RSSThesis: Investigating International Postgraduate Business Students’ Multimodal Literacy And Numeracy Practices: A Multidimensional Approach
Nov 14
Institution: University of Adelaide
Program: European Studies and Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2014
Author: Hesham Suleiman Dawoud Alyousef
Dissertation Title: Investigating International Postgraduate Business Students’ Multimodal Literacy And Numeracy Practices: A Multidimensional Approach
Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
Discipline of Linguistics
Discourse Analysis
Linguistic Theories
Dissertation Director(s):
Peter Mickan
Michelle Yvette Picard
Dissertation Abstract:
The purpose of this ethnographic case study is to document multimodal literacy
and numeracy practices of seven Saudi postgraduate students enrolled in the
Master of Commerce Accounting program at the University of Adelaide,
Australia. Specifically, it aims to investigate the interrelated dimensions of
multimodal texts, literacy and numeracy practices, and contexts.
The study employs a multidimensional framework for researching the
participants’ literacy and numeracy practices in three course modules:
Accounting Concepts and Methods, Principles of Finance, and Management
Accounting. The study includes a metadiscourse analysis of collaborative wiki
literacy practices in the Intermediate Financial Reporting module. The
framework consists of three stages of analysis: description of literacy and
numeracy requirements, description of literacy events and participants’ actual
practices and their experiences, and a Systemic Functional Multimodal
Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) of business texts. The analysis of the study is
primarily based on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) (Halliday, 1985;
Halliday & Hasan, 1976; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004). The findings of the
case study revealed the academic literacy and numeracy practices students were
expected to manage with in key topics in the business modules.
The analysis of the three accounting modules and the online literacy practices
revealed the multimodal and multisemiotic nature of accounting discourse,
diversity of text type, the literacy and numeracy practices, and features of
collaborative learning. The multiple-perspective framework has implications
for the investigation of tertiary students’ literacy practices in other
disciplines with the application of an SF-MDA of financial statements, graphs,
and mathematical symbolism.
Recent Comments