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...