# Pedagogy of multiliteracies in CLIL:

## Innovating with the social systems, genre and multimodalities framework

Yiqi Liu

liuyiqi@eduhk.hk

Education University of Hong Kong

### Abstract

More than two decades after the conceptualization of “A pedagogy of multiliteracies” (PoM) by the New London Group (1996), the world has witnessed much pedagogical innovation in literacy education and radical technological advancement. However, few studies have shed light on how PoM can be actually practiced in non-western contexts. To fill this gap, this article proposes the social systems, genre and multimodalities framework as an instructional toolkit to practice PoM in English as an additional language contexts. To this end, the learning process of 240 Hong Kong secondary school students enrolled in an English-medium small private online course was investigated. The results show that PoM helps the students construct new learner identities and facilitates their content and language knowledge development. My study suggests that PoM can be enriched by offering students practical analytical toolkits and a multi-modal autonomous learning environment.

Key words: pedagogy of multiliteracies, content and language learning, self-directed learning, small private online course, popular culture

### Résumé

Plus de deux décennies après la conceptualisation de la pédagogie des multilittératies (PdM) par le New London Group (1996), le monde a été témoin de nombreuses innovations pédagogiques et avancées technologiques. Cependant, peu d'études ont révélé comment pratiquer réellement la PdM dans des contextes non occidentaux. Pour combler cette lacune, cet article propose le cadre théorique systèmes sociaux, genre et multimodalités pour pratiquer la PdM dans des contextes où l'anglais est une langue additionnelle. À cette fin, le processus d'apprentissage de 240 élèves du secondaire de Hong Kong inscrits à un petit cours privé d'anglais en ligne conçu avec la PdM a été étudié. Les résultats montrent que la PdM aide les étudiants à construire de nouvelles identités d'apprenants et facilite le développement de leur apprentissage de contenu, ainsi que leurs compétences linguistiques. Mon étude suggère que la PdM peut être enrichie en offrant aux étudiants des outils analytiques pratiques et un environnement d'apprentissage multimodal autonome.
Mots-clés : pédagogie des multilittératies, apprentissage intégré du contenu et des langues, apprentissage autodirigé, petits cours privés en ligne, culture populaire

## 摘要

在新倫敦教學派提出»多元識讀教學法»(PoM)後的二十多年,科技蓬勃進步,教學創新層出不窮,但似乎鮮有探討在非西方環境中如何實踐多元識讀的研究。在此背景下,本文提出在以英語為附加語言環境中進行多元識讀教育的框架“SGM”。為此,本文以SGM框設計一個以英語為教學媒介的小規模限制性在線課程(SPOC),並研究240位香港中學生參加此在線課程的學習過程。結果表明,多元識讀教學法可助學生建構新的學習者身份並促進其學科知識和外語能力的發展。本文最後建議多模態的分析框架及多模態自主學習環境可豐富、提高多元識讀教育的效能。

**關鍵字**：多元識讀能力,內容與語言整合學習,自我導向學習,小規模限制性線上課程,流行文化

## Introduction

Literacy, generally defined as the ability to read and write, constitutes a set of skills that are essential for academic and life success. To support literacy development is therefore one of the primary objectives of school education. The 21st century witnessed rapid development of digital and mobile technologies, including the internet and social media, which have drastically changed the nature of texts and literacy practices (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006). In contrast to written texts with language being the main semiotic resource, there has been a wide variety of texts and literacy practices which are often multimodal, and produced and distributed electronically. In other words, students need to be equipped with new reading and writing skills. It was against this background that the New London Group (NLG) proposed an international project of “A pedagogy of multiliteracies” (PoM) to embrace the multiplicity of communication channels (hence “literacies”) and propose that students need to learn and innovate patterns of meaning-making practices with *situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing and transformed practice* (NLG, 1996, pp. 85–88). However, few studies have shed light on how PoM can be actually practiced nor students’ experience with PoM outside of the English-speaking countries, particularly in content subject classrooms. Additionally, it is found that students and teachers outside the English-speaking countries do not see how multiliteracies pedagogy could be compatible with the local education contexts (e.g., Kohnen & Adams, 2019).

In view of such a research gap, in this study I shall address these issues by innovating with a pedagogical and analytical framework to practice PoM with English as an additional language (EAL) students from Hong Kong in a content and language integrated learning (also known as English-medium instruction in Hong Kong) small private online course about popular culture. The course
featured a stronger component on content knowledge while also having subject specific English support in the forms of glossary at the end of each session (i.e., unit of work) and a built-in online English-Chinese dictionary. Inspired by critical discourse analysis, cultural studies and systemic functional linguistics (SFL; Halliday, 1985), the social systems, genre and multimodalities (SGM) framework and resource kit (Lin & Liu, 2020) were developed for scaffolding EAL students' critical analysis of popular cultural texts. I will also analyse how the students respond to the SGM framework (Lin & Liu, 2020) and explore its effectiveness in improving students' second language, content knowledge and critical awareness development in achieving the principles of PoM.

## Content and language integrated learning

In recent decades of globalisation, bilingual academic programs where teaching and learning are conducted in students' second language (L2) have become popular in different parts of the world for their potential in fostering students' multilingual and multicultural development. Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) in which "a foreign language is used as a tool in the learning of a non-language subject in which both language and the subject have a joint role" (Marsh, 2002, p. 58) is one such approach. Research regarding teaching and learning of CLIL in various sociolinguistic settings has revealed considerable challenges in curriculum planning and classroom teaching (e.g., availability of teaching resources, amount of teaching time and students' learning diversities). One major issue has to do with challenges to study the language as a foreign language (Meyer et al., 2015).

Recent developments in CLIL have benefitted teachers and students with the conceptualization of translanguaging (García & Li, 2014) by making content and language learning more explicit with the spontaneous multilingual, multisensory and multimodal meaning-making processes that transcend the named language boundaries (e.g., Lin & He, 2017; Liu, 2020). Echoing with Halliday's (2013) "trans-semiotic view," Lin (2015) has coined the notion of *trans-semiotizing* as further a development of translanguaging, which is used to describe "a whole spatial repertoire of visuals, human bodies, gestures, eye-gaze, etc." using verbal as well as non-verbal meaning-making resources within and beyond the sign maker (Lin, 2019, p. 11). In multilingual and multicultural settings, translanguaging and trans-semiotizing are found to serve important pedagogical and social functions (Lin & He, 2017); providing pedagogical scaffolding for learning both content knowledge and academic language as well as affording identity and culture affirmation. For example, in Hong Kong junior secondary classrooms, Liu (2020) has delineated the feeling-meaning making in CLIL classrooms by coordinating the prosodic features and bodily movements and drawing upon the classroom clock, the screen, visualizer
and worksheets, suggesting that translanguaging and trans-semiotizing should be incorporated as planned, systematic pedagogy for teaching and learning in CLIL. Another example is work by He and Lin (2020) that shows that Hong Kong teachers facilitated the South Asian minoritized students' development of disciplinary literacy skills using systematically integrated multimodal and multilingual support afforded by the multimodalities/entextualization cycle (MEC) in CLIL classes. However, there is a lack of research on how best to encourage students' explicit and optimal use of their whole semiotic repertoires in CLIL. In light of the close relationship between pedagogical practice and learning outcomes, such an area is worth research attention in order to augment our knowledge of the use of multimodalities as a potentially effective teaching approach in CLIL classrooms.

*Achievement and issues with pedagogy of multiliteracies (PoM)*

More than two decades after the New London Group's conceptualization of PoM, the world has witnessed unprecedented change of socio-political conditions and radical technological advancement. PoM proposes integrating four principles in teaching and learning: situated practice (i.e., connecting to students' everyday practices); overt instruction (i.e., explicit teaching of new concepts and knowledge); critical framing (i.e., engaging students in unpacking the underlying, implicit meaning); and transformative practice (i.e., transforming particular meaning-making patterns from one text to another) for social justice in education.

PoM has advanced and revolutionized the ways in which literacy is understood and taught in different parts of the world. Critical literacies and multiliteracies have also once been at the forefront in the Australian National curriculum reform and pedagogical innovations in foreign or heritage language instruction (e.g., Giampapa, 2010; Kuo, 2012; Leander & Boldt, 2012; Angay-Crowder et al., 2013; Ruan, 2015; Kim & Xing, 2019). In particular, the guiding framework of the *four resource model of literacy* (Freebody & Luke, 2003) has been used for improving curriculum and instruction in many parts of the world. A gender critical literacy program at a university in Taiwan following the four-resource model, for example, has been found to be effective in engaging first-year English as a foreign language (EFL) university students to actively rethink gender roles. However, it is also suggested that more popular cultural texts from students' lives can be used in the classroom and that the uniqueness of students and experiences should be at the centre of such programs (Kuo, 2012). As another example, a digital storytelling summer programme which was designed based on the four elements of PoM and involved written narrative, orchestration of text, image and sound, and reflection was found to be an empowering venue for second-language learners and teachers
as they were allowed to recreate their multilingual and multicultural identities
(Angay-Croder et al., 2013).

However, few studies have shed light on how PoM can be practiced nor
students’ experience with PoM outside of English-speaking countries, partic-
ularly in content subject classrooms. Additionally, it has been found that stu-
dents outside the English-speaking countries do not see how multiliteracies
pedagogy could be compatible with the local education contexts (Kohnen &
Adams, 2019). For example, in English lessons in Mainland China designed
with frameworks of SFL and PoM, it was found that although the new me-
dia resources facilitated situated practice and transformed practice, the overall
lessons were fraught with imitation of “native” pronunciation and decontextu-
alized grammar drilling, thus lacking in critical framing and transformed prac-
tice (Qi et al., 2015). Kim and Xing (2019) also provide evidence that the
challenges of practising PoM in teaching Chinese literacy to culturally and lin-
guistically diverse students in Canada would result in a lack of critical framing
and transformed practice. English language teachers in Mainland China were
also reported to encounter problems when enacting PoM in English lessons in
Mainland China. These problems included limited exposure to English, limited
life experience and subject knowledge, limited questioning skills, limited in-
formation and technology skills and devices, and limited teamwork skills. As
a result, they yearned for more practical guidelines and professional support
for practicing PoM amid the national curriculum reform which was enacted in
2011 (Sun, 2019). In other words, with technological advancement, the chal-
lenge to practicing PoM was not about the “what” (i.e., what resources to use)
but the “how” (i.e., how to use such resources) of PoM, which points to the
need for developing feasible practical frameworks of PoM and systemic re-
search on multiliteracies pedagogy.

***The social systems, genre, and multimodalities framework***

Inspired by the four principles of PoM, critical discourse analysis, cultural
studies and SFL, the SGM framework and toolkits have been developed for scaf-
folding EAL students’ critical analysis of popular cultural texts by the teaching
team of a general education course on critical readings of popular culture at the
University of Hong Kong (Lin & Liu, 2020) and later refined in a small private
online course (SPOC) based on similar content. In the SGM framework, the so-
cial systems (i.e., “S”) refer to the institutions, social relations, social values
and subjectivities constructed in the popular culture text; the genre (i.e., “G”)
refers to the typical patterns of organizing meanings for the audience; and the
meaning-making resources (i.e., “M”) include the narrative, the language fea-
tures and multimodal features (e.g., the kinetic features and cinematography)
(Figure 1).
<figure><img src="image_1.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 1**
The SGM framework
(Lin & Liu, 2020)</figcaption></figure>

Specifically in this study, the social systems refer to the social world cre-
ated in the popular cultural texts that guide the audience to feel the feelings,
dilemmas, conflicts or desires of the characters. Elements of the social systems
refer to institutions (e.g., the political or economic systems), the social relations
including the social, ethnic and gender groups, social values and subjectivities
in the Foucauldian sense denoting the kind of “self” produced by the political
and socialization forces of institutions and regulations. A genre is a typical way
of organizing meanings for the audience, under which there can be sub-genres
with typical features and organizing structures. The meaning-making resources
are what makers and writers of pop cultural texts use to tell their story and to
engage and impress the audience. Examples of meaning-making resources in-
clude film-making language/techniques such as the use of different types of
shots, camera angles, editing techniques and linguistic techniques such as de-
signing different speaking/speech styles (Table 1). In the course students were
guided to observe how these techniques were used in the text and the effect on
the audience or how it could be done differently with a different impact. The
SGM framework (Lin & Liu, 2020) has potential in realizing three key aspects
of PoM: overt instruction can be realized by making explicit the multimodal
resources (i.e., “M”) employed in the pop cultural texts; critical framing can be
realized by engaging students in relating the multimodal resources to the social
systems (i.e., “S”); and transformed practice can be realized when students are
equipped with knowledge about pop cultural genre elements and structures and
critical awareness of embedded ideologies. The aspect of situated practice can
<table><caption>**Table 1**
The SGM framework in the SPOC
(Lin & Liu, 2020)</caption><thead><tr><td>Components of the SGM framework</td><td>Meaning</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>S (social systems)</td><td>the institutions (e.g., the political or economic systems), social values and subjectivities</td></tr><tr><td>G (genre)</td><td>a typical way of organizing meanings for the audience, under which there can be sub-genres with typical features and organizing structures</td></tr><tr><td>M (meaning-making resources)</td><td>meaning-making resources employed, including the narrative, the interpersonal relationship among the characters, the turn-taking in dialogues, the cinematographic techniques and the background music.</td></tr></tbody></table>

be realized by the SPOC platform itself as it connects to students' prior everyday experience of using e-learning tools, online discussion forums and video sharing platforms which are key components of the SPOC.

## Method

This research was part of a university's large-scale teaching development project. The project aims to facilitate and improve technology-enriched teaching and learning including developing and offering massive open online courses (MOOCs) and SPOCs. The offering of the SPOC concerned (Critical Reading for Popular Culture) lasted for 13 months from December 6, 2016 to January 31, 2018 on Open edX, during which the SPOC was offered twice, first mainly to Grade 10 or 11 (Form 4 or 5) students from English-medium secondary schools and then mainly to those from Chinese-medium secondary schools. Another reason why students from Chinese-medium secondary school were enrolled in the study as the second group of learners was because they were usually considered less capable to learn content subjects via English in view of their lower overall academic performance at primary school. Ethical approval with informed consent forms was obtained by school teachers and students who agreed to join the research component of the SPOC project.

The SGM framework and toolkit (Lin & Liu, 2020) were used in the SPOC in designing curriculum for different popular culture texts and guiding students' critical analysis of popular cultural works. The SPOC had five sessions,
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 2**
The SPOC interface
(Lin & Liu, 2020)</figcaption></figure>

each of which offered three to four short lecture video clips in English (with subtitles), short quizzes, explanation on relevant cultural studies theories in English, exemplars of the final assignment and an online discussion forum (Figure 2). At the end of the SPOC, students were engaged in collecting samples of multimodal popular cultural texts in various genres such as television dramas, advertisements, commercials, movies, fiction, pop music and new media genres and producing reflections and critical commentaries following the SGM framework (Lin & Liu, 2020). 240 EAL Hong Kong Chinese senior secondary
school students of differing academic achievement levels signed up for the SPOC. Therefore, the English-medium SPOC on popular culture was able to provide a rich data source to understand the praxis and effect of PoM in self-directed content and language integrated learning. The study thus attempts to address the following questions:

1. What were the processes through which the EFL secondary students learnt the content and language in the SPOC?

2. How effective was the PoM realized via the SGM framework in facilitating development of students' content and language knowledge in the SPOC?

At the beginning of the SPOC, students were invited to voluntarily attend a semi-structured interview about their perceptions of learning English and studying English-medium content subjects or CLIL. After submitting their assignments, they were also invited to attend a second semi-structured interview with guiding questions identical to the first one. All interviews were conducted in Cantonese, the students' home language, transcribed and translated by the research team. For confidentiality reasons, all student and teacher names are replaced by pseudonyms. The interview data and the assignments were collected and analysed with SFL (see Table 2 for the scheme for analysing discourse data). Specifically, discourse analysis on the interview data will focus on language features constructing the experiential and interpersonal meaning (e.g., what the students thought about learning and their evaluation on themselves) while the analyse on student works will also examine the textual meaning (i.e., the organization of meaning-making resources) to evaluate their multiliteracy development in English. In what follows, I will present discourse analyses of the individual interview and assignment data which showcase some of the learners' everyday language practice (Spolsky, 2009) and delineate the emergent themes which are manifested in their learning processes.

## Results

Students' learning process and their responses to the interviews demonstrated a series of practices entraining multiple semiotic resources and responding to principles of PoM. Two female students in the SPOC, Emily and Adele were chosen as the focal participants in the analyses of interviews, the discussion form and the writing assignment as they participated in all the learning and research activities of the project (including the pre- and post-interviews, the forum discussion, after-reading exercises and the writing assignment) although other learners' learning processes were also examined. Both of them came from the same traditionally Chinese-medium secondary school in the second
<table><caption>**Table 2**
Scheme for analyzing discourse data
(Fang & Schleppegrell, 2010, p. 593)</caption><thead><tr><td>Questions about text</td><td>Types of meaning</td><td>Functional language analysis strategies</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Content: What is going on in this text? Who does what to whom, how, when, and where?</td><td>Experiential meaning</td><td>Analyze process types with accompanying participants and circumstances</td></tr><tr><td>Organization: How is this text organized?</td><td>Textual meaning</td><td>Analyze clause themes<br>Analyze cohesive devices such as pronouns and conjunctions</td></tr><tr><td>Style/voice: How does the author of this text interact with reader? What is the author's perspective?</td><td>Interpersonal meaning</td><td>Analyze mood<br>Analyze modality<br>Analyze word choices</td></tr></tbody></table>

run of the SPOC and were identified as hard-working mid-achieving students by their teacher.

## Active participation from learners with less CLIL experience

In order to obtain an overview of all the learners' learning processes (research question 1), learning analytics data or quantitative metrics about learners' activities generated by the online course system (Clow, 2013) was retrieved from the YouTube page where most of the lecture video clips were saved and the Open edX where the SPOC was operated. It was found that the learners recruited from the traditionally English-medium senior secondary schools in the first presentation of the SPOC had better performance in content and language attainment in the assessment tasks. For example, an English-medium secondary school student used a variety of linguistic resources (see Figure 3 for part of the analysis made by the learner) to construct patterns of interpersonal and textual meanings characteristic of English academic writing: abstract nouns (e.g., "psychological struggles," "affinity" and "climax") and cohesive devices (e.g., "due to" and "however") to connect complex ideas in a combination of coordination and subordination. However, their activity on the platform was significantly less active than learners from Chinese-medium senior secondary schools in the second run of the SPOC.

Specifically, learners from Chinese-medium senior secondary schools in
## Critical Analysis on Movie 200 Pounds Beauty

200 Pounds Beauty, a famous Korean movie produced by KM Culture and REALise in 2006. It describes the psychological struggles of an overweight girl, Hanna, who tries to undergo plastic surgery for a complete change of her outlook. Originally Hanna is a backstage singer for Amy, a beautiful lady with poor voice and limited musical talent. She always dreams to be a front-stage singer but she knows it is impossible due to her appearance and huge body size. She is still satisfied with her job as she naively thinks that

Sang-Joon, the handsome music producer, will admire her voice as long as she puts full effort on singing. However, it is only a one-side love. During the birthday party of Sang-Joon, Hanna notices that she is just a product for making money but has no meaning to Sang-Joon at all. This dealt a severe blow to her self-esteem and leads to her thought of undergoing plastic surgery. After this successful turning, she becomes an elegant lady and is invited to be the front-stage vocalist. The movie ends with Hanna discloses her secret.

At the start of the story, the movie focuses on the personalities of Hanna and Amy, by taking many close shots on their actions, so as to show the differences between them. It creates a contrast between them, emphasizing inequality in appearance: Hannah has talent in singing while Amy does not. Hannah is willing to work hard and treat others by heart while Amy is self-centered and bad-tempered, but it turns out Amy gains more opportunities due to her appearance. This brings audience an ironic fact that in the society one's face or body shape determines his/her fate.

When the story introduces Sang-Joon, Hanna's one-sided lover, it even creates a lowly image of Hanna. Sang-Joon has no feeling towards Hanna but Hanna is willing to devote all her effort on music only wants to gain recognition from him. An affinity is built up from Hannah to the audience due to her purity in character, which makes the audience to follow the feelings of Hannah.

The climax of the story begins when Hannah listens to the whispering between Amy and Sang-Joon during Sang-Joon's birthday party. "You think I like her? Be grateful she's coming to us. Then teach her a lesson. Why are you crying? Hannah is the one to be crying. She is

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 3**

An example of the SGM critical analysis</figcaption></figure>
the second run invested more time and effort on the online CLIL learning. Although the enrollment number was lower in the second run (30 in the second run vs 210 in the first), there was a much higher percentage of active learners who attempted at least one quiz (i.e., 57% in the second run vs 29% in the first run) and course completers who got over 60% for quizzes (i.e., 33% in the second round as compared to 7.6% in the first run) among the second-run enrollees, who came from traditionally Chinese-medium secondary schools (Table 3). Additionally, nearly half of the registered learners from traditionally Chinese-medium schools submitted the critical analysis/reflections and spent much more time per visit (i.e., 85:06 minutes). In the first run, each registered learner visited the platform webpages about 30 times on average while in the second run the average number of visits per learner amounted to about 88 times.

<table><caption>**Table 3**
Summary of the first and second run of the SPOC</caption><thead><tr><td></td><td>First run</td><td>Second run</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Enrollment</td><td>210</td><td>30</td></tr><tr><td>Active learners</td><td>60 (about 29%)</td><td>17 (about 57%)</td></tr><tr><td>Course completers</td><td>16 (7.6%)</td><td>10 (33%)</td></tr><tr><td>Assignment submission</td><td>5 (2.3%)</td><td>13 (43.3%)</td></tr><tr><td>Total visits</td><td>6,348</td><td>2,656</td></tr><tr><td>Average time per visit</td><td>15:51 minutes</td><td>85:06 minutes</td></tr></tbody></table>

## The semi-structured interview

Semi-structured interviews were carried out with the students before and after the SPOC learning to understand the learners' learning process (research question 1). Before the SPOC, students showed strong motivation in learning the English subject but revealed their low self-efficacy in learning. They would associate learning English literacy mainly with exam preparation. Some of them also expressed a dislike for learning English-medium subjects, but in spite of this expressed willingness to improve their performance in these subjects. The following four excerpts showcase Adele's perceptions about her learning experience and capability before the SPOC.

### Instrumental goals of improving English skills

During the interviews before the SPOC, this group of secondary students constantly expressed their instrumental goals of learning English in order to fulfil the minimum English requirement that is required to be admitted to government-
funded undergraduate programs. The following is an excerpt of the group interviews with Emily and Adele in which they framed the learning of English literacy skills solely as part of the preparation for university entrance exams.

Excerpt 1

<table><thead><tr><th>Turn</th><th>Speaker</th><th>English translation</th><th>Cantonese utterances</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>Interviewer:</td><td>Do you like to learn English, why? And why do you like learning English?</td><td>妳鐘唔鐘意學英文?點解?<br>同埋鐘意嘅話點解?</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Adele:</td><td>So-so I think. I mainly learn English because of the exams. But my English foundation is very poor. That's why I have to learn more English to improve. Also er the minimal requirement of the Hong Kong exam, the minimal passing grades are 3322. In order to fulfill this goal I have to learn English.</td><td>我覺得一般般啦。主要喺<br>其實為咗考試。但喺我英<br>文個底好差所以呢要學多<br>啲、多啲嘅英文去增進下<br>自己嘅英文。而且,呃,<br>喺香港考試,即喺考試最低<br>嘅合格率都喺三三二二。<br>為咗達到三呢個目標所以<br>要學習英文。</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Interviewer:</td><td>So how would you describe your English proficiency?</td><td>咁,呃,妳會點形容妳嘅<br>英文水準?</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Adele:</td><td>Very poor.</td><td>好差。</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Interviewer:</td><td>Very poor? What do you mean by very poor?</td><td>好差?好差嘅意思啲喺<br>咩啊?</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Adele:</td><td>Maybe around level two.</td><td>可能level two。</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>Interviewer:</td><td>You mean in DSE?</td><td>妳意思喺DSE入面?</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>Adele:</td><td>Yes, in DSE.</td><td>DSE。</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>Interviewer:</td><td>Um, so do you want to improve it?</td><td>呃,咁妳想唔想<br>improve?</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>Adele:</td><td>Yes.</td><td>想。</td></tr><tr><td>11</td><td>Interviewer:</td><td>Why?</td><td>點解呀?</td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td>Adele:</td><td>For the sake of the examination.</td><td>為咗考試。</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>Interviewer:</td><td>Only for the exam?</td><td>淨喺為咗考試?</td></tr></tbody></table>

...
<table><thead><tr><th>Turn</th><th>Speaker</th><th>English translation</th><th>Cantonese utterances</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>14</td><td>Adele:</td><td>Yes. Because I think English is really difficult. Um ... Yep, also in Hong Kong, it's hard to find a job without good English skills.</td><td>喺。因為我覺得英文真喺好難。呃，喺囉。而且喺香港呢個地方如果無咗英文嘅話其實好難去搵工做。</td></tr><tr><td>15</td><td>Interviewer:</td><td>So have you tried any method to improve your English? And was that successful?</td><td>咁妳有冇試過咩方法或者技巧去改善妳嘅英文?同埋妳用嗰個方法成唔成功?</td></tr><tr><td>16</td><td>Emily:</td><td>Do more past exam papers.</td><td>做多啲past paper。</td></tr><tr><td>17</td><td>Adele:</td><td>Do more past papers. Yes, I mean do more exercise, on different aspects.</td><td>做多啲past paper。<br>啲係做多啲練習，喺唔同方面。</td></tr></tbody></table>

At the beginning of the excerpt, Adele described learning English as a means to fulfill the university entrance requirement of obtaining Level 3 in the English subject exam in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE), i.e., the minimum English language requirement for admission to government funded university in Hong Kong, and thus did not like learning English very much (Turn 2). She even mentioned it for three times, in Turns 2, 12 and 14. When subsequently asked about giving a self-evaluation of her English skills (Turn 3), Adele expressed an extremely negative view “very poor” (Turn 4) and specified it with a bare-pass grade (i.e., “level two” in Turn 6) of the English subject in HKDSE. While she expressed strong desire to improve her English skills, Adele also positioned English skills as something hard to obtain and yet necessary for finding jobs in Hong Kong (Turn 14). However, she reported that her way of improving English skills was limited to making prepare for exam and echoed Emily’s view when saying “do more past papers” in Turn 17. In so doing, Adele and Emily jointly constructed the experiential and interpersonal meanings associated with English literacy development as challenging and depressing exam paper drilling for better education and career prospects, resonating with the instrumental goal of many other EFL students learning English/English-medium studies (e.g., Liu, 2019; Tsui & Ngo, 2017). It can be seen that their understanding and imagination about English literacies not only revolved around the dominant print-based literacy, but was also mainly circumscribed by those assessed by the university entrance exam.
Desire to improve subject-specific English by joining the SPOC

When asked about her own academic English proficiency and how it could be improved, Adele expressed negative self-evaluation with regards to her English skills again and that her way of improving academic English was to attempt the SPOC in the study.

Excerpt 2

<table><thead><tr><th>Turn</th><th>Speaker</th><th>English translation</th><th>Cantonese utterances</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>Interviewer:</td><td>So how would you describe, for example, your English proficiency in your content subjects?</td><td>咁妳會點樣去形容妳嘅學譬<br>如果啲content subject<br>嘅時候妳嘅英文程度?</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Adele:</td><td>Very poor.</td><td>好差。</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Interviewer:</td><td>Very poor again?</td><td>又係好差呀?</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Adele:</td><td>This is a very realistic problem.</td><td>呢個係一個好現實嘅問題。</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Interviewer:</td><td>OK, so do you want to improve it?</td><td>Ok, 咁妳想唔想去改善呢?</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Adele:</td><td>Of course, or else I won't be, yep<br>... (Interviewer recall:<br>interviewee's body gesture<br>means "be here joining this<br>program..")</td><td>當然, 如果唔係我都唔會。<br>係。</td></tr></tbody></table>

Prior to this excerpt, Adele revealed she also had experience of learning content subjects (i.e., one of her elective subjects such as business and accounting and financial studies) via English. Although she also negatively described her subject-specific English as very poor again (Turn 2), she used both her words and body language to communicate that the primary intention to join the SPOC was to improve her capacity and academic English to study English-medium content subjects.

Expanded understanding about English literacies

After the SPOC, the researcher also conducted a semi-structured group interview (with seven students in a group due to arrangement of the school teacher's arrangement) in a classroom of the Chinese-medium secondary schools. They described their learning strategies, such as watching the video clips with the subtitles and checking new words with the dictionary embedded in the courseware. In particular, Emily showed an expanded understanding of English lit-
eracies in appreciating the SPOC as a way to learn new content (“the cinematic techniques”) as well as the traditional print-based English literacy skills (i.e., “different English new words”) as opposed to a narrow imagination about English learning before the SPOC:

> I think the videos let me learn more than English. For example, the cinematic techniques in the movies and strategies to attract the viewers. I also learnt lots of different English new words.

> (Original Cantonese utterances: 我覺得啲啲短片令我學識咗 個其他嘢, 唔係淨係英文咯。比如話, 電影入面可以有啲麼野拍攝手法啊, 比較吸引到人哋。同埋, 都係學識咗好多唔同嘅生字。)

> [Emily, Group Interview 1]

In addition, some students were also seen taking initiative in making new usage of features of the SPOC platform (e.g., the English subtitles of short lecture clips that introduced theoretical concepts allowing for overt instruction). In particular, a male student, Vincent, described below how he developed his own self-study patterns and made the CLIL e-learning platform better suit his learning needs. He drew upon multimodal practices (e.g., “viewing the clips,” “track the subtitles” and “Google Translate”) to develop English multiliteracy skills (i.e., “the pronunciation and the rhythmic patterns,” “increase my vocabulary,” “practice using those new words” and “reading comprehension”) and broke away from the monolithic experiential meaning relation between English learning and exam paper drilling.

> The benefit of using the SPOC is that I can track the subtitles while viewing the clips. I can also pay attention to the pronunciation and the rhythmic patterns. The speed of the videos is fast but there are lots of expressions worth studying, through which I can increase my vocabulary and motivation to learn. Besides, you need those sentence patterns and vocabulary when answering questions. If there are new words, you can try Google Translate and you may practice using those new words in doing reading comprehension on the SPOC.

> (Original Cantonese utterances: 我覺得啲啲短片令我學識咗 個其他嘢, 唔係淨係英文咯。比如話, 電影入面可以有啲麼野拍攝手法啊, 比較吸引到人哋。同埋, 都係學識咗好多唔同嘅生字。)

> [Vincent, Group Interview 1]

## Desire for scaffolding for print-based English literacy skills

In the comment above, the student pointed out that he could learn more about new academic English expressions with the multimodal lecture video clips (e.g., with images, sounds and subtitles) and then consolidate this knowledge
by completing other tasks on the SPOC. In so doing, he was not learning En-
glish in order to take exams and passively taught different exam-tackling skills
(as those Emily and Adele described in the pre-SPOC interviews) but also
an agentive learner with the awareness and capability for planning and im-
plementing active language studies. However, another male student, Simon,
voiced some negative views about the SPOC:

The videos there are interesting but I don't like the English subject much, par-
ticularly when I have to spend extra time, because my other school subjects take
time, too. I would rather read long passages than learning via the SPOC videos.
When learning English, I would focus on reciting vocabulary and sentence pat-
terns, like those for argumentative essays and useful for writing composition
and doing reading comprehension.

(Original Cantonese utterances: 影片係有趣,但我自己唔係
咁中意英文嘅,因為要特登再擺時間。因為仲有其他科要再擺時間。
睇片去理解,不如睇篇文去理解。我會注重背vocab。背一啲
sentence patterns、議論文果啲。對作文有用嘅、同埋做
reading嘅時候都會見到類似嘅。)

[Simon, Group Interview 1]

From the comment above, it could be seen that Simon constructed neg-
ative interpersonal meaning (“don’t like”) and semantic connection between
the SPOC and the school English curriculum (“don’t like the English subject”
when asked to comment on his learning experience. He also showed strong
preference for traditional print-based literacy skills (e.g., “I would rather read
long passages than learning via the SPOC videos” and “focus on reciting vo-
cabulary and sentence patterns.” He was therefore seen as rejecting the mul-
timodal presentation of the subject content, embracing the print-based mode
and the instrumental value of literacy education.

Final assignments and online discussion posts

In order to investigate the impact of PoM on the students’ language and content
attainment in CLIL (research question 2), the final assignments (i.e., the critical
analysis following the SGM framework) and the students’ posts on the SPOC’s
online discussion forum were collected for a discourse analysis based on three
aspects of SFL (i.e., the experiential meaning, the interpersonal meaning and
the textual meaning. Although all learners who participated in the SPOC were
required to submit a critical commentary written based on the SGM framework
(Lin & Liu, 2020) about a pop culture text (e.g., a mini-movie commercial),
not all students managed to formulate a complete analysis. While some stu-
dents from the traditionally English-medium schools composed a detailed ana-
lysis, only one of the learners from the traditionally Chinese-medium school
was able to write up such an analysis (Figure 4). Although Emily and Adele
only wrote reflections on the learning process instead of critical SGM analyses,
their use of language in both the reflections and online posts (see Appendix)
has made rich experiential, interpersonal and textual meaning in a way simi-
lar to that of academic English writing. In terms of the experiential meaning
shown by the semantic domain, degree of specialisation and angle of represen-
tation, Emily used "movie," "media," "types of movies" and "movie-making"
to construct the semantic meaning of "genre." In addition, she used "culture
values and knowledge" to respond to "social system" and "storyline," "pic-
ture" and "the plot or certain words" to construct the component of "meaning-
making resources" in the SGM framework (Lin & Liu, 2020). In the online
posts, she drew upon both subject-specific and general academic vocabulary
to discuss the movie stages, racism, orientalism and print advertisements, e.g.,
"set up," "complications," "aftermath," "orientalism," "racism," "genocidal ac-
tions," "institutionalized racism" and "intertextual light and background infor-
mation." In terms of angle of representation, it could be seen that she used
mainly relational (e.g., "I think the movie is a great media to spread a positive
message."; "There are many types of movies," "it is manifestation of culture
values" and "It is not only made for fun") and mental verbs (e.g., "I think")
(except the post describing a movie) for sharing her thoughts which resembles
the process type pattern in research writing (e.g., Martínez, 2001). In terms
of interpersonal meaning, she drew upon positive adjectives (e.g., "great" and
"positive"), semi-formal language and the first person pronoun for discussing
her thoughts to construct a positive and personalized authorial stance. In terms
of the textual meaning, Emily deployed many more subordinated clauses (e.g.,
"produced by," "were systematically massacred" and "based on their race or
ethnicity") as well as more abstract noun phrases (e.g., "perception, superi-
ority of one race over another," "ideologies," "discrimination and prejudice"
"action," "narrative," "typefaces of the slogan" and "the rhetorical device") in
the online posts than in the reflection, thus making the online posts more ab-
stract and technical than the reflection. This can be seen as being a result of
receiving more modelling of academic language use from learning resources
on relevant discussion topics.

In analysing Adele’s reflections and posts, we can see that although her
English proficiency was lower than Emily’s, she still managed to express her
feelings about completing the SPOC and her desires for learning English, con-
tradicting her self-evaluation comment before the SPOC that her English pro-
ficiency was extremely low. Albeit with grammatical errors in writing, Adele
discussed current socio-political issues and shared her feelings about them in
English with some technical terms. This could be more cognitively and linguis-
tically demanding than completing the English language subject exam papers,
## Critical Analysis on the mini-movie commercial -True Move

The movie is about a boy who has been paid by a man when he was caught stealing medicine for his injured mother in a store and caught by the shopkeeper. 30 year later, the boy became a doctor. He saved the man who paid the money for him.

Second, I will analyze this movie with the SGM toolkit. The story is very touching and educational. They were just a few civilians, because the little boy stole the medicine and had a conflict. The social situation in the old age of the film was not very good. Everyone was dressed in a very humble way, doing some small business. The light in the film is used very well, and the picture is dark yellow when the little boy is caught. When the little boy who became a doctor saved the man, he was photographed from the bottom and molded into a successful man. The shot from the bottom can create a sense of success, ability, and wisdom.

Besides, the middle-aged man was willing to help people in any time, and was saved by the little boy later. I think it also sends a concept to the audience that the Thai people believe in fruit retribution. The little boy's role is portrayed as the character of gratitude. The man in the movie holds up a family, and it can be seen that the man's position in the society and in the family was more important than a woman.

Background music is also one of the most important points that can drive the audience. For example, when the little boy was caught and the man fell ill, the

music was miserable and slow. And when men have enough money to operate, music is more cheerful. When music is heavy, the heart of the audience changes with the music.

The movie is a symbol of the man cooking work. When he dropped the film cooking tool, it is a symbol of he fell ill. And it can be seen that the policy of the government was not perfect at that time. The poor people fell ill and had no proper funding. They could only live alive and wait for death. Overall, the movie is very easy to make the audience understand and it's educational, just like the end of the movie-giving is the best communication.

## Figure 4

A high-achieving learner's final assignment in the second run

which Adele had previously taken as the sole purpose of learning English in the interview prior to studying the SPOC. For example, in her reflection, she positively discussed her gains in the course (i.e., the experiential and interpersonal meaning), e.g., learning some sociocultural knowledge as well as the positive values she learnt from the mini-movie commercials viewed in the course with cohesive devices, e.g., “firstly” and “secondly” and some abstract lexical items and nominalization, such as “sympathy” and “concerning” (i.e., the textual meaning). In the online post, she also deployed some subject-specific vocabulary, e.g., “neoliberalism,” “human rights,” “capitalism” in Post 1 and “elements of racism” in Post 2 while discussing her views with everyday experience. She was also seen using a range of modal expressions, “would,” “can” and “cannot.” Additionally, Adele still saw English as the primary means for upward social mobility after the SPOC learning, as can be seen in this statement: “I hope the course can make me improve my English because I think English is important for us to learn. It can help me to work well in the future.” However, she had already expanded her linguistic repertoire (e.g., using the subject-specific vocabulary item such as “neoliberalism”) beyond the required knowledge of the English subject exam.
Discussion and implications:

Developing an autonomous space with rich scaffolding for authentic
meaning-making in CLIL

The learning analytics data, interviews, students' written work and discussion
forum posts reveal that PoM, as realized by the SGM toolkit (Lin & Liu, 2020)
and the SPOC, has important positive outcomes for facilitating content and lan-
guage integrated learning with a group of EFL secondary school students in a
non-western context. The SPOC and the SGM toolkit (Lin & Liu, 2020) have
facilitated the EFL learners to recognize the multiplicity of meaning-making
channels. In particular, it should be noted that the learners from the second run
of the SPOC actually faced twice the amount of unfamiliarity and challenges:
from learning the subject knowledge in a less familiar language, i.e., English,
and from the rather unfamiliar content of the SPOC. Particularly, each ses-
sion of the SPOC began with familiar everyday pop culture texts but concluded
with abstract critical cultural studies theories and concepts that were seldom
seen in most secondary school curricular. However, a large proportion of these
students managed to complete the course. In addition, they were learning in
a stressful, hypercompetitive education system, with the pressure of obtain-
ing a high enough grade in the university entrance examination lingering in
their mind everyday (as communicated by Adele, Emily and their classmates
in the interviews) and they were constantly considered less capable in view of
their overall academic performance to benefit from English-medium instruc-
tion. However, their achievements and performance in the PoM-inspired SPOC
have destabilised such stereotypes about medium of instruction in Hong Kong.
As indicated by the learning analytics, they were earnestly engaged in study-
ing the cultural studies knowledge in the English-medium SPOC, strategically
planning their learning schedule (e.g., visiting the SPOC platform every few
days rather than just before the closing date) and judiciously arranging their
learning activity sequence for learning and practicing new academic English
and content knowledge (as evidenced by Vincent in the interview), demonstrat-
ing their potential and capability to not just learn English but also to learn other
content through effectively. Although they were not yet able to write extended
critical analysis on pop culture examples, many of them managed to formulate
critical reflections on race, class and gender ideologies embedded in multi-
modal semiotics and everyday life. In so doing, they managed to challenge the
identity binaries and social positioning (Bucholtz & Hall, 2010) incurred by
the schooling system (i.e., more capable English learning at English-medium
schools vs less capable English learners learning at Chinese-medium schools)
by constructing multiple, heterogeneous learner and audience identities and
widening their engagement with English literacies: from a less capable stu-
dent studying English only for passing university entrance exams to an active
learner who takes ownership of learning English and English-medium subjects
and expresses inner voices via English and different modalities.

The results suggest that PoM realized in the form of the SGM framework (Lin & Liu, 2020) in a self-directed learning space helps students to imagine new learner/audience identities, enhance individual agency in content and language learning, facilitate critical awareness and increase their academic English knowledge. This study provides evidence that the PoM proposed by the New London Group is still current, not only in learning literacy, but also in learning content subjects. However, as demonstrated by the implementation of the SPOC with the SGM toolkit (Lin & Liu, 2020), it can be enriched in the following ways: (1) providing school teachers and students with detailed frameworks and practical toolkits to unpack the multimodal texts; (2) providing an autonomous and scaffold-rich learning space for designing their own learning and making genuine meaning where students can explore their own learning pathway and communicate their inner voice, love, hate and desires aside from what and how the dominant schooling system and the high-stake examinations desire them to learn, read and write. In such an autonomous space designed with PoM, there are multimodal learning materials and toolkits for unpacking such materials, but it is up to learners to explore, arrange and define what they are doing. Such a space for autonomous learning and authentic meaning-making in CLIL and English literacy curricula may seem unstructured and chaotic in the first place, but it enables learners to freely develop semantic relations between the known and the unknown that sustains their critical literacy development. However, due to the limitation of sample size and time constraint of the current study, future research is needed to examine the effectiveness of the SGM framework (Lin & Liu, 2020) in CLIL in other regional or national contexts.

## References

Angay-Crowder, T., Choi, J., & Yi, Y. (2013). Putting multiliteracies into practice: Digital storytelling for multilingual adolescents in a summer program. *TESL Canada Journal, 30*(2), 36–45. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v30i2.1140

Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2010). Locating identity in language. In C. Llamas and D. Watt (Eds.), *Language and identities* (pp. 18–28). Edinburgh University Press.

Clow, D. (2013). An overview of learning analytics. *Teaching in Higher Education, 18*(6), 683–695. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2013.827653

Fang, Z., & Schleppegrell, M.J. (2010). Disciplinary literacies across content areas: Supporting secondary reading through functional language analysis. *Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53*(7), 587–597. https://doi.org/10.1598/JAAL.53.7.6
Freebody, P. & Luke, A. (2003). Literacy as engaging with new forms of life: The “four roles” model. In G. Bull and M. Anstey (Eds.), *The literacy lexicon* (pp. 51–66). Pearson Education.

García, O., & Li, W. (2014). *Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education*. Palgrave MacMillan. http://doi.org/10.1057/9781137385765

Giampapa, F. (2010). Multiliteracies, pedagogy and identities: Teacher and student voices from a Toronto elementary school. *Canadian Journal of Education, 33*(2), 407–431.

Halliday, M.A.K. (1985). *An introduction to functional grammar*. Arnold.

Halliday, M.A.K. (2013, October 23). *Languages, and language, in today's changing world* [Research seminar]. University of Hong Kong.

He, P. & Lin, A.M.Y. (2020). Translanguaging and trans-semiotizing approaches to content and language integrated learning (CLIL): Innovating with the multimodalities-entextualization cycle (MEC) preparing our students for a rapidly evolving world. *JACET Selected Papers, 7*(2020), 55–88.
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jacetselectedpapers/1/0/1_55/_pdf

Kim, M., & Xing, X. (2019). Appropriation of affordances of multiliteracies for Chinese literacy teaching in Canada. *Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 14*(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41039-019-0095-2

Kohnen, A.M., & Adams, B. (2019). Teaching multiliteracies to Chinese students: Challenges and insights. *Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 68*(1), 355–374 https://doi.org/10.1177/2381336919870262

Kuo, J.-M. (2012). When Cinderella goes to college: A gender awareness activity from a critical literacy perspective. *Tamkang Studies of Foreign Languages and Literatures, 20*, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.29716/TKSFLL.201212.0001

Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2006). *New literacies: Everyday practices and classroom learning*. Open University Press.

Leander, K., & Boldt, G. (2012). Rereading “A pedagogy of multiliteracies”: Bodies, texts, and emergence. *Journal of Literacy Research, 45*(1), 22–46.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X12468587

Lin, A.M.Y. (2015). Conceptualizing the potential role of L1 in content and language integrated learning (CLIL). *Language, Culture and Curriculum, 28*(1), 74–89.
https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2014.1000926

Lin, A.M.Y. (2019). Theories of trans/languaging and trans-semiotizing: Implications for content-based education classrooms. *International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22*(1), 5–16.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2018.1515175

Lin, A.M.Y., & Liu, Y. (2020). *The S-G-M model: An integrated approach to critical multimodal discourse analysis* [Paper presentation]. Pokfulam Circle Research Group, University of Hong Kong.
Lin, A.M., & He, P. (2017). Translanguaging as dynamic activity flows in CLIL classrooms. *Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 16*(4), 228–244.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2017.1328283

Liu, Y. (2019). Exploring bilingual learners’ desires in English-medium studies: Evidence from a Thai private bilingual school. *International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism*. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2019.1631750

Liu, Y. (2020). Translanguaging and trans-semiotizing as planned systematic scaffolding: Examining feeling-meaning in CLIL classrooms. *English Teaching & Learning, 44*(2), 149–173. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42321-020-00057-z

Marsh, D. (2002). *CLIL/EMILE-The European Dimension: Actions, Trends and Fore-sight Potential*. European Commission.
https://jyx.jyu.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/47616/1/david.marsh-report.pdf

Martínez, I.A. (2001). Impersonality in the research article as revealed by analysis of the transitivity structure. *English for Specific Purposes, 20*(3), 227–247.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0889-4906(00)00013-2

Meyer, O., Coyle, D., Halbach, A., Schuck, K., & Ting, T. (2015). A pluriliteracies approach to content and language integrated learning—mapping learner progressions in knowledge construction and meaning-making. *Language, Culture and Curriculum, 28*(1), 41–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2014.1000924

New London Group (NLG). (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. *Harvard Educational Review, 66*(1), 60–92.
https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.66.1.17370n67v22j160u

Qi, Y.J., Sun, Y., & Feng, D.Z. (2015). New media and English language teaching in China: A case study based on multiliteracies pedagogy. *TESOL International Journal, 10*(1), 149–160.

Ruan, Q. (2015). Cultivating English learners’ critical literacy in mainland China through the four resources model in blended learning. [PhD dissertation, University of Hong Kong]. HKU Scholars Hub. http://hub.hku.hk/handle/10722/222361

Spolsky, B. (2009). *Language management*. Cambridge University Press.

Sun, L. (2019). *A critical narrative inquiry of English teachers’ experiences of enacting a pedagogy of multiliteracies in China* [PhD dissertation, University of Western Ontario]. Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/6195

Tsui, A.P., & Ngo, H. (2017). Students’ perceptions of English-medium instruction in a Hong Kong university. *Asian Englishes, 19*(1), 57–78.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2016.1230484
## Appendix:

### Emily's and Adele's commentaries and online forum posts

[Author's note: The errors and mistakes in students' writing are left intact.]

### MOVIE (Final assignment written by Emily)

I think the movie is a great media to spread a positive message. There are many types of movies, for example, action, comedy, horror... The viewer can gather as much as they need. Also, we can know more about other country landscapes, humanities, customs, a nd even some the newest technology of movie-making.

What is the role of the movie? It is not only made for fun or relaxation but also it is manifestation of culture values and knowledge. Some movies are teaching us in both positive and negative ways so it can help us reflect on ourselves. We will be touched by the plot or certain words in the movie to get to know more philosophies on life which can give ourselves inspiration. We cry and laugh at the progress of the storyline which shows that the film not only brings me the stimulus of the picture, but also the emotional resonance.

### Post 1 by Emily (2018-01-31, 10:53:23)

Q2: Can you identify the six stages in the "Hollywood Movie Formula" with your favorite movie? Answer: "Get Out" is a 2017 American horror film written and directed by Jordan Peele.

**Set up:** Black photographer Chris Washington reluctantly agrees to meet the family of his white girlfriend Rose Armitage.

**New situation:** Chris Washington and his girlfriend Rose Armitage drove to hometown of Rose's suburban town over the weekend and Chris thought his skin color will be the of her family's discrimination. Fortunately, they aren't and very friendly and wanted to rest assured. One night, Rose's mother uses hypnosis made him quit smoking.

**Progress:** Chris observed that the demeanor of Georgian black housekeeper Joe King and black Gardett Walt was rather weird and Dozens of wealthy white people arrive for the Armitages' annual get-together. They take an interest in Chris. While Chris was away, Dean held a mysterious auction for Chris, while a blind art dealer, Jim Hudson, auctioned the auction.

**Complications and higher stakes:** Chris realize the problem and while he are packing to leave, Chris finds photos of Rose in prior relationships with black people, including Walter and Georgina. Chris felt a feared after reading, want to leave the house quickly, but when he came to the door, Rose and the family finally showed up and banned him from leaving the house, and Chris also fail sleep because of hypnotized.

**Aftermath:** Chris get out the risk smoothly and kill their family step by step for his life. Chris begins to strangle Rose, but stops. Rod arrives in a police car and Chris drive away.
**Post 2 by Emily (2018-01-31, 12:14:05)**

**Orientalism:** Mulan (1998 film) is a 1998 American animated musical action comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation for Walt Disney Pictures. That movie which is written by west and about a legend in China which are written by west. Also, the Chinatown exists throughout the world, including Asia, Australia, the Americas, Africa and Europe. It includes Orientalism and the foreigners' perception of China.

**Racism:** in the Second World War, Holocaust refers to the genocidal actions of nearly 6 million Jews in Nazi Germany and its collaborators, from 1941 to 1945, the Nazis persecuted all ethnic and political groups in Europe, and Jews were systematically massacred in the largest scale in history. I think it is racism because the belief in the superiority of one race over another, which often results in discrimination and prejudice towards people based on their race or ethnicity, the Holocaust is a classic example of institutionalized racism which led to the death of millions of people based on race.

**Post 3 by Emily (2018-01-31, 13:09:13)**

Q1: Can you identify meaning-making resources of a print advertisement? Answer: We should see the **action** that is the **narrative** that the print ad portrays also we should look into **typefaces of the slogan and the rhetorical device** to reinforce the message. In print ads, we should notice what sorts of background information that shapes audience understanding is inherent in print ads, such **intertextual light and background information** may serve to **perpetuate certain ideologies or cultural values**.

**Reflections (Final assignment written by Adele)**

Firstly, I learn some knowledge in this course. For example, I have learnt some vocabulary and other social things. Secondly, I like the most parts of course is the mini-movie commercial as it can make me feel touched. Also the mini movie can increase our sympathy. If we help each other, the people would help us too when we have hardship. It can enhance the people to concern and care more about other people. Concerning the society is more important. It is sincerely hoped that the people can help more necessary people. Although we need to care about ourselves first, we can also take care of other people. So I think this course is very useful. Not only it can make us to learn some vocabulary, but also other social and special knowledge. It is good for us to do. Lastly, I hope the course can make me improve my English because I think English is important for us to learn. It can help me to work well in the future. In addition, I think it is an international language so we need to learn it.

**Post 1 by Adele (2018-01-31, 17:01:40)**

*Pros and cons of neoliberalism*

Firstly, I think the pros of neoliberalism that it can protect human's rights as it competes with the government. It is good for capitalism. Secondly I think the cons of neoliberal-
ism are that it would make uneven between poor and rich people. It cannot protect the society's interest and ignore some people in the competition.

**Post 2 by Adele (2018-01-31, 17:22:01)**

*Racism*

Yes, I come across pop culture works that have elements of racism. Also when I work part-time, I saw a man from another country. Then, other people have discrimination against him.