physical object as an example – a toy car. A toy car, based on any dictionary, may be a synthetic vehicle that resembles a real car, but smaller, played by children. The meaning given by the dictionary is a denotative ‘signified’ of a toy car (which is the ‘signifier’). Now, looking at the connotative ‘signified’, one can say that a toy car may symbolise one’s childhood, which can then be linked to innocence, childishness, and maybe even simplicity of life. The toy car may also symbolise the advancement of technology to another person, as this person may think of how cars are non-existent in primitive time. Hence, we see two very different connotations (or ‘signifieds’) of a toy car.

To link the aforesaid connotations given to a toy car to our readings, we see the semiotic potential of a toy car, for this toy car has the potential to generate an eclectic mix of meanings. This is also known as the affordances of the toy car – “the potential uses of” (p.4) the toy car. The reading also states that “different observers might notice different affordances, depending on the needs and interests and on the specifics of the situation at hand” (p.4-5). In other words, people who base a ‘signifier’ on different contexts will generate different meanings from the same ‘signifier’.

I think one’s life experiences are also a crucial aspect in looking out for the affordances for any particular thing. As one exposes oneself to more stuff, one might be able to generate more affordances for that particular thing. Thus, I think the number or amount of affordances any item possesses is as many as a person can produce based on his/her background and life experiences.

With all the elements of semiotics explained in the readings – segregation, separation, integration, overlap, rhyme, & contrast – we see that every single thing a we see from anything around us does denote and connote some meanings; they are there, and it only depends on whether we can see them. This is very much in line with what the readings states about “‘metaphors we live by’” (p.32).Sometimes, some things seem so natural to us they just do not stand out and we would just see them as something that is normal & that they do not carry any meanings in them, as “[t]hey embody our everyday reality” (p.31). This also applies to the ‘word image’ & ‘typographic image’ (p.29) of the printed words.

By drawing together all of the aforementioned, we ought to get a new form of typography which is multimodal. According to the readings,

“[i]t communicates not just through the letterforms themselves but also through colour, through texture, through perspective, through framing and through motion” (p.42).

Add-Ons for "A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies” by The New London Group

While in the second lesson, discussing our first reading, “A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies” by The New London Group (NLG), we were told to think about some of the stuff written in it. Then, we were told to think about the issue of drawbacks, & I realised drawbacks were actually not astated in the article.

All the time the NLG talks about how good it will be for teachers to provide all forms of new technologies for the students but it all seems very idealistic if one is to think about it. It sounds almost Utopian to be able to achieve all the things mentioned in the article, for when we look at reality, we see articles about how pervasive pornography is on the Internet. In addition to that, there are many paedophiles lurking around on the Internet, constantly on the prowl for the next victims. And how can we ignore the fact that students, especially teenagers, with hormones raging and experiencing puberty, will actually make use of what is available on the Internet to source for “unhealthy contents”, or worse, chat up some strangers and engage in activities that are deemed undesirable by our society, such as, taking drugs, engaging in sex, and whatever not.

In fact, I have attached an article from the Straits Times in this blog entry (below), found in the 18 December 2008 issue, which talks about children “losing their ways” in the virtual world.

Apart from the abovementioned, there is also cyber-gaming which is really rife now. Cyber games like “Warcraft” and “Maple Story”, amongst the likes, are making their ways into the lives of some, if not most, of the teenagers nowadays. Some of these gamers can even chalk up 18 hours a day just to train their games’ characters to gain levels. These are the things which are not mentioned with regard to what the advanced technologies have brought along with them as well, aside from the good stuff mentioned in the article. Thus, we cannot ignore the fact that the Internet may be misused by the students at any instance.

"Literacy in Three Metaphors" - Sylvia Scribner

Sylvia Scribner, in “Literacy in Three Metaphors”, states that there is no one fix definition of what “literacy” is because apparently, different groups of people would have a different definition. With that, there will be “different objectives for mapping out programs that are aimed at the formation of a literate citizenry” (p.71).

The author then gave three metaphors to describe “Literacy”, namely, Literacy as adaptation (for functional purpose); as power (which is concerned with domination & superiority); and as a state of grace (the enhancement/development of one’s self).

From the aforesaid, we are actually looking at suggestions of the definition of “Literacy” made my Scribner. This somehow reminds me of an article written by Mathew Arnold, called, “Culture & Anarchy”, in 1882. Arnold wrote about culture, and how people could attain “sweetness and light” by being literate, in his case, by doing literature.

Note, however, that Arnold’s article was deemed as a fallacy as he seems to contradict himself when he stated some criteria everyone has to meet, such as doing away with social classes, in order to attain “sweetness and light” in which everyone becomes equal in every aspect. By listing out criteria, there is already an indication that people have to assimilate to certain “standards” to become “equal” in every aspect. Assimilation really does not equate to equality, for assimilation suggests the existence of a more superior group of people setting a standard for everyone else to follow.

In Scribner’s piece, I deem it wise of Scribner to emphasise that there is no standard definition of what “Literacy” is (he mentioned that twice – once at the beginning of the paper; and another time towards the end of the paper), as the act of giving “Literacy” a fix definition is an act of condescension to groups of people who do not meet the definition – thus, making these people seem illiterate. In Scribner’s case, she does not pinpoint at any one group, saying whether it is “literate” or not.

What Scribner did, in my view, was describing “Literacy” based on what the society think it is generally. In addition, she also provided a case study to show that people can still “survive” without meeting any of the three metaphors stated above, as she states, “[N]onliteracy does not exclude a person from full participation in economic activities or in town or society life” (p.78). Thus, in this case, Scribner questions the metaphor of “Literacy as Adaptation”.

Since there is no one appropriate way to define “Literacy”, the implication for us teachers is that we have to ensure maximum exposure to students, because with no clear line drawn to tell us who is considered literate & who is considered illiterate, the teachers have to immerse students with as much knowledge from different areas as possible, bearing the hope that these knowledge will fit into the criteria of what makes an individual “literate”.

"A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies" - The New London Group

Generally, the point which “A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies”, written by The New London Group, tries to make is to get teachers to ensure that every student has the opportunity to be exposed to knowledge via a repertoire of avenues. The article points out the ever-changing elements in people’s lives which call for the need for teachers to pay attention to, and also to think of ways to go along with these changes so that students are not, in a way, short-changed. The highlight is pretty much on the advancement of technology. At the same time, the article also gives an adequate depth of information on what teachers can do in schools to ensure maximum exposures to students in terms of conveying knowledge to them through the use of new technologies.

In terms of multiplicity, we see that everyone possesses multiple identities. This is not only mentioned in our reading here, but also in Beverly D. Tatum’s in ‘Multi-cultural Studies’ which we did in last semester. With multiple identities, the New London Group article states that “there are multiple discourses of identity and multiple discourses of recognition to be negotiated” (p.17).

To give a simple illustration, a child may be car maniac who enjoys reading car magazines when at home, and s/he may also share a deep interest in American Pop music with a bunch of good friends. With that, we see that the discourse between the car community and that of American Pop music is different. Hence, a teacher should try to tap these different discourses and forms of media, and use them to deliver knowledge which the teacher intends to convey. The teacher can actually use articles from car magazines to teach English, such as the grammar, the vocabulary, or even the sentence structure aspect. The same thing can be done by using song lyrics. On top of teaching the aforesaid aspects of English, song lyrics can also be taught as poems, and poetic features like rhyming scheme, metaphors, and similes can be highlighted to students from those lyrics. As a result, the teacher is seen accommodating to the multiple identities of the students, which is very much delving in the students’ “comfort zone”.

When dealing with students who use lots of computer, the teacher can try using materials from the web, such as videos from Youtube, to teach the students something from there.

Moving on to the definition of “design”, to me, it simply refers to “knowledge”. The paper states that there’re many different modes of “designs”, which include those of Linguistic (metalanguage), Visual (images, page layouts, screen formats), Audio (music sound effects), Gestural (body language, sensuality), and Spatial (environmental & architectural spaces). These designs can even be combined to become multimodal.

When the article talks about Available Designs, Designing, and The Redesigned, I see them as the followings:

Available Designs pretty much refer to existing knowledge that is available out there for any individual. These knowledge are categorised into genres, in which when one enters a specific discourse community, one will see that there’s a fix set of elements which one has to abide by in the discourse community.

Designing seems to me like the process of knowledge-transforming, as the articles includes reading, seeing and listening as instances of Designing. When one engages in the aforesaid activities, one is actually adding knowledge into one’s existing pool of knowledge. In addition, one can also coincide 2 or more existing knowledge, and produce a new knowledge (also known as The Redesigned). So in this case, the idea of coinciding 2 or more knowledge is known as Designing, while the product that is churned out from Designing is known as The Redesigned.

When it comes to adopting some of the things mentioned in the article in my own lessons, I would say Situated Practice is really crucial. This is to “immerse [students] in a community of learners engaged in authentic versions of [practices of different discourse communities]” (p.31). I will do that by exposing the students to a variation of texts meant for different literacies – TV, radio, the web, printed texts, and etcetera. This is to socialise the students into the various literacies available to them. And when students are considered fluent in the literacies, they can actually start questioning and analysing these literacies and probably even modify them to make them better. This will allow the students to engage in Available Designs, Designing, and eventually producing the Redesigned.
To do the aforementioned, I will need to help my students “denaturalise and make strange again what they have learned and mastered” (p.34). This can be done by having questions posed to the students to think about things which they would normally take for granted.

Media Advancement in TV for Academic Purpose

With the advancement of technology all around the world, we might be seeing lesser people & papers while more of I.T. stuff creeping up in places you would hardly expect to see. Say, who would have thought the MRT & LRT would be operated without any driver, say, 50 years ago? Well, now we see them at our North-East Line (NEL) MRT route & the various LRTs routes in Singapore. As all these happen, we also see significant changes even in the academic field where students are using computers to learn & do their works nowadays as compared to students in the early 1990s. Just as The New London Group's article puts it,

"These examples of revolutionary changes in technology & the nature of organisations have produced a new language of work. They are all the reasons why literary pedagogy has to change if it is to be relevant to the new demands of [people's lives]."

This is precisely why more & more channels/avenues are explored & used for educational purpose. One such example is that of TV, where TV channels like Channel U (http://www.xin.sg/article.php?article=19493&st=dtl) & Channel News Asia (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/nic) offer chances for students in local schools to submit news video clips they have produced, which entail latest happenings that are deemed interesting to the public. Students are not only able to hone their written & verbal language skills & public speaking skills, but also the opportunity to expose themselves to acquire skills that are probably not offered in schools, such as those of news script-writing & roving news report before a video recorder. Furthermore, students also get to try their hands on interviewing people, video-recording and video editing.

With such a wide variation of skills to be learned, it is definitely something worth venturing for the schools as well as their students.

Prayer

Tonight I find myself leaning by the bed to pray. I haven't done this in a while, so I don't know what to say......

Well, God, I feel so small, sometimes, in this big Ol' place.
And I know there're more important things....but don't forget to remember me.....

Night Time

The gentle night breeze stirs everything ever so lightly.

Looking at the clear night sky, it seems to say, when dawn breaks, Hope will transpire with it too.

Hang in there, for the taste of Joy is near, looming around, waiting for U to embrace it.

Or is it.........

Are We There Yet?

It seems so foreign all of a sudden when I had to start a blog after a 5-year hiatus. Life's been different since then, & the quest to seek self-liberation is well on its way towards its full-realisation. A few more years, perhaps...