Hesham Suleiman Alyousef | King Saud University - Academia.edu

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Hesham Suleiman Alyousef

King Saud University, Dept of English & Literature, Faculty Member

King Saud University, Dept of English & Literature, Faculty Member |

Cohesion Analysis

150 Followers | 47 Following | —Total Views

Papers

JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC STUDIES Investigating ESL/EFL students' approaches in response to revision processes: A case study

The issues surrounding giving feedback to second language (L2) learners have attracted the intere... more The issues surrounding giving feedback to second language (L2) learners have attracted the interests of a number of researchers to date. Most continue to wonder how to give L2 students effective feedback. Some studies found that ESL/EFL students focus mainly on surface-level issues, those that relate to grammatical and mechanical aspects of writing, when attending to teacher feedback. Others found that students attend to meaning-level feedback as well, which relates to meaning changes, such as sentence clarification or the request to add a topic sentence. This raises a question: why do some students focus on surface-level issues while others focus on meaning-level issues? This study aimed to identify and understand the revision approach of six highly motivated ESL/EFL learners, analyzing their texts and confirming the results from their own point of view. We employed three data sources: structured and retrospective interviews, the students' written texts, and the tutors' written feedback. The students' revised drafts were analyzed using Faighly and Witte's (1981) taxonomy of revisions, which helped to clarify the dominant features of the students' revisions. Even though the students were at the same proficiency level, half of them focused on broader meaning-level changes (labeled as global-oriented students) and the other half were inclined to focus on surface-level changes (labeled as local-oriented students). Determining whether learners are local or global in their orientation is important in increasing the impact of feedback in perfecting students' writing. Further investigation on this issue may significantly improve the way in which written feedback is provided and utilized.

Views

Australian Journal of Linguistics The Experiential Meaning in Saudi Postgraduate Business Students' Multimodal Accounting Texts: A Multidimensional Exploration

The multimodal experiential meanings of accounting play a vital role in maximizing the learning e... more The multimodal experiential meanings of accounting play a vital role in maximizing the learning experiences of accounting students. This paper aims to explore the literacy and numeracy practices of six Saudi postgraduate students enrolled in the Master of Commerce accounting foundation module Accounting Concepts and Methods. Responding to repeated calls regarding the lack of research on the literacy and numeracy practices that construe disciplinary subjects, we employed a multidimensional approach proposed by Alyousef to describe the epistemologies of the module and the actual practices the participants engaged with to complete their assignment, in addition to conducting a Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) of the experiential meanings in accounting texts. The SF-MDA enabled us to capture the patterns of such complicated interrelationships between numbers and texts. The findings of the analysis of the multimodal accounting financial statements demonstrated that systemic functional linguistics provides tools that structure interpretation of the functioning of multimodal texts.

Views

A multimodal discourse analysis of the textual and logical relations in marketing texts written by international undergraduate students

Thematic progression and the composition of information value contribute to the development of we... more Thematic progression and the composition of information value contribute to the development of well-structured meaningful text. Discourse-based research of the textual features has been confined to language learning and workplace contexts, and in particular advertising and marketing research. However, no published study has explored and analysed the multimodal textual and the logic-semantic features in tertiary marketing texts. This case study employed a Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) to investigate and compare thematic progression patterns and composition of information value in five business marketing plan reports. It also aimed to investigate the logico–semantic expansions between the visual semiotic resources and the text surrounding them. The SF-MDA of the marketing plan texts is underpinned by Halliday’s (1994) systemic functional linguistics, Kress and van Leeuwen’s (1996) composition of information value and Martinec and Salway’s (2005) system for multimodal discourse analysis of logico– semantic relations. The findings of the SF-MDA revealed the extensive use of Theme reiteration pattern, followed by linear thematic progression pattern. Although multiple-Theme pattern was minimally employed, disciplinary-specific uses of this pattern in marketing discourse emerged. The findings suggest that the students have managed professional workplace practices by showing their understandings of marketing as part of overall business management. A number of other interesting findings related to textual and logico–semantic relations that exist between the tables and the graphs and the accompanying text were revealed. The SF-MDA of informational choices in the marketing texts extends Kress and van Leeuwen’s (1996) functional interpretations of visual artefacts in terms of compositional zones. As the intersemiotic logic-semantic relations between graphs and tables and the orthographic texts surrounding them play a vital role in marketing discourse, tutors can introduce ways of expanding the meaning-making potential in these semiotic resources. Other pedagogical implications for the teaching and learning of writing are presented, particularly in the teaching of English for Business students.

Views

A multimodal discourse analysis of international postgraduate business students’ finance texts: an investigation of theme and information value

Thematic progression patterning and the composition of information value facilitate the developme... more Thematic progression patterning and the composition of information value facilitate the development of well-structured messages. The text-based research of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) into textual features has been confined to language learning and workplace contexts. Empirical research studies involving finance have investigated students’ performance in finance courses and the effects of class attendance on their performance. However, no published studies have yet explored or analysed the textual features of tertiary finance texts. This study investigated the Theme and information value in 6 group assignments in finance, written by 19 Master’s students in accounting. Underpinned by Halliday’s SFL and Kress and van Leeuwen’s system of the composition of information value, this study employed a systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA) of the texts. The SF-MDA revealed a high frequency of Theme reiteration patterns, the rare occurrence of a linear Theme pattern, and the minimal use of a multiple-Theme pattern. These findings have both theoretical and pedagogical implications for the teaching and learning of writing, particularly in the context of teaching English for business purposes.

Views

Assessment Preferences of Saudi Undergraduate EFL Students: Formative Feedback through Summative Lecture-Based Assessment

Class participation and assignments are considered important parts since they contribute to stude... more Class participation and assignments are considered important parts since they contribute to students‟ deep learning. Although positive correlations were found in a number of studies (Sly, 1999; Sly & Rennie, 1999) between formative assessment and subsequent performance on summative assessment tasks, they were confined to computerised practice tests. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to investigate the experiences and perceptions of 14 tertiary undergraduate male English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students majoring in Linguistics and Literature, and enrolled in a Translation course. Specifically, the study aims to 1) identify the participants‟ experiences and perception about the benefits of formative feedback through summative lecture-based feedback in the form of weekly assignments, class discussions and students‟ presentations, 2) explore whether the participants believe that the course reflected the learning outcomes and the communication skills set out in the curriculum, and 3) elicit EFL students‟ views of the course and their assessment preferences. Data was collected through a questionnaire and unstructured interviews in order to receive further clarifications. The findings of the study revealed that the summative lecture-based assessment was effective in terms of the learning outcomes, which included improving the EFL students‟ translation interpersonal and intellectual abilities and the use of corpus concordances. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Views

A study of cohesion in international postgraduate Business students' multimodal written texts: An SF-MDA of a key topic in finance.

Empirical research studies of finance students’ language use have investigated students’ performa... more Empirical research studies of finance students’ language use have investigated students’ performance in finance courses and the effect of class attendance on students’ performance. Similarly, research on accounting students’ texts has been directed at readability of accounting narratives and lexical choices. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) based research in multimodal communication and representation has been confined to school and workplace contexts. Whereas multimodal communication investigations in tertiary contexts has been conducted across the fields of mathematics, science and computing, and nursing, business courses have not been explored. The purpose of this paper is to report on a case study designed to investigate the key multimodal academic literacy and numeracy practices of ten international Master of Commerce Accounting students enrolled at an Australian university. Specifically, it aims to provide an account of the salient textual and the logical patterns through the analysis of cohesive devices in a key topic in the Principles of Finance course, namely capital budgeting techniques and management reports. This study is pertinent as most international ESL/EFL students’ enrolments in Australia and elsewhere is in business programs. This study is underpinned by Halliday’s (1985) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach to language and Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) cohesion analysis scheme. The study employs a Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) for the analysis of cohesive devices in the participants’ multimodal texts. Lexical cohesion formed the largest percentage of use, and in particular repetition of the same lexical items, followed by reference.The findings contribute to the description of the meaning-making processes in these multimodal artefacts. They provide a potential research tool for similar investigations across a broad range of educational settings. Implications of the findings for finance students and educators are finally presented.

Views

An Investigation of metadiscourse features in international postgraduate business students' texts: the use of interactive and interactional markers in tertiary multimodal finance texts

Metadiscourse analysis reveals the way writers engage with different texts and communicate with e... more Metadiscourse analysis reveals the way writers engage with different texts and communicate with each other. Examining these linguistic resources is important because they play a vital role in maximizing the learning experiences of students in the Master’s program in Accounting. Yet, there is a lack of research investigating these features in a key topic in the Principles of Finance course: management reports that encompass tables and graphs. This study explores the use of metadiscourse markers in three multimodal management reports written by 10 international Master’s of Accounting students. It employs Hyland and Tse’s model and Hyland’s model for the multimodal analysis of metadiscourse markers in finance texts. The findings show a high frequency of interactive and interactional markers in the orthographic texts compared with a lack of implicit interactive markers and a high frequency of implicit interactional markers in the tables and graphs. Implications for the teaching of English for Business Purposes (EBP) are discussed.

Views

A study of Cohesion in International Postgraduate Students’ Multimodal Management Accounting Texts

This study investigates the key multimodal academic literacy and numeracy practices of five inter... more This study investigates the key multimodal academic literacy and numeracy practices of five international postgraduate students enrolled at an Australian university. Specifically, it aims to provide an account of the salient textual and the logical patterns through the analysis of cohesive devices in a key topic in the Management Accounting course, namely budgeting schedules. The research study employs a Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) of texts (Alyousef, 2013, 2015; Alyousef & Mickan, forthcoming). This approach is framed by Halliday‟s (1985) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach and Halliday & Hasan‟s (1976) cohesion analysis schemes. SFL provides powerful analytical tools for foregrounding the processes through which students construct disciplinary specific knowledge in a community through academic literacies. Lexical cohesion formed the largest percentage of use, and in particular repetition of the same lexical items, followed by reference.The findings contribute to the description of the meaning-making processes in these multimodal artefacts. They provide a potential research tool for similar multimodal investigations across a broad range of educational settings. Implications of the findings are finally presented.

Views

A Study of Theme and Information Structure in Postgraduate Business Students' Multimodal Written Texts: An SF-MDA of Management Accounting Texts

THEME and INFORMATION structure facilitate the development of well-structured text, thereby provi... more THEME and INFORMATION structure facilitate the development of well-structured text, thereby providing cohesion within language. Systemic functional linguistics’ (SFL) research in multimodal business communication and representation has been confined to workplace and school contexts. Similarly, empirical research studies of finance have investigated students’ performance in finance courses and the effect of class attendance on students’ performance. However, no published study has explored and analysed the textual features in tertiary finance texts. The importance of examining THEME and INFORMATION structure in tertiary settings becomes pertinent since it plays a vital role in maximising accounting students’ learning experiences. The study aims to explore the multimodal literacy and numeracy social practices of five first-year Master of Commerce Accounting international students enrolled at an Australian university. It is of interest as most international ESL/EFL students in Australia and elsewhere are enrolled in business programs (Alyousef & Picard, 2011). This study reports on a case study designed to investigate and analyse the use of THEME and INFORMATION structure in a key topic in the Management Accounting course, namely budgeting schedules. It employed the multidimensional approach proposed by Alyousef (2013) to describe the participants’ learning experiences and to investigate and explore the organisation of the multimodal texts. The Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) revealed the frequency of two patterns: Theme reiteration and the linear pattern. Theme reiteration in accounting is used to define the accounting numerical values. Thematic choices in the budgeting tables are constrained by the authoritative source of knowledge for the presentation of information structure in accounting statements. A number of other interesting findings related to the flow of information structure in the multimodal tables are presented and discussed. The study concludes with the pedagogical implications of the findings.

Views

Investigating Saudi learners’ preferences for giving and receiving macro and/or micro level peer feedback on their writing.

Several studies have addressed the subject of the preferences of L2 student-writers for receiving... more Several studies have addressed the subject of the preferences of L2 student-writers for receiving teacher feedback (FB) on macro level features (feedback related to meaning) and micro level features (feedback related to surface level issues); however, none of these have investigated their preferences when it comes to giving and receiving peer feedback (PF). In the present study, two forms of the peer feedback technique were introduced in two consecutive phases: in phase one the students practised providing both macro and micro peer feedback on five essays, while in phase two they provided only macro feedback to their fellow students while the teacher supplied the micro feedback. The participants were 41 EFL undergraduate Saudi students undertaking an English programme at a Saudi higher tertiary institution. The study adopted a one-group design for the data collection. A mixed method approach was employed using pre-, mid- and post-questionnaires, mid- and post-interviews, and also recording verbal protocol sessions while the participants provided peer feedback to one another. The findings of the study suggested that the participants had a preference for giving and receiving peer feedback on both levels. However, it also appeared that their responses may have been affected by the way they had been taught in the past.

Views

JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC STUDIES Investigating ESL/EFL students' approaches in response to revision processes: A case study

The issues surrounding giving feedback to second language (L2) learners have attracted the intere... more The issues surrounding giving feedback to second language (L2) learners have attracted the interests of a number of researchers to date. Most continue to wonder how to give L2 students effective feedback. Some studies found that ESL/EFL students focus mainly on surface-level issues, those that relate to grammatical and mechanical aspects of writing, when attending to teacher feedback. Others found that students attend to meaning-level feedback as well, which relates to meaning changes, such as sentence clarification or the request to add a topic sentence. This raises a question: why do some students focus on surface-level issues while others focus on meaning-level issues? This study aimed to identify and understand the revision approach of six highly motivated ESL/EFL learners, analyzing their texts and confirming the results from their own point of view. We employed three data sources: structured and retrospective interviews, the students' written texts, and the tutors' written feedback. The students' revised drafts were analyzed using Faighly and Witte's (1981) taxonomy of revisions, which helped to clarify the dominant features of the students' revisions. Even though the students were at the same proficiency level, half of them focused on broader meaning-level changes (labeled as global-oriented students) and the other half were inclined to focus on surface-level changes (labeled as local-oriented students). Determining whether learners are local or global in their orientation is important in increasing the impact of feedback in perfecting students' writing. Further investigation on this issue may significantly improve the way in which written feedback is provided and utilized.

Views

Australian Journal of Linguistics The Experiential Meaning in Saudi Postgraduate Business Students' Multimodal Accounting Texts: A Multidimensional Exploration

The multimodal experiential meanings of accounting play a vital role in maximizing the learning e... more The multimodal experiential meanings of accounting play a vital role in maximizing the learning experiences of accounting students. This paper aims to explore the literacy and numeracy practices of six Saudi postgraduate students enrolled in the Master of Commerce accounting foundation module Accounting Concepts and Methods. Responding to repeated calls regarding the lack of research on the literacy and numeracy practices that construe disciplinary subjects, we employed a multidimensional approach proposed by Alyousef to describe the epistemologies of the module and the actual practices the participants engaged with to complete their assignment, in addition to conducting a Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) of the experiential meanings in accounting texts. The SF-MDA enabled us to capture the patterns of such complicated interrelationships between numbers and texts. The findings of the analysis of the multimodal accounting financial statements demonstrated that systemic functional linguistics provides tools that structure interpretation of the functioning of multimodal texts.

Views

A multimodal discourse analysis of the textual and logical relations in marketing texts written by international undergraduate students

Thematic progression and the composition of information value contribute to the development of we... more Thematic progression and the composition of information value contribute to the development of well-structured meaningful text. Discourse-based research of the textual features has been confined to language learning and workplace contexts, and in particular advertising and marketing research. However, no published study has explored and analysed the multimodal textual and the logic-semantic features in tertiary marketing texts. This case study employed a Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) to investigate and compare thematic progression patterns and composition of information value in five business marketing plan reports. It also aimed to investigate the logico–semantic expansions between the visual semiotic resources and the text surrounding them. The SF-MDA of the marketing plan texts is underpinned by Halliday’s (1994) systemic functional linguistics, Kress and van Leeuwen’s (1996) composition of information value and Martinec and Salway’s (2005) system for multimodal discourse analysis of logico– semantic relations. The findings of the SF-MDA revealed the extensive use of Theme reiteration pattern, followed by linear thematic progression pattern. Although multiple-Theme pattern was minimally employed, disciplinary-specific uses of this pattern in marketing discourse emerged. The findings suggest that the students have managed professional workplace practices by showing their understandings of marketing as part of overall business management. A number of other interesting findings related to textual and logico–semantic relations that exist between the tables and the graphs and the accompanying text were revealed. The SF-MDA of informational choices in the marketing texts extends Kress and van Leeuwen’s (1996) functional interpretations of visual artefacts in terms of compositional zones. As the intersemiotic logic-semantic relations between graphs and tables and the orthographic texts surrounding them play a vital role in marketing discourse, tutors can introduce ways of expanding the meaning-making potential in these semiotic resources. Other pedagogical implications for the teaching and learning of writing are presented, particularly in the teaching of English for Business students.

Views

A multimodal discourse analysis of international postgraduate business students’ finance texts: an investigation of theme and information value

Thematic progression patterning and the composition of information value facilitate the developme... more Thematic progression patterning and the composition of information value facilitate the development of well-structured messages. The text-based research of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) into textual features has been confined to language learning and workplace contexts. Empirical research studies involving finance have investigated students’ performance in finance courses and the effects of class attendance on their performance. However, no published studies have yet explored or analysed the textual features of tertiary finance texts. This study investigated the Theme and information value in 6 group assignments in finance, written by 19 Master’s students in accounting. Underpinned by Halliday’s SFL and Kress and van Leeuwen’s system of the composition of information value, this study employed a systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA) of the texts. The SF-MDA revealed a high frequency of Theme reiteration patterns, the rare occurrence of a linear Theme pattern, and the minimal use of a multiple-Theme pattern. These findings have both theoretical and pedagogical implications for the teaching and learning of writing, particularly in the context of teaching English for business purposes.

Views

Assessment Preferences of Saudi Undergraduate EFL Students: Formative Feedback through Summative Lecture-Based Assessment

Class participation and assignments are considered important parts since they contribute to stude... more Class participation and assignments are considered important parts since they contribute to students‟ deep learning. Although positive correlations were found in a number of studies (Sly, 1999; Sly & Rennie, 1999) between formative assessment and subsequent performance on summative assessment tasks, they were confined to computerised practice tests. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to investigate the experiences and perceptions of 14 tertiary undergraduate male English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students majoring in Linguistics and Literature, and enrolled in a Translation course. Specifically, the study aims to 1) identify the participants‟ experiences and perception about the benefits of formative feedback through summative lecture-based feedback in the form of weekly assignments, class discussions and students‟ presentations, 2) explore whether the participants believe that the course reflected the learning outcomes and the communication skills set out in the curriculum, and 3) elicit EFL students‟ views of the course and their assessment preferences. Data was collected through a questionnaire and unstructured interviews in order to receive further clarifications. The findings of the study revealed that the summative lecture-based assessment was effective in terms of the learning outcomes, which included improving the EFL students‟ translation interpersonal and intellectual abilities and the use of corpus concordances. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Views

A study of cohesion in international postgraduate Business students' multimodal written texts: An SF-MDA of a key topic in finance.

Empirical research studies of finance students’ language use have investigated students’ performa... more Empirical research studies of finance students’ language use have investigated students’ performance in finance courses and the effect of class attendance on students’ performance. Similarly, research on accounting students’ texts has been directed at readability of accounting narratives and lexical choices. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) based research in multimodal communication and representation has been confined to school and workplace contexts. Whereas multimodal communication investigations in tertiary contexts has been conducted across the fields of mathematics, science and computing, and nursing, business courses have not been explored. The purpose of this paper is to report on a case study designed to investigate the key multimodal academic literacy and numeracy practices of ten international Master of Commerce Accounting students enrolled at an Australian university. Specifically, it aims to provide an account of the salient textual and the logical patterns through the analysis of cohesive devices in a key topic in the Principles of Finance course, namely capital budgeting techniques and management reports. This study is pertinent as most international ESL/EFL students’ enrolments in Australia and elsewhere is in business programs. This study is underpinned by Halliday’s (1985) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach to language and Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) cohesion analysis scheme. The study employs a Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) for the analysis of cohesive devices in the participants’ multimodal texts. Lexical cohesion formed the largest percentage of use, and in particular repetition of the same lexical items, followed by reference.The findings contribute to the description of the meaning-making processes in these multimodal artefacts. They provide a potential research tool for similar investigations across a broad range of educational settings. Implications of the findings for finance students and educators are finally presented.

Views

An Investigation of metadiscourse features in international postgraduate business students' texts: the use of interactive and interactional markers in tertiary multimodal finance texts

Metadiscourse analysis reveals the way writers engage with different texts and communicate with e... more Metadiscourse analysis reveals the way writers engage with different texts and communicate with each other. Examining these linguistic resources is important because they play a vital role in maximizing the learning experiences of students in the Master’s program in Accounting. Yet, there is a lack of research investigating these features in a key topic in the Principles of Finance course: management reports that encompass tables and graphs. This study explores the use of metadiscourse markers in three multimodal management reports written by 10 international Master’s of Accounting students. It employs Hyland and Tse’s model and Hyland’s model for the multimodal analysis of metadiscourse markers in finance texts. The findings show a high frequency of interactive and interactional markers in the orthographic texts compared with a lack of implicit interactive markers and a high frequency of implicit interactional markers in the tables and graphs. Implications for the teaching of English for Business Purposes (EBP) are discussed.

Views

A study of Cohesion in International Postgraduate Students’ Multimodal Management Accounting Texts

This study investigates the key multimodal academic literacy and numeracy practices of five inter... more This study investigates the key multimodal academic literacy and numeracy practices of five international postgraduate students enrolled at an Australian university. Specifically, it aims to provide an account of the salient textual and the logical patterns through the analysis of cohesive devices in a key topic in the Management Accounting course, namely budgeting schedules. The research study employs a Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) of texts (Alyousef, 2013, 2015; Alyousef & Mickan, forthcoming). This approach is framed by Halliday‟s (1985) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach and Halliday & Hasan‟s (1976) cohesion analysis schemes. SFL provides powerful analytical tools for foregrounding the processes through which students construct disciplinary specific knowledge in a community through academic literacies. Lexical cohesion formed the largest percentage of use, and in particular repetition of the same lexical items, followed by reference.The findings contribute to the description of the meaning-making processes in these multimodal artefacts. They provide a potential research tool for similar multimodal investigations across a broad range of educational settings. Implications of the findings are finally presented.

Views

A Study of Theme and Information Structure in Postgraduate Business Students' Multimodal Written Texts: An SF-MDA of Management Accounting Texts

THEME and INFORMATION structure facilitate the development of well-structured text, thereby provi... more THEME and INFORMATION structure facilitate the development of well-structured text, thereby providing cohesion within language. Systemic functional linguistics’ (SFL) research in multimodal business communication and representation has been confined to workplace and school contexts. Similarly, empirical research studies of finance have investigated students’ performance in finance courses and the effect of class attendance on students’ performance. However, no published study has explored and analysed the textual features in tertiary finance texts. The importance of examining THEME and INFORMATION structure in tertiary settings becomes pertinent since it plays a vital role in maximising accounting students’ learning experiences. The study aims to explore the multimodal literacy and numeracy social practices of five first-year Master of Commerce Accounting international students enrolled at an Australian university. It is of interest as most international ESL/EFL students in Australia and elsewhere are enrolled in business programs (Alyousef & Picard, 2011). This study reports on a case study designed to investigate and analyse the use of THEME and INFORMATION structure in a key topic in the Management Accounting course, namely budgeting schedules. It employed the multidimensional approach proposed by Alyousef (2013) to describe the participants’ learning experiences and to investigate and explore the organisation of the multimodal texts. The Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) revealed the frequency of two patterns: Theme reiteration and the linear pattern. Theme reiteration in accounting is used to define the accounting numerical values. Thematic choices in the budgeting tables are constrained by the authoritative source of knowledge for the presentation of information structure in accounting statements. A number of other interesting findings related to the flow of information structure in the multimodal tables are presented and discussed. The study concludes with the pedagogical implications of the findings.

Views

Investigating Saudi learners’ preferences for giving and receiving macro and/or micro level peer feedback on their writing.

Several studies have addressed the subject of the preferences of L2 student-writers for receiving... more Several studies have addressed the subject of the preferences of L2 student-writers for receiving teacher feedback (FB) on macro level features (feedback related to meaning) and micro level features (feedback related to surface level issues); however, none of these have investigated their preferences when it comes to giving and receiving peer feedback (PF). In the present study, two forms of the peer feedback technique were introduced in two consecutive phases: in phase one the students practised providing both macro and micro peer feedback on five essays, while in phase two they provided only macro feedback to their fellow students while the teacher supplied the micro feedback. The participants were 41 EFL undergraduate Saudi students undertaking an English programme at a Saudi higher tertiary institution. The study adopted a one-group design for the data collection. A mixed method approach was employed using pre-, mid- and post-questionnaires, mid- and post-interviews, and also recording verbal protocol sessions while the participants provided peer feedback to one another. The findings of the study suggested that the participants had a preference for giving and receiving peer feedback on both levels. However, it also appeared that their responses may have been affected by the way they had been taught in the past.

Views

Book Chapter: (2017). A multimodal discourse analysis of textual cohesion in tertiary marketing texts written by international undergraduate students

Semiotics 2016: Archaeology of Concepts, 2017

Constellations of cohesive features in business discourse are important to the maintenance of sty... more Constellations of cohesive features in business discourse are important to the maintenance of style and thread texts. Multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) of the use of cohesive devices in disciplinary discourses provides a detailed description of the salient textual aspects and the intrasemiotic (within a single semiotic mode) and the intersemiotic (across different semiotic modes) logical relations in the multimodal semiotic resources. Investigations of multimodality aim to develop theories, analytical tools, and describe and interpret the multiple representation and communication across different semiotic modes (Adami, 2016). Much of the populous text-based research in tertiary contexts has been confined to mathematics (de Oliveira

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Book Chapter: (2016). Literacy and Numeracy Practices in Postgraduate Management Accounting

Multimodality in Higher Education, 2016

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Investigating international postgraduate Business students' multimodal literacy and numeracy practices: A multidimensional approach. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia. DOI: 10.13140/2.1.1407.9367

The purpose of this ethnographic case study is to document multimodal literacy and numeracy pract... more 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.

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Alyousef, H. S. An investigation of postgraduate Business students’ multimodal literacy and numeracy practices in finance: a multidimensional exploration.

Social Semiotics Journal, Feb 22, 2013

Empirical research studies of finance have investigated students' performance in Principles of Fi... more Empirical research studies of finance have investigated students' performance in Principles of Finance courses and the effect of class attendance on students' performance. Similarly, accounting research has been directed at readability of accounting narratives and lexical choices. However, no published study has explored and analysed the multimodal literacy and numeracy social practices of international students in a core business module, and within a multidimensional research framework. This study is of interest as most international ESL/EFL students in Australia and elsewhere are enrolled in business programmes. This paper explores the literacy and numeracy social practices of 10 first-year Master of Commerce Accounting international students in a Principles of Finance module. It is underpinned by the proposed multidimensional framework which is framed by Halliday's systemic functional linguistic theory and by O'Halloran's multisemiotic framework for the analysis of mathematical symbolism. The findings are presented in terms of (1) the epistemologies of Principles of Finance, (2) a Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) of the experiential meanings in students' capital budgeting management reports, and (3) a description of the actual practices the participants engaged with to complete the assignment and their explanations of their texts. Implications of these findings and the research framework are presented. The SF-MDA contributes to the description of experiential meaning in financial tables and graphs. It indicates a potential research tool for the systemic functional analysis of multimodal finance and accounting discourses. The multidimensional exploration of participants' literacy practices presented here could also provide a framework for similar investigation across a broad range of educational settings.

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Alyousef, Hesham. (2007). An evaluation of the third grade intermediate English course book in Saudi Arabia

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