http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/67 Sat, 02 May 2026 14:42:37 GMT 2026-05-02T14:42:37Z http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6745 Title: A Social Semiotic Analysis of EFL Students’ Multimodal Composing: The Use of Modes, Remaking of Signs, and Semiotic Awareness Authors: Jantasin, Pattaramas Abstract: In a word full of multimodal communication, Contemporary communication rarely relies solely on spoken or written form of language, but is increasingly made with multiple modes, e.g. writing, audio, and image. This prompts a call for educators to rethink literacy in language classrooms. Despite a growing interest in multimodality in L2 contexts, the investigation of students’ multimodal composing and semiotic awareness remains underexplored, particularly in the Thai EFL context. This study examines multimodal composing activities of Thai university students in one EFL classroom, drawing on multimodal social semiotics (Bezemer and Kress, 2016) and multiliteracies (Cope and Kalantzis, 2009), to understand three aspects: the multimodal design of the students’ produced texts, the remaking of signs, and their semiotic awareness while composing multimodally. The students’ multimodal texts produced as part of an L2 multimodal composing project—short summaries, digital posters, and oral presentations of their innovative product—were analysed using social semiotics to gain insights into the first two aspects. Background questionnaires, recordings of planning and composing processes, and interview responses were collected to understand the context and reasons for their semiotic choices, enriching the social semiotic analysis. The recordings and interviews were also deductively and inductively analysed to explore emerging semiotic awareness. The analysis of two focal cases reveals that Thai EFL students were able to produce expressive multimodal texts, and multimodal composing fostered their semiotic awareness even without any training on multimodal meaning-making. However, material, contextual, and social factors were found to crucially shape the students’ semiotic choices, the meaning represented in the texts, and the extent of their semiotic awareness. The findings underscore the need to recognise the critical roles of diverse representational modes, influencing factors, and semiotic awareness for more powerful and accurate communication. The study presents a conceptualisation of the complexity of L2 multimodal composing and offers pedagogical implications to enhance language learners’ semiotic repertoire and awareness to meet the evolving communicative demands of the world. Description: Ph. D. Thesis. (Integrated) Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6745 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6730 Title: Beyond PISA: The ecology of high achieving science students in Estonia Authors: Vitty, Laura Abstract: As the highest-ranking European nation in the OECD’s PISA, this thesis explores factors contributing to the high performance of Estonian students in science. With academic research on optimal performance pointing the spotlight at the Asian greats and Finland, Estonia has received little research attention. The current study explores the relative contributions of individual factors, the school microsystem, the family microsystem and the family-school interaction mesosystem in supporting student achievement in science. A critical realist research philosophy and ecological systems theory as a conceptual framework underpin the mixed methods research design. Firstly, exploratory factor analysis of the quantitative PISA 2018 dataset for Estonia is conducted. This is followed by thematic analysis of transcripts from a series of nine narrative interviews conducted with high achieving science students living in Tallinn, Estonia. Individual factors found to be prevalent in high performing Estonian science students are intrinsic motivation, resilience and active agency. Family role models, cultural capital and socioeconomic status are predictors of success related to the family microsystem. The school microsystem described by successful Estonian science students is one that embraces co-construction, learner centred and competency-based teaching with a somewhat informal approach. In the family school interaction mesosystem, the renowned Estonian television series Rakett69 is found to have a powerful influence on student aspirations, alongside the family and school support of student participation in both national and international competitions. Recommendations for education stakeholders are made, including an argument for reducing stratification in educational systems and shifting from a performance-oriented focus on examination results to a goal oriented system that values what students are able to do with their knowledge. Description: Ed. D. Thesis. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6730 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6717 Title: A case study exploring the lived experiences of leaders and teachers within the Opportunity North East Vision school improvement partnership Authors: Abu-Nijaila, Saarah Deebie Elizabeth Abstract: Many secondary schools across North East England in high poverty settings struggle to meet government enforced examination attainment targets, including Progress 8 measures, where no contextual adjustments are made for socio-economic adversity. Schools unable to meet examination outcomes receive additional scrutiny and pressure through the politicised educational landscape of performativity. Research into school improvement partnerships and coaching within these, indicate some potential for struggling schools to be supported and practitioners within to have their self-efficacy reaffirmed during the process. However, the sustainability of such work in challenging contexts is difficult to maintain over time. This study is set within my professional context, of an inner-city high poverty secondary school. Lived experiences of the partnership, from the perspectives of nine staff members involved, in the two-year, Opportunity North East (ONE) Vision (GOV.UK, 2019) school improvement partnership strategy, are explored via interviews. I employed a qualitatively led mixed methods, case study research design approached from the paradigmatic stance of pragmatism (Morgan, 2014), underpinned by social justice (Cresswell, 2015). A school improvement partnership is the case and depicts the deficit model of school improvement whereby a high performing school, supports a school which has been labelled as low performing, or in this case, a “failing school” (DfE, 2019). Findings from interviews, with three senior leader participants from the supporting school and six participants from different levels across the supported school, provide valuable insights into their experiences during the partnership and how this differs for practitioners based on their professional roles, power and agency. My position and journey as an inside-researcher, further contributes to this study. Conclusions highlight how different practitioners experience the SIP, with a range of emotions evoked. A model for school advancement (6.2.1) proposes macro, meso and micro level school advancement approaches, which if adopted, could contribute to social justice and more equitable and ethical ways of schools working together. Description: EdD Thesis Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6717 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6715 Title: Word stress in Central Kurdish Authors: Abdulkareem, Zana Mohammed Abstract: This thesis explores the distribution of CK word stress, which is manifested in the relative prominence of strong syllables. Cross-linguistically, languages have either free or fixed stress rules, weight-sensitive or weight-insensitive syllables, and bound or unbound stress systems. The language this study addresses is Central Kurdish (CK), which is widely used in the northern parts of Iraq and Iran. The study explains the CK stress system in terms of these typological parameters and locates the position of primary and secondary stress in simple and compound CK words. The study is divided into six chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to the scope, problem, aim, and the theoretical models adopted. The second chapter provides background knowledge on Kurdish: its origins, population size, linguistic landscape, and dialect groups. The chapter also includes a detailed description of the phonemic inventory of CK. Chapter three addresses CK structure, the distribution of primary and secondary stress in the syllables, and syllable weight and syllable constraints. The foot structure of CK is accounted for in chapter four, in which the CK foot inventory, foot parameters, evidence for foot, and foot metrification are explained. The fifth chapter explains the position of primary and secondary stress in CK non-derived and derived words in light of the metrical theory and OT constraints. Finally, the conclusions the present work has drawn are provided in chapter six. The theoretical models adopted in this study for data analysis are the metrical formalisms of bracketed grid (Halle & Vegnaud 1987), pure grid (Prince 1983; Selkirk 1984), and the constraint-based formalisms of the syllable and foot analysis in OT (Prince & Smolensky, 2004; Kager 1999). Reference is also given to the moraic theory (McCawley 1968; Selkirk 1981) to account for certain weight sensitivity characteristics of CK syllables, such as compensatory lengthening and gemination. The study concludes that stress distribution in CK depends on the morphological form of the word. In non-derived words, primary stress is placed upon the last syllable, whereas secondary stress is determined algorithmically according to its distance from the primary; it falls two syllables to the left of the primary stress. In derived words, on the other hand, stress assignment depends on the type and linear order of the affixes attached to the stem of the host word. If the host word has a stress-bearing affix (e.g. definite article), the affix attracts stress onto itself, causing a shift in stress placement. However, if the affix is unstressable, primary stress remains on the last syllable of the stem, in which case the word stress rule is applied. Description: PhD Thesis Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6715 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z