ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education p-ISSN 2301-7554, e-ISSN 2541-3643 Volume 10, Issue 2, June 2022 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE 431 HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH CONVERSATION? AN IMPLEMENTATION OF A MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS THROUGH IMAGES Partohap Saut Raja Sihombing Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas HKBP Nommensen Pematangsiantar, Indonesia Email: partohap.sihombing@uhn.ac.id Herman (Corresponding author) Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas HKBP Nommensen, Medan, Indonesia Email: herman@uhn.ac.id Nanda Saputra STIT Al-Hilal Sigli, Indonesia Email: nandasaputra680@gmail.com APA Citation: Sihombing, P. S. R., Herman., & Saputra, N. (2022). How to teach English conversation? An implementation of a multimodal discourse analysis through images. English Review: Journal of English Education, 10(2), 431-438. https://doi.org/10.25134/erjee.v10i2.6244 Received: 27-02-2022 Accepted: 24-04-2022 Published: 30-06-2022 INTRODUCTION Language is a human specialized instrument in conveying thoughts, sentiments and explanations. All in all, people can not be isolated from language since people in each movement will require language as something critical in carrying on with their life processes (Herman, Van Thao, & Purba, 2021; Van Thao & Herman, 2021). Language is not just as verbal language, to be specific communicated in and composed language, yet in addition nonverbal language like movement, sound, items, colors, etc. In this correspondence, these two sorts of language assume a nearly adjusted part on the grounds that by depending on verbal language alone disregarding nonverbal language comprehension of something will be restricted (Purnaningwulan, 2015). As confirmed by Hutabarat, Herman, Silalahi, & Sihombing (2020), verbal language alone without all movement, sound, shading, and material articles restricts' how one might interpret the intricacy of a collaboration and interactional importance and can give limits on correspondence. To pass on a message, people do different ways, for example, through addresses, Abstract: The purpose of this research is to identify how is the role of images implementation in teaching English conversation. Rapid technological developments increasingly highlight the use of multimodality theory. Multimodal in this case has a metafunction. Multimodal is now used as a new learning resource that can be used in the learning process. This multimodal aims as an evolving approach to knowledge in visual or image sources. This study used a qualitative descriptive method. In this study, an analysis of multimodal literature is carried out, namely through pictures of English conversations, these images are then used in learning about conversations in English. Three steps of representational metafunction, an interpersonal metafunction, and a compositional metafunction were used to analyze the multimodality of images used as learning media in learning English. The results obtained are that there is an increase in students' understanding when using images as learning media in conversational material in English. Based on the analysis of three multimodal components, namely the representational, interpersonal, and compositional, it is possible to conclude that the image of the English conversation employed leads to adaptation to the qualities of the kid as a learner. Children enjoy animated characters, and the use of color and animation in drawings is designed to pique pupils' interest in participating in learning by displaying images of discussions and encouraging them to practice them. Keywords: multimodal analysis; English conversation; learning; images. Partohap Saut Raja Sihombing, Herman, & Nanda Saputra How to teach English conversation? An implementation of a multimodal discourse analysis through images 432 addresses, declarations, signs or images, ads, etc. This multitude of exercises surely require an apparatus, to be specific language. In relational associations, Sinar states that there are three significant components that participate in correspondence, in particular: verbal, sound or sound (communicated in language) or chart (composed language), and visuals. Verbal language is communicated in and composed language, while the result part of verbal language is sound or sound, and composing is diagram (Anstey & Bull, 2019). Visual association is nonverbal language which incorporates motions, non-verbal communication, etc. The three components of relational connection now and again have various degrees of job, however here and there they have a decent degree of job in passing on messages. Perusing abilities involving components of chart or composed language in it (Martinec, 2015). Dominating the abilities to have the option to comprehend the message or message in the perusing is significant. Snow states that youngsters who have perusing hardships not just will generally battle all through their school professions, yet in addition experience challenges in work, social working in the public arena, and different parts of day to day existence. Consequently, understanding the multimodal approach in language abilities, particularly understanding texts, is something essential to dominate, particularly in learning (Purba & Herman, 2020). Multimodal learning can be applied to understudies and understudies who as of now comprehend innovation as a component of regular daily existence (Ngongo & Ngongo, 2022). Characterizes multimodal as all verbal and visual semiotic sources that can be utilized to understand the sorts and levels of dialogical association in a reading material (Herman, Murni, Sibarani, & Saragih, 2019). With regards to message examination, multimodal is perceived as an investigation that consolidates the apparatuses and steps of semantic examination, like fundamental utilitarian phonetics (SFL) or useful language with logical devices to get pictures, when the message being dissected utilizations two modes, verbal and picture (Juliswara, 2017). Multimodality is certainly not another peculiarity. Baldry and Thibault (see that we live in a multimodal society. Individuals of this period will encounter the world multimodally and thusly, make importance from their encounters multimodally utilizing language, pictures, motions, activities, sounds and different assets. Bilfaqih & Qomarudin (2017) clarify that they accept that practically speaking, texts of assorted types are consistently multimodal, using, and consolidating, the assets of different semiotic frameworks to work with nonexclusive (for example standard) and explicit for example individual, and, surprisingly, inventive, approaches to making meaning. Innovation, both in giving relative simplicity in text creation and pervasive access in text utilization, likewise emphasizes the multimodal idea of text. This study about teaching English conversation through images based on Multimodal Discourse Analysis has been never conducted by any other researchers before. But, the researchers tried to look for other previous study related to this research. The previous study of increasing students’ conversation skill has been conducted by Syafiq, Rahmawati, Anwari, & Oktaviana (2021). The research discussed about one alternative solution for teaching speaking during pandemic is to use a YouTube video. This study seeks to discover the utilization of YouTube videos to improve students' speaking skills, as well as how the teaching and learning process utilizing YouTube videos is implemented in the classroom. In 2020, Muhammadiyah University of Kudus first semester college students participated in a classroom action research. This study's population consisted of all non-English programs, and the samples consisted of 85 students from redundant classes who were chosen via purposive sampling. The data was collected using a speech evaluation and an interview, and it was then analyzed using the constant comparative method and descriptive statistics. This study found that using YouTube videos as English learning material enhanced students' speaking skills in terms of fluency, vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and content. As a result, it is possible to conclude that the usage of YouTube videos might improve students' speaking skills while online learning in pandemic. Covid-19. Further research could focus on the use of YouTube videos to teach other English skills such as reading and writing. METHOD The method used in this research is qualitative with descriptive nature. According to Purba, Sibarani, Murni, Saragih, & Herman (2022), the research ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education p-ISSN 2301-7554, e-ISSN 2541-3643 Volume 10, Issue 2, June 2022 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE 433 method with a qualitative approach utilizes data in the form of word, spoken or picture descriptions of an individual, phenomenon or symptom of a group with various dimensions that can be observed by researchers (Sihombing, Silalahi, Saragih, & Herman, 2021; Simajuntak, Napitupulu, Herman, Purba, & Thao, 2021). Kress and van Leeuwen (2016) provide a method for examining advertising images using three meta-semiotic steps (Ngongo, 2021). The three steps consist of a representational metafunction, an interpersonal metafunction, and a compositional metafunction. In this study, the researchers analyzed the multimodality of images used as learning media in learning English with the following stages: The first step is to analyze the representational metafunction of the image presented using an animated form containing conversation in English as a medium for learning English. Picture 1. Animated form of English conversation The second step is to analyze the interpersonal metafunction in the conversational picture by paying attention to the form of the picture used The third step is to analyze the compositional meta-function in the English conversation picture which can be used as a medium for learning about English conversation. Picture 2. Conversation picture The fourth step is to conclude the meaning of the discourse conveyed through the images used in learning. The fourth step concludes the data whether there are differences in the results of students' understanding of the material by using pictures. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Results From the analysis of three social aspects of semiotics, namely the representational, interpersonal, and compositionally, it can be stated that the picture of the English conversation used leads to adjustment to the characteristics of the child as a learner. Children like animated characters and the use of color and animation in pictures is intended to attract students' interest in participating in learning and seeing pictures of conversations and practicing them. The following is an analysis of a simple example of how the analytical steps described above can be applied. The analysis was carried out on two pictures (1 and 2) which act as illustrations, which were taken from an English book for elementary schools published by a publisher in Bandung. Figure 1. (Description/identification) This image is a kitchen image. In the image above there are two participants; a child who said “This is the kitchen. My mom is cooking”, with outstretched arms wearing a blue shirt with an orange collar and brown trousers. Position the child to the right of the image. Picture 3. Illustration example His gaze, although not very clear, turned to another participant, a mother who was cooking. The mother, on the left of the image, is standing slightly sideways and her gaze is not directed at the child but at what is in front of her. In front of the mother is a frying pan and kettle. The skillet, kettle, table, and other objects become the setting in which the process takes place. (Analysis/significance) The Partohap Saut Raja Sihombing, Herman, & Nanda Saputra How to teach English conversation? An implementation of a multimodal discourse analysis through images 434 vector in this image is realized through the eyes, moving from the child to the mother. Thus the child becomes a 'reactor' (reactor) while the mother becomes a phenomenon; someone whose activities are described. According to Unsworth relying on Kress and van Leeuwen (2016), when a vector is formed by the line/eye gaze of one or more 'participants' so that they look at something, then the process that occurs is seen as a reaction rather than an action, and ' participants' is called 'reacter' not 'actor'. The object in this image is depicted in a small size, and using a 'medium close shot', places us as the 'viewer' slightly above the image; when we look at the picture we are like looking down a little. This means that as 'viewers' we have more power than the 'represented participants' in the picture. 'Medium close shot' makes us only have social relations, not very close to 'represented participants' (Chen, 2021). We know them as we know people in general; they are not part of those closest to us. This further means, 'represented participants' represent a general description of mothers and what activities are commonly attached to the domestic role of mothers in the social practices of our society. The gazes of the two participants are not directed at us who are looking but in another direction so that there is no contact between them and us. When there is no eye contact between the 'represented participants' and the 'viewers', the 'viewers' are placed as observers; they don't 'demand' but 'offer' us. As observers, we are offered to observe what is happening in the kitchen. The size of the 'participant' in the thumbnail as well as the frame. This makes us as 'interactive participants' have greater power over the 'represented participants'. From a compositional layout point of view, the mother is to the left of the image, while the child is to the right of the image. According to Kress and van Leeuwen (2016), what is placed on the left of the image is 'given' while what is on the right is 'new'. In the picture above, the mother and what she does are 'given' while the child is 'new'. In this context, it should be explained that the 'given-new' composition applies to cultures in which the reading flow moves from left to right, while for cultures that use a right to left or top-down reading flow such as Arabic and Chinese cultures, the 'given-new' composition new' cannot be used. Such cultures use the term compositional layout differently. This form of composition has been criticized for being considered, in between, to overgeneralize over all cultures. However, for a reading and writing culture that moves from left to right, such as Indonesia. In the analyzed images, 'given' means mother and especially what mothers do is something that is normal, natural, and should be. While what is new is more important what the child does. Blue as the color of children's clothes is a soft color and is usually considered to represent calm. This is because blue is often associated with the color of the sea or mountains (Russell, & Norvig, 2020). Mother's clothes color, orange 'wrapped' brown. Orange is a 'warm' color, usually considered to be a symbol of passion. While brown, the color that 'wraps' orange, is a soft color. It can be interpreted that the mother is enthusiastic, happy to do what is considered 'should' be done by a mother/wife. Verbal analysis shows that the sentences spoken by children contain relational (This is the kitchen) and material (is cooking) processes. Relational clauses serve to characterize and to identify. While the material clause is used to indicate, 'doing' or 'happening', doing something, or an ongoing event (Sari, 2020). In the context of picture 1, the sentence spoken by the child identifies the room as a kitchen, one of the characteristics of which is the presence of a cooking utensil and someone, in this case, the mother being an actor who is doing the work that 'should' be done, namely cooking in the kitchen. Discussion Images or pictures, have various possible relationships with verbal, words. For Kress & van Leeuwen (2016), verbal adds/extends (extends) the meaning of the image and vice versa. Or, verbally explain (elaborate) the image and vice versa. Kress and van Leeuwen (2016) further say that for Barthes, the meaning of images in particular, and other semiotic modes, is always associated with, and dependent on, the meaning of the verbal text. Meanwhile, for Kress and van Leeuwen (2016), the visual component of the text, the image, is a message that is composed and arranged independently, related to the verbal text but does not depend (slash from the researcher) on it. Culache & Obadă (2014) use four categories of heteroglossic dimension proposed by Martin and White, finding that visual 'voice' or messages conveyed can contradict (disclaim) with 'voice' or ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education p-ISSN 2301-7554, e-ISSN 2541-3643 Volume 10, Issue 2, June 2022 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE 435 verbal messages. In fact, these verbal and visual texts appear simultaneously in Budi Hermawan: Multimodality: Interpreting Verbal Opportunities. This relationship was also found by Bednarek and Caple who researched photojournalism in print and online newspapers. Royce saw that visual and verbal which are used as modes to convey messages in a text have an 'intersemiotic relationship', the relationship between various semiotic modes (Firdausy, 2015). The relationship between the two can be 'intersemiotic repetition', intersemiotic synonymy (similarity relations), intersemiotic antonymy (opposition relations), intersemiotic hyponymy (class-subclass relations), intersemiotic meronymy (partwhole relations), intersemiotic collocation (expectancy relations). Furthermore, to explain the relationship between verbal and visual text, Martinec and Salway offer a system to see the relationship between visual and verbal in a multimodal text. Their approach is based on status and logical-semantics (logico-semantics) relationships between visuals and verbals (Chen, 2021). This differs from the system developed by Liu and O'Halloran (2009) which is more based on the 'discourse relation' between verbal and visual texts in their analysis of 'cohesive devices' between verbal and visual texts. This has a positive impact on the development of learning outcomes and students' understanding of conversational material in English, this result can also be seen from the increase in student learning outcomes after using pictures. Figure 1. Average students’ score in English conversation From the diagram above, it was obtained that students' understanding increased after using pictures of English conversation in learning. The picture function, which should contain enough material for material about conversation, has now shifted. The picture is made as attractive as possible so that students are interested in learning about conversation using pictures presented by the teacher. So that the multimodality of English conversation images has a good role and produces developments in learning. This research related about teaching conversation by using images in the perspective of multimodal discourse analysis is very rarely conducted by other researchers. The researchers have tried to search but dominantly, the researches were oriented to the multimodal analysis on printed advertisement and other literatures perspective. The researcher did get one research related to this research. The research was done by Vungthong, Djonov, and Torr (2015) in their research entitled Images as a resource for supporting vocabulary learning: A multimodal analysis of Thai EFL tablet apps for primary school children. The research was about the use of One Tablet per Child (OTPC) by Thao government in supporting students' learning in the digital world. The software included in each child's OTPC tablet provide multimedia teaching applications (apps) on a variety of disciplines, including English as a foreign language (EFL). This essay analyzes how one element of the apps (song videos) uses visuals and words to build meaning and considers the potential of visual-verbal interactions to help vocabulary teaching and learning using the Grade 1 and 2 English apps as a case study. The article concludes with a discussion of related pedagogical implications for the use and design of EFL materials integrated into multimedia technologies: the critical role of teachers in guiding EFL learners' use of such materials, the need for increased awareness of the potential and limitations of images and visual-verbal relations to support EFL teaching and learning, and understanding the relationship between multimodal design of EFL materials and related learning outcomes. There are some similarities and differences between the research done by Vungthong et al. (2015) with this research. The differences are the images used in their research were aimed to enhance Thai students in vocabulary learning. Hence, the use of blended learning (OTPC) by their government in students’ learning vocabulary process. However, this research used images in helping the students in improving their speaking skills in the form of conversation. The images used here were taken from the English book used by the Partohap Saut Raja Sihombing, Herman, & Nanda Saputra How to teach English conversation? An implementation of a multimodal discourse analysis through images 436 students. Although there are differences, the researchers also depicted some similaries between both researches. The first was on the use of images in helping the students in their learning process. While, the goal was different, but by having these both researches, the researchers believe that images in perspective of multimodal are becoming more important nowadays in teaching English to the students whether in any kinds of English skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing, including to other aspects such as vocabulary, and so on. CONCLUSION From the data analysis, the following conclusions can be drawn: (1) This multimodality of English conversation images is a representation of fantasy about animated images presented in learning. (2) The analysis of the three metafunctions shows that there is a shift from student focus from images related to English conversation material by displaying animation in the image. The visual appearance shown in the image with this animation is a fantasy genre modality because of the selection of attractive colors according to the characteristics of students. 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