Visual discourse in scientific conference papers A genre-based study

doi:10.1016/S0889-4906(00)00024-7

English for Specific Purposes

Volume 21, Issue 1, 2002, Pages 19-40

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0889-4906(00)00024-7 Get rights and content

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of visual communication in a spoken research genre, the scientific conference paper. To this end, the study analyses the 2048 visuals projected during 90 papers given at five international conferences in three fields (geology, medicine, and physics), in order to bring out the recurrent features of the visual dimension. The visuals are first classified into a four-part typology specific to the conference paper genre. Analysis of the functions fulfilled by the visual channel reveals a wide range of meaning-making strategies which are exploited to structure the discourse and express logical relations. These strategies highlight the visual knowledge shared by conference participants and play an important role in facilitating communication between NS and NNS researchers in the international conference situation.

Section snippets

Investigating the conference paper genre

Scientific conferences occupy a pivotal position in the network of scientific communication and in the negotiation of knowledge claims (Rowley-Jolivet, 1999). Participating in conferences, whether it be by giving keynote speeches and papers, presenting posters, chairing sessions or sitting on the scientific committee, plays a central role in furthering both the visibility of a laboratory’s research and the careers of individual scientists. Indeed, the preparation and rehearsal of conference

Cognitive and rhetorical roles of visualisation in science

Scientific discourse, both written and spoken, is multi-semiotic, making use not only of linguistic signs but also of non-linguistic semiotic systems, for scientific concepts are, in Lemke’s words, “semiotic hybrids”, combining verbal, mathematical, visual-graphical and actional-operational elements and thus necessitating the use of “multimedia genres” (Lemke, 1998:87). Semioticians, historians and sociologists of science, as well as scientists themselves, have long recognised the importance of

The data

During 1993 and 1994, five international conferences in the fields of geology, medicine and physics were filmed in France. The three fields were chosen to represent a fairly wide spectrum of mature scientific disciplines: one life sciences discipline (medicine) and two hard sciences, the latter representing the two main loci of scientific investigation, namely fieldwork (geology) and the laboratory (physics). The specialities represented in the corpus are, respectively: (1) mining geology, with

Number and periodicity of visuals

The importance of the visual channel is manifest firstly in the sheer quantity of visuals shown: in the 90 papers analysed, a total of 2048 visuals were projected. The number per paper ranges from 88 (a periodicity of one visual every 15 sec in a medical paper), to four (1 visual every 3 $12$ min, a physics paper; see Table 1). A comparison between the number of visuals in the written and spoken versions of the same paper (using the Comparative corpus of 18 proceedings papers and the 18

Projection media as visual coding devices

Overall, 68% of the visuals projected are slides (against 32% transparencies), and 65% are in colour (35% BW). In the 18 papers which use a mixture of slides and transparencies, the medium of projection itself can function as a visual information code for the audience, indicating the structure of the talk. In the case of single-screen projection, slides are used for the raw data, all of which are projected early on in the paper, and transparencies for the results of analysis which follow. The

Typology of the visuals

The multiple semiotic resources used in written genres in science have led to various typologies being proposed (Bertin, 1973, Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996, Lemke, 1998, Tufte, 1983). A crucial distinction for our purposes is that made by Bertin, who distinguishes monosemic images (such as graphs, diagrams and maps) which he calls Graphical images, and polysemic images (such as photographs) which he calls Figurative images. In the former, which are conceptual and constructed, each element has a

The chirality of visuals

A significant number of papers (21 out of 90) made use of double-screen projection. As Fig. 2 makes clear, one visual is projected onto the left screen, and the other on the right. We will call this phenomenon chirality, a term borrowed from stereochemistry, where it refers to the property of molecules to exist in a left-handed and a right-handed form (or levogyrous and dextrogyrous forms). Chirality creates interaction, represented by the horizontal double-headed arrow, between the two visuals

Sequences

A sequence is a stereotyped series of visuals which forms a kind of ‘visual routine’. It comprises a succession of visuals in a fixed order, but can be of variable length; some sequences are recursive, occurring in cycles. The projection of the first member of a sequence generates expectations in the audience as to what is to follow, and is therefore cataphoric. A typical example, encountered frequently in the medical papers in oncology, is the sequence ‘Tumour Staging’. This highly codified

Conclusion

This study has highlighted the importance of the visual channel of communication in scientific conference papers and has attempted to characterise some of its generic features. In the international conference situation, where the majority of participants are non-native speakers of English, the use of non-linguistic semiotics ensures that the main elements of the message will be communicated even if the speaker’s expression or audience’s comprehension of spoken English is limited. As one

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers of the initial version of this article for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Elizabeth Rowley-Jolivet holds an MA in French and German language and literature (University of Oxford, GB), the Agrégation d’Anglais, and a PhD in ESP (University of Bordeaux 2, France). She is currently Maı̂tre de Conférences at ESPEO (Ecole Supérieure des Procédés Electroniques et Optiques), University of Orleans, France.

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View full text

Visual discourse in scientific conference papers A genre-based study

Abstract

Section snippets

Investigating the conference paper genre

Cognitive and rhetorical roles of visualisation in science

The data

Number and periodicity of visuals

Projection media as visual coding devices

Typology of the visuals

The chirality of visuals

Sequences

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

English for Specific Purposes

English for Specific Purposes

English for Specific Purposes

English for Specific Purposes

English for Specific Purposes

Visual thinking

Shaping written knowledge

Genre knowledge in disciplinary communication

Semiologie graphique

Tableaux et langages de la chimie

Ecriture et iconographie

Something on the order of around forty to forty-four: imprecise numerical expressions in biomedical slide talks

Language in Society

The mind’s eye — nonverbal thought in technology

Science

Genesis and development of a scientific fact

Opening Pandora’s box

Traité du signe visuel : pour une rhétorique de l’image

Anglais de spécialité et plurilinguisme

Asp

The manufacture of bodies in surgery

Social Studies of Science