Subjects Focusing on Practical Work

Abstract

In this section, we use two Swedish examples.

In this section, we use two Swedish examples from subjects focusing on practical work, one from textile crafts in lower secondary school, and one text explaining welding techniques in vocational studies (the Industry program) in upper secondary school.

Texts connected to subjects involving craft techniques are specifically interesting from yet another multimodal perspective: instruction for action. In the Swedish school context, such subjects can be found at all levels of the school system, in subjects like crafts (textile crafts or carpentry and metal crafts), as well as vocational programs in upper secondary school oriented towards industry or automotive engineering. In many cases those subjects are not perceived as theoretical, while instead the “doing” is in focus, and the texts used in these subjects would then function as instructions (Ekström 2010). Thus, the text becomes essential for the doing, and many illustrations carry important information. However, it is not always the case that the illustrations actually function as instructions, something which will become evident in the analysis of the text from welding technique below.

1 Crafts, Secondary School

The text we use here is one that was used in a textile crafts classroom which was investigated for its literacy activities by Eva Lindqvist (2014). In her description of the classroom activities it was evident that the students used a variety of texts. No textbook was used, but instead different kinds of compilations or texts produced by the teacher. Regarding sewing or knitting instructions, various descriptions of the process produced for education were used. When there were no pedagogic texts available for certain processes, the students were referred to quite complex instructions available from the Internet. The text that we use here consists of two pages from a three-page booklet produced for teaching textile craft.¹ It was used in the studied classroom as an instruction for those who chose to make an apron (Figs. 10.1 and 10.2). The third page—which is omitted here—is a drawn pattern which the student is supposed to enlarge and transform on to a piece of paper to use when cutting the fabric.

Fig. 10.1

Instructions for sewing an apron, p. 1. Secondary school (re-printed with permission from Kerstin Juhlin)

Fig. 10.2

Instructions for sewing an apron, p. 2. Secondary school (re-printed with permission from Kerstin Juhlin)

1.1 General Structure and Setting

The writing is structured in bullets, and placed to the left on both pages, with headings in italics. To the right are drawn illustrations with no headings. Both the writing and illustrations are visually prominent. The stylization of the illustrations, with clearly marked contours in black, contribute to their prominence on the page.

The expected reading order might be to follow the bullets one by one and shift between writing and illustrations.

Apart from the first heading, “Apron” (Sw. Förkläde), which is centered and set in a bigger font, the headings correspond to different parts of the apron. The first part of the process—sewing the main part of the apron—has no heading. This instruction appears directly under the main heading.

1.2 Interaction Between Text Resources

The illustrations are central in the description of the process. The stylization contributes to the “doing” that is expected from the text: seams, hems, etc. become fairly distinct. The written text refers to the illustrations, though not explicitly, as might have been expected in an instructive text like this.

Furthermore, a number of concrete, subject-specific concepts are used only in writing and not in the illustrations. Thus, it is implied that the student either is familiar with the concept, or that a teacher is expected to support the process. Quite often you can guess what the term refers to, for example to pin lengthwise (Sw. längdnåla) or crosswise (Sw. tvärnåla) on the first page. However, there are also instances where there is nothing in the illustration that corresponds to the written instructions. One such example can be found on the second page, where in writing it is said that you should “zigzag the raw edges of the pockets” (Sw. sick-sacka fickornas traskanter). Neither “raw edges” nor zigzag stitches are shown in the illustrations. Instead, the illustration connected to this part of the instruction depicts the next stage, namely the folded edges along the sides of the pocket. Therefore, what corresponds to “raw edges” or the result of a zigzag seam is expected already to be clear for the student using these instructions.

The various illustrations lack headings or captions. Thus, the reader is expected to know when to use the illustrations and when only writing is expected to carry information about the process.

The illustrations function mainly to depict various parts of the process, or to visualize or concretize what is said in writing. One example is where it is said in writing that the edges of the curved part of the apron should be pinned lengthwise, and where the illustration depicts pins along a hem.

At times, the illustrations supplement the writing, for example when the illustrations only depict the “reverse” (Sw. avigsidan) or at the bottom of the second page, where the text says “Sew together using straight stitching. See illustration.” This is the only place where the text explicitly refers to an illustration, although which one of them is implicit. What is probably referred to is the detailed illustration of the bib, where a cross marks the place where the tying strips are supposed to be stitched to the apron.

1.3 Values

There are no explicitly expressed values in this text. However, we may note an implicit discourse based on meticulousness and control. The expected accuracy is shown through the detailed descriptions of the process (exact distances between edge and seam, and instructions as to how to fold the hem). The same thing is shown in the illustrations depicting details in the process. The importance of control is shown in the recurring request “SHOW” (Sw. visa) in the writing. Thus, the teacher is supposed to check that central steps during the process have been performed correctly—and probably in a meticulous way—before the student is allowed to go on to the next step.

With a greater focus on creativity, the text might have included some encouragement to use your imagination regarding the choice of fabric, or perhaps urged students to make decisions regarding ways of designing different parts of the apron. Of course, nothing prevents the teacher from encouraging the students to be creative in the classroom practice, but if we only look at what the text encourages, meticulousness and control appear to be important. The same thing was noted in the welding text, which we will look at more closely in the following.

2 Welding, Industry Program

In vocational studies in Swedish upper secondary school a number of subjects involving practical processes are included. The Industry program includes a number of practical courses with direct relevance for future work in industry. However, to be able to pass such courses, a knowledge of subjects like physics is also required. In this particular case we will look closely at a course in welding techniques. According to the curriculum, students are supposed to develop knowledge about the risk of deviations in form and inaccuracies, and how to avoid and remedy the faults.

In a textbook on welding (Henriksson and Hällman 1999) one chapter deals weldability (Sw. “Svetsbarhet”). This covers aspects such as how shrinking and expansion in the metals are associated with temperatures, and how this has consequences for the welding process (Henriksson and Hällman 1999, pp. 95ff).

In a doctoral thesis, Pia Visén investigated text talk in upper secondary school. In her investigation, this section in the textbook was used (Visén 2015, also see Hallesson and Visén 2018 in which text talk during the same lesson is analysed). In her study she showed how the teacher in his exposition about welding stuck very closely to the textbook, though never referring to any sections in it explicitly. Her analysis also revealed that the teacher made no connections to the illustrations in the textbook.

2.1 General Structure and Setting

The book spread contains both writing and illustrations such as diagrams. The writing is sequenced in sections under a number of headings. The illustrations are placed either to the right of the written text or below it. Both writing and illustrations are prominent, and the placement of the illustrations invites the reader to read from the top of the text and then down, shifting between writing and illustrations (Fig. 10.3).

Fig. 10.3

Welds. Facts about welds. Bågsvetsning. Fakta om bågsvetsning (Henriksson and Hällman 1999, pp. 96–97, with permission from Liber)

The content is thematically arranged, starting with overarching content about how materials are affected by heat and cold. The headings in the book spread, “Expansion and shrinkage” (Sw. Utvidgning och krympning), “Tensions due to shrinkage” (Sw. Krympspänningar), and “The effect of shrinkage” (Sw. Krympningens verkan) support the reader in following the thematic structure.

2.2 Interaction Between Text Resources

The book spread contains different types of illustrations. One example is the schematic image, or sketch, of a weld on top of the left page. This illustration is more abstract than the other illustrations, and it is of a type that can be expected to be found in handbooks for welders, that is, for people working in the profession. The rest of the illustrations concretize the content given through writing, with a design that appears to be more in line with concretizing images in instructional pedagogical texts. Writing and illustrations are closely connected and the illustrations cannot be fully understood without the written information, while the illustrations concretize or complement the information given through writing.

Throughout the text, the images consist of concretizing images focusing on the weld and the material connected by the weld, which is fully congruent with the writing. Metal pieces are depicted in blue color while the weld is purple. It is particularly instructive that the more abstract depiction at the top of the page and the more concrete illustration at the bottom of the same page exhibit clear resemblances.

Thus, there is a clear congruence between illustrations and writing in this text. Further, the illustrations are closely connected to the writing on the whole. Also, regarding the layout of the book spread, illustrations are placed in direct relation to the written text. Moreover, the same concepts are used in both writing and illustrations, with one exception. This concerns the sketch at the top of the page, depicting a cross-section of a weld, presenting a number of terms. These terms are both subject-specific (e.g. “Weld metal” [Svetsgods], “Weld face” [toppyta], “Weld Junction” [smältgräns]) and more general concepts (“Heat-affected material” [värmepåverkat material], “Base material” [grundmaterial]). None of these terms are mentioned in the corresponding written text. The same is true of the abbreviation HAZ, which stands for Heat Affected Zone,² an abbreviation which is not explained in the book. The meaning of the abbreviation is implicit in the abstract sketch, since the abbreviation is placed between brackets after “Heat-affected material”. Later in the book (p. 139), the abbreviation is used in writing, although here too without an explanation: “In order to test the malleability of the weld and the area around the weld (HAZ) a bending test is made.” In the textbook, the abbreviation is used in relation to both “heat-affected material” and “the area around the weld”. In the latter case it is implicit that HAZ is connected to an area affected by heat (i.e. the area directly connected to the weld).

In relation to the image at the center of the left page, we note the conventionalized color coding for cold (blue) and heat (red). A welding nozzle directed towards the red bar also functions as a way of elucidating the heat.

The illustration in the middle of the left page is interesting in a number of ways. It is supposed to elucidate that metal expands when heated. According to the illustration, this means 9 mm per meter, if steal is heated to 600 degrees Celsius. For obvious reasons, the distances in the illustrations are fallacious. At the same time, the convention of marking exact distances between the ends of two arrows is used, as in the case of the meter length. In technical drawings, however, the relations between different dimensions or distances are usually scale models with conventions such as a broken or dashed line to mark broken lines, which could have been utilized in this text too, to elucidate that the figure is not drawn to scale.

Moreover, the illustration contains a mixture of concretion and abstraction when depicting a welding nozzle heating the steel at the same time as conventionalized choices of red and blue for heat and cold are used. However, it is unlikely that the welding nozzle could heat a whole meter of steel up to 600 degrees Celsius.

The illustrations contain arrows denoting different things. In the uppermost illustration, arrows are used both to mark the labeling of different parts of a weld seam (“Weld metal” [svetsgods], “Weld face (reinforcement)” [toppyta (råge)], “Penetration bead” [Rotvulst], “Weld junction” [smältgräns]), and to mark a limit between the material directly connected to the weld “Heat-affected material [HAZ]” and the unaffected material. Here two arrows pointing two ways from the label are used. There appears to be no reason why no arrows have been used to mark “Base material” and “Unaffected base metal” (Sw. Opåverkad grundmetall). From the labeling no information is given as to whether the material on the other side of the weld is “base material” or something else. One may also wonder whether there is a difference between “metal” and “material” in the illustration.

Another way of using arrows can be noted in the middle of the page. Here the upper arrow, pointing two ways, is used in accordance with the convention of marking the beginning and end of a length, in this case 1000 mm (representing the metal before being heated). For some reason the same kind of arrow is not used to mark beginning and end of the 9 mm expansion that occurs during heating. Instead, that arrow points to the right line demarcating the end point for the metal balk during heating. Another way of showing the expansion, which would be more in line with the genre convention, would be to write 1009 mm at the red (hot) girder, by analogy with the length mark for the blue (cold) girder.

In the illustration at the bottom of the page, the arrows mark shrinkage. Here a number of arrows are used in different parts of the illustration. Some of them are placed in the depiction of the weld while some of them are placed in the different parts that are supposed to be connected by the weld.

Throughout this textbook, illustrations contain important information at the same time as they are quite demanding for the reader. The written text is demanding too, due to a style associated with the language of science. Examples of challenges in the language of science are a large number of subject-specific terms (weld junction, HAZ) and the use of so-called grammatical metaphors, such as converting verbal phrases into noun phrases (e.g. Schleppegrell 2004). One such example in this text is “a considerable length increase” (Sw. en betydande längdökning) (cf. “the steel girder becomes much longer”). One effect of such conversions of verbal phrases into noun phrases is that the text becomes denser. At the same time processes (something becomes longer) are transformed into phenomena (increase [noun]). Such linguistic choices have been observed to be challenging for students, and it is claimed that students might need help to “unpack” these grammatical metaphors (e.g. Fang and Schleppegrell 2008; Halliday 1998/2004). It is common for teachers to be aware that subject-specific concepts can be challenging, though the awareness of grammatical metaphors is less widespread among teachers.

2.3 Figurative Language

This text contains metaphors that are part of the language of technology or science, such as tensions (Sw. spänningar) and stress relieving (Sw. avspänningsglödning). We also note that the authors of the book make this explicit in a case where the metaphor about the way that a material can change its shape may be mistakenly understood as an everyday expression. In this case, the expression results in a homophone which means “warp” but can be understood as the colloquial phrase meaning “hurt oneself” (Sw. slå sig). The quotation marks and the words “we say” indicate that there is a the potential ambiguity in this expression, however.

2.4 Values

There are no explicit values in this text. However, as in the crafts text above, there is a clear message that within this discipline you need to be both knowledgeable and meticulous to avoid inferior results when welding.

2.5 Classroom Focus

This text functions as a basis for doing something (joining pieces of metal by welding) at the same time as it is highly theoretical. Also, the content is a prerequisite for the high quality of the final product (the weld). Taken together, in particular the scrutiny concerning the interaction between text resources reveals that this is a complex text, as regards both writing and illustrations. For such texts, text talk and mutual reading can be efficient for supporting the students in their text use. Hence, concerning texts like this, we would strongly encourage teachers to first make a close reading of the text to uncover possible challenges concerning the text resources used and the interplay between them. As a next step, the teacher and the students discuss the text, focusing on the different text resources and to clearly connect the discussion to the content and how to grapple with texts like this.