Jacob Bezemer
Biographic Data
| ID | 185536 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jacob Bezemer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jacob |
| FAMILY NAME | Bezemer |
| SIGNATURE | BEZEMER J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9086-937X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 122 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Kress, Gunther
Gunther Kress (1940–2019) was a linguist, semiotician, and social theorist.
Calibrating expertise
Assessing film in higher education
This article explores the multimodal assessment practices of teachers in a vocationally oriented filmmaking course, specifically identifying the principles guiding the assessment of students' post-production work. The study addresses the question, according to what principles do teachers assess students' film post-production choices and expressions? Although there is previous research into assessment of multimodal text across different subjects, …
The Interactive Work of Implementing Synchronous Video‐Conference Calls—A Qualitative Study Within Early Intervention for Infants With Childhood‐Onset Neurodisability
INTRODUCTION: This study explores the 'peripandemic' implementation of synchronous videoconference calls during COVID-19 for delivering physiotherapy early intervention services to families of infants with childhood-onset disability. The interactional experience of conducting early intervention through videoconference calls is under researched. We aimed to understand parents' and therapists' experiences of communication and learning within early …
Gunther Kress - Explorer of the Semiotic Landscape
Workplace‐based assessments—Articulating the playbook
Multi-sensorial perceptions of risk
multi-sensorial anthropology. Through ethnographic research and data retrieved from eighty-three semistructured interviews and fifteen focus groups in seven Ecuadorian ethnic groups - including six Indigenous groups in the Amazon region - this paper analyses how the sensorium is a health thermometer. Findings reveal that differentiated cultural responses to a sense of peril, contagion and social (self)rejection, understood as stigma expressions, …
What modes can and cannot do
This paper presents a conceptual analysis and critical review of the notion of ‘affordance’ and its uptake, transformation and application in the work of Gunther Kress. It traces its origins and explores how Kress, co-founder of social semiotics, (re)conceptualised affordance and incorporated it in his social semiotic theory of sign making, defining affordance in terms of the “potentials and limitations of specific modes”. The paper discusses how…
Tribute to Gunther Kress (1940–2019)
Continuity and change
In this paper we develop a social semiotic account of continuity and change across texts. Our aims are to make a theoretical contribution to scholarly work on inter-textual relations by adopting a multimodal perspective; and to develop a framework for understanding how texts mediate knowing, learning and agency in education and beyond. We achieve this through a case study of surgical education. We present and analyze, first, a collection of pedag…
Introducing Multimodality
This accessible introduction to multimodality illuminates the potential of multimodal research for understanding the ways in which people communicate. Readers will become familiar with the key concepts and methods in various domains while learning how to engage critically with the notion of multimodality. The book challenges widely held assumptions about language and presents the practical steps involved in setting up a multimodal study, includin…
Multimodality, Learning and Communication
This state-of-the-art account of research and theorizing brings together multimodality, learning and communication through detailed analyses of signmakers and their meaning-making in museums, hospitals, schools and the home environment. By analyzing video recordings, photographs, screenshots and print materials, Jeff Bezemer and Gunther Kress go well beyond the comfortable domains of traditional sites of (social) semiotic and multimodal research.…
Holding the Scalpel
In this article, we show what surgical training looks like in situ. Drawing on fieldwork in a London hospital, we explore how a trainer and trainee jointly achieve surgical care when the trainee holds the scalpel. We make this common pedagogic arrangement visible through transcription and analysis of audio- and video-recorded interaction in the operating theater. Through moment-by-moment analysis of the temporal unfolding of action and speech, we…
“Do you have another Johan?” Negotiating meaning in the operating theatre
This paper discusses language use at a workplace in a context of instability and diversity. Its focus is on the operating theatre, where communication is an integral part of complex, collaborative tasks, impacting on patient-safety, staff well-being and overall quality of health care. In the operating theatre health care professionals gather to work on the recurring task of surgical operations, in teams that exist only for the duration or parts o…
Multimodal transcription as academic practice
With the increasing use of video recording in social research methodological questions about multimodal transcription are more timely than ever before. How do researchers transcribe gesture, for instance, or gaze, and how can they show to readers of their transcripts how such modes operate in social interaction alongside speech? Should researchers bother transcribing these modes of communication at all? How do they define a ‘good’ transcript? In …
Scissors, Please
The focus of this article is on professional activity in the operating theater. We explore how surgeons and nurses organize their activities, how social interaction is used to help structure and define situations, and how differentials in knowledge are constructed and oriented to. We utilize some ideas and concepts from symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, and conversation analysis to analyze small clips of audio- and video-recorded interac…
Visualizing English
In this article, the authors provide an empirically based, social semiotic account of changes in textbook design between 1930 and the present day. They look at the multimodal design of textbooks rather than at image or any other mode in isolation. Their review of 23 textbooks for secondary education in English shows that profound changes have taken place not just in the use of image but equally in writing, typography and layout. Design is no long…
Writing in Multimodal Texts
Frequently writing is now no longer the central mode of representation in learning materials-textbooks, Web-based resources, teacher-produced materials. Still (as well as moving) images are increasingly prominent as carriers of meaning. Uses and forms of writing have undergone profound changes over the last decades, which calls for a social, pedagogical, and semiotic explanation. Two trends mark that history. The digital media, rather than the (t…
Teaching and learning in multicultural contexts
In this paper, multicultural primary school classes in Norway and the Netherlands are compared in terms of language teaching and learning. Drawing on observations, interviews, and school and policy documents, four dimensions of comparison are discussed. First, we deal with the different ways in which separate language classes for language minority pupils were organized in the two cases. Secondly, the different ways of teaching and the underlying …
Background and Achievement Levels of Islamic Schools in the Netherlands
In the past decades, efforts have been made in various countries in Western Europe to set up state‐funded Islamic schools. Until recently, it was only in the Netherlands that these efforts were successful. At present, 28 Islamic primary schools are completely funded by the Dutch Government. They are attended by about 7000 pupils, who are largely of Moroccan and Turkish descent. The very existence of these schools is a highly controversial issue. …
Writing in Multimodal Texts
Frequently writing is now no longer the central mode of representation in learning materials-textbooks, Web-based resources, teacher-produced materials. Still (as well as moving) images are increasingly prominent as carriers of meaning. Uses and forms of writing have undergone profound changes over the last decades, which calls for a social, pedagogical, and semiotic explanation. Two trends mark that history. The digital media, rather than the (t…
Multimodal transcription as academic practice
With the increasing use of video recording in social research methodological questions about multimodal transcription are more timely than ever before. How do researchers transcribe gesture, for instance, or gaze, and how can they show to readers of their transcripts how such modes operate in social interaction alongside speech? Should researchers bother transcribing these modes of communication at all? How do they define a ‘good’ transcript? In …
Scissors, Please
The focus of this article is on professional activity in the operating theater. We explore how surgeons and nurses organize their activities, how social interaction is used to help structure and define situations, and how differentials in knowledge are constructed and oriented to. We utilize some ideas and concepts from symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, and conversation analysis to analyze small clips of audio- and video-recorded interac…
Holding the Scalpel
In this article, we show what surgical training looks like in situ. Drawing on fieldwork in a London hospital, we explore how a trainer and trainee jointly achieve surgical care when the trainee holds the scalpel. We make this common pedagogic arrangement visible through transcription and analysis of audio- and video-recorded interaction in the operating theater. Through moment-by-moment analysis of the temporal unfolding of action and speech, we…
Visualizing English
In this article, the authors provide an empirically based, social semiotic account of changes in textbook design between 1930 and the present day. They look at the multimodal design of textbooks rather than at image or any other mode in isolation. Their review of 23 textbooks for secondary education in English shows that profound changes have taken place not just in the use of image but equally in writing, typography and layout. Design is no long…
Background and Achievement Levels of Islamic Schools in the Netherlands
In the past decades, efforts have been made in various countries in Western Europe to set up state‐funded Islamic schools. Until recently, it was only in the Netherlands that these efforts were successful. At present, 28 Islamic primary schools are completely funded by the Dutch Government. They are attended by about 7000 pupils, who are largely of Moroccan and Turkish descent. The very existence of these schools is a highly controversial issue. …
Background and Achievement Levels of Islamic Schools in the Netherlands
In the past decades, efforts have been made in various countries in Western Europe to set up state‐funded Islamic schools. Until recently, it was only in the Netherlands that these efforts were successful. At present, 28 Islamic primary schools are completely funded by the Dutch Government. They are attended by about 7000 pupils, who are largely of Moroccan and Turkish descent. The very existence of these schools is a highly controversial issue. …
Teaching and learning in multicultural contexts
In this paper, multicultural primary school classes in Norway and the Netherlands are compared in terms of language teaching and learning. Drawing on observations, interviews, and school and policy documents, four dimensions of comparison are discussed. First, we deal with the different ways in which separate language classes for language minority pupils were organized in the two cases. Secondly, the different ways of teaching and the underlying …
Writing in Multimodal Texts
Frequently writing is now no longer the central mode of representation in learning materials-textbooks, Web-based resources, teacher-produced materials. Still (as well as moving) images are increasingly prominent as carriers of meaning. Uses and forms of writing have undergone profound changes over the last decades, which calls for a social, pedagogical, and semiotic explanation. Two trends mark that history. The digital media, rather than the (t…
Visualizing English
In this article, the authors provide an empirically based, social semiotic account of changes in textbook design between 1930 and the present day. They look at the multimodal design of textbooks rather than at image or any other mode in isolation. Their review of 23 textbooks for secondary education in English shows that profound changes have taken place not just in the use of image but equally in writing, typography and layout. Design is no long…
“Do you have another Johan?” Negotiating meaning in the operating theatre
This paper discusses language use at a workplace in a context of instability and diversity. Its focus is on the operating theatre, where communication is an integral part of complex, collaborative tasks, impacting on patient-safety, staff well-being and overall quality of health care. In the operating theatre health care professionals gather to work on the recurring task of surgical operations, in teams that exist only for the duration or parts o…
Multimodal transcription as academic practice
With the increasing use of video recording in social research methodological questions about multimodal transcription are more timely than ever before. How do researchers transcribe gesture, for instance, or gaze, and how can they show to readers of their transcripts how such modes operate in social interaction alongside speech? Should researchers bother transcribing these modes of communication at all? How do they define a ‘good’ transcript? In …
Scissors, Please
The focus of this article is on professional activity in the operating theater. We explore how surgeons and nurses organize their activities, how social interaction is used to help structure and define situations, and how differentials in knowledge are constructed and oriented to. We utilize some ideas and concepts from symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, and conversation analysis to analyze small clips of audio- and video-recorded interac…
Holding the Scalpel
In this article, we show what surgical training looks like in situ. Drawing on fieldwork in a London hospital, we explore how a trainer and trainee jointly achieve surgical care when the trainee holds the scalpel. We make this common pedagogic arrangement visible through transcription and analysis of audio- and video-recorded interaction in the operating theater. Through moment-by-moment analysis of the temporal unfolding of action and speech, we…
Multimodality, Learning and Communication
This state-of-the-art account of research and theorizing brings together multimodality, learning and communication through detailed analyses of signmakers and their meaning-making in museums, hospitals, schools and the home environment. By analyzing video recordings, photographs, screenshots and print materials, Jeff Bezemer and Gunther Kress go well beyond the comfortable domains of traditional sites of (social) semiotic and multimodal research.…
Introducing Multimodality
This accessible introduction to multimodality illuminates the potential of multimodal research for understanding the ways in which people communicate. Readers will become familiar with the key concepts and methods in various domains while learning how to engage critically with the notion of multimodality. The book challenges widely held assumptions about language and presents the practical steps involved in setting up a multimodal study, includin…
Continuity and change
In this paper we develop a social semiotic account of continuity and change across texts. Our aims are to make a theoretical contribution to scholarly work on inter-textual relations by adopting a multimodal perspective; and to develop a framework for understanding how texts mediate knowing, learning and agency in education and beyond. We achieve this through a case study of surgical education. We present and analyze, first, a collection of pedag…
Tribute to Gunther Kress (1940–2019)
Workplace‐based assessments—Articulating the playbook
Multi-sensorial perceptions of risk
multi-sensorial anthropology. Through ethnographic research and data retrieved from eighty-three semistructured interviews and fifteen focus groups in seven Ecuadorian ethnic groups - including six Indigenous groups in the Amazon region - this paper analyses how the sensorium is a health thermometer. Findings reveal that differentiated cultural responses to a sense of peril, contagion and social (self)rejection, understood as stigma expressions, …
What modes can and cannot do
This paper presents a conceptual analysis and critical review of the notion of ‘affordance’ and its uptake, transformation and application in the work of Gunther Kress. It traces its origins and explores how Kress, co-founder of social semiotics, (re)conceptualised affordance and incorporated it in his social semiotic theory of sign making, defining affordance in terms of the “potentials and limitations of specific modes”. The paper discusses how…
Gunther Kress - Explorer of the Semiotic Landscape
Assessing film in higher education
This article explores the multimodal assessment practices of teachers in a vocationally oriented filmmaking course, specifically identifying the principles guiding the assessment of students' post-production work. The study addresses the question, according to what principles do teachers assess students' film post-production choices and expressions? Although there is previous research into assessment of multimodal text across different subjects, …
The Interactive Work of Implementing Synchronous Video‐Conference Calls—A Qualitative Study Within Early Intervention for Infants With Childhood‐Onset Neurodisability
INTRODUCTION: This study explores the 'peripandemic' implementation of synchronous videoconference calls during COVID-19 for delivering physiotherapy early intervention services to families of infants with childhood-onset disability. The interactional experience of conducting early intervention through videoconference calls is under researched. We aimed to understand parents' and therapists' experiences of communication and learning within early …
Kress, Gunther
Gunther Kress (1940–2019) was a linguist, semiotician, and social theorist.
Calibrating expertise
Psychology (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Linguistics (9 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Art (6 works) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Literacy, Media, and Education (5 works) · Medicine (5 works) · Multimodality (5 works)