‘It all begins with a teacher’

A multimodal critical discourse analysis of Singapore’s teacher recruitment videos

Bibliographic Data

ID21788406
AuthorsPeter Teo (0000-0001-8564-4494, Nanyang Technological University, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume15
Issue3
Pages330-348
Publication date2021-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiscourse & Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1750-4813 • E-ISSN: 1750-4821
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1750481321999909
OpenAlexW3155016676
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited47

This study focuses on a series of videos aimed at teacher recruitment in Singapore and how they are used as an ideological tool for persuasion. By adopting a multimodal critical discourse analysis approach to focus on affect, it examines how these videos create and promulgate the ideology of an ideal teacher as one who is caring, encouraging and supportive of students. The analysis shows how affect is not only embodied in and performed by the primary protagonists in the video narratives through their action, facial expression, posture and speech. It is also evoked through various secondary meaning-making modes, such as focus, angle, lighting, background music and setting, through which the narratives unfold. More importantly, it demonstrates how affect is used not only as a means to arouse and engage viewers’ sensibilities but also as a persuasive strategy to manufacture and manage particular social and economic realities in contemporary society

Aesthetics · Art · Critical discourse analysis · Discourse analysis · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Ideology · Linguistics · Multimodality · Narrative · Persuasion · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Communication · Computer Science · Humor Studies and Applications · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Psychology · Social Psychology · Socioeconomic Development in Asia