A Comparative Study of Reading Comprehension Texts in Touchstone Series: A Social-Semiotic Perspective

• Main Authors: Maryam Farnia, Sara Gerami
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Islamic Azad University, Isfahan Branch 2019-07-01
• Series: Research in English Language Pedagogy
• Subjects: Reading passages; Social semiotics; Systemic Functional Linguistics; Touchstone Series
• Online Access: http://relp.khuisf.ac.ir/article_665891_3784fcd294b47321434cc5e50fdc47e8.pdf

This study attempted to examine visual and verbal characteristics in Touchstone textbook series. For this purpose, four reading comprehension texts with similar topics were selected from the four Touchstone textbooks. Seven pictures accompanying the four texts were analyzed based on Kress and van Leeuwen’ssocial semiotics, and the four texts were analyzed with reference to Halliday’ssystemic functional linguistics. The results depicted fairly high functionality of the visuals in Touchstone series as well as their humanistic communicative trends. Moreover, it was found out that the pictures supported the linguistic text, therebyhelpinglearners to comprehend the textual content.  The findings also showed that increase in text difficulty made for the occurrence of material and relational processes. Lastly, the results of verbal analysis suggested that reading comprehension texts of Touchstone series chiefly describe real world experiences and actions rather than behaviors, thoughts, or feelings. Based on the outcomes, it can be concluded that the visuals are pertinent to the linguistic passages and help the learners to get a better understanding of the texts.