Implications of paper textbook multimodality for eight-year old students’ language learning: A case-study content analysis

Abstract: Purpose. The purpose of this study is to examine how SABIS® as a publishing house and an owner of its own school curriculum system materially represents its educational beliefs based on the curricular demands of the Common Core State Standards within the school textbooks it produces for one of its private schools in the United States. Theory. The theory used for this study is Hodge and Kress (1988) social semiotic theory in combination with an educational focus on the qualities of resources produced which are aimed at supporting first language learning. Method. A qualitative content analysis (QCA) approach was used as the research design in order to analyze the images within the Anthology Level E textbook. QCA was further studied based on a taxonomy created by Marsh and White (2003). Results. The findings and data for this study suggested that the SABIS® Anthology Level E textbook, is designed primarily based on the US Common Core State Standards requirements however, they proved to have more than what is mentioned in the standards alone. Visuals provided within the informative and non-fictional pieces proved to have a close relation to text where they provided the means for students to learn new concepts. Many images proved to be beneficial for students’ understanding of the text, others showed very little connection to the text and hence ineffective in the social semiotic process of teaching and learning.