The Use of Powerpoint Presentations in Academic English in the Soft Sciences
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13136/2281-4582/2017.i10.484Abstract
The Power Point programme (PPT) is increasingly used by academics for their presentations. Despite this fact, there have been few linguistic studies that have dealt with PPT, especially as regards the Soft Sciences. The present explorative study seeks to qualitatively investigate the use of PPT by using as terms of comparison universities and conferences, the use of PPT by native speakers as opposed to non-native ones, and the use of PPT in disciplines such as psychology and pedagogy, adopting several parameters present in the literature to see whether there are differences among these elements and, if so, of what kind. The corpus consists of 566 slides, and the results shed light on this type of digital genre, which takes on unique features when used in the Soft Sciences.
References
Bertin, Jacques. Sémiologie graphique. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1973.
Cassily, Charles and Eija Ventola. “A Multi-semiotic Genre: The Conference Slide Show.” The Language of Conferencing. Eds. Eija Ventola, Celia Shalom and Susan Thompson. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2002. 169-209.
Crawford Camiciottoli, Belinda, and Inmaculada Fortanet-Gómez. Multimodal Analysis in Academic Settings: From Research to Teaching. New York: Routledge, 2015.
D’Angelo, Larissa. Academic Posters – A Textual and Visual Metadiscourse Analysis. Bern: Peter Lang, 2016.
Saggi/Essays
Issue 10 – Fall/Winter 2017 62
Degano, Chiara. “Texture Beyond the Text: Slides and Talk in Conference Presentations.” Effects of Genre Variation in Academic Communication. Disciplinary Emerging Trends. Eds. Stefania Maci and Michele Sala. Bergamo: CELSB, 2012. 135-152.
Diani, Giuliana. “Visual Communication in Applied Linguistics Conference Presentations Multimodal Analysis in Academic Settings: From Research to Teaching.” Multimodal Analysis in Academic Settings: From Research to Teaching. Eds. Belinda Crawford Camiciottoli and Inmaculada Fortanet-Gómez. New York: Routledge, 2015. 83-107.
Dörnyei, Zoltan. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Flowerdew, John. “Definitions in Science Lectures.” Applied Linguistics 13.2 (1992): 202-221.
---. Academic Listening. Cambridge: CUP, 1994.
Kmalvand, Ayad. “Visual Communication in PowerPoint Presentations in Applied Linguistics.” TechTrends 59.3 (2015): 41-45.
Knoblauch, Hubert. “The Performance of Knowledge: Pointing and Knowledge in PowerPoint Presentations.” Cultural Sociology 2.1 (2008): 75-97.
Mariotti, Cristina. “Genre Variation in Academic Spoken English: the Case of Lectures and Research Conference Presentations.” Effects of Genre Variation in Academic Communication. Disciplinary Emerging Trends. Eds. Stefania Maci and Michele Sala. Bergamo: CELSB, 2012. 63-84.
Morrell, Teresa. “International Conference Paper Presentations: A Multimodal Analysis to Determine Effectiveness.” English for Specific Purposes 37 (2015): 137-150.
Rowley-Jolivet, Elizabeth. “Visual Discourse in Scientific Conference Papers a Genre-based Study.” English for Specific Purposes 21 (2002): 19-40.
---. “Oralising Text Slides in Scientific Conference Presentations: A Multimodal Corpus Analysis.” Corpus-informed research and learning in ESP: Issues and Applications. Eds. Alex Boulton, Susan Carter-Thomas and Elizabeth Rowley-Jolivet. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2012. 137-166.
---. and Shirley Carter-Thomas. “Genre Awareness and Rhetorical Appropriacy: Manipulation of Information Structure by NS and NNS Scientists in the International Conference Setting.” English for Specific Purposes 24 (2005): 41-64.
Tufte, Edward. The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint. Graphics Press, 2003.
Young, Lynne. Language as Behaviour, Language as Code. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1990.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2019 Francesca Costa
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Iperstoria is an Open Access journal.- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 BY-NC License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of their work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. We require authors to inform us of any instances of re-publication.