Based on the model presented here for multimodal text analysis, we have analyzed a number of texts from a variety of subjects. The examples have mainly been taken from printed and digital textbooks, but we have also commented on websites and educational games for young learners. As regards the educational perspective, we have also commented on aspects of the texts that teachers and students can discuss in relation to different aspects of the model. Such discussions can be organized either through classroom discussions, or by way of digital media. Blogs can be utilized, as well as web-based resources enabling anonymity among the users, which can encourage more voices to come through in the collective learning process. What choices to make always depends on the student’s age and his or her prior experience of using digital media for similar purposes.

The outset of the above analyses is the general structure and setting of the texts. Here we have commented on aspects such as sequencing and thematic orientation. The aim of starting with that is for students and teachers to get an overall impression of the role of different visual resources and what they offer the reader. With regard to the educational perspective in this part, we have tried to point out aspects of the texts that teachers and students can pay special attention to in the classroom, especially regarding potential challenges in the specific texts.

As a second step, we have elucidated the interaction between parts of the text. Such interaction can concern visual proximity and congruence between the verbal text and other semiotic resources, but also the congruence between, for instance, the use of concepts in descriptions and explanations. As regards the educational perspective, teachers and students can reflect upon the interaction between resources, and what view of the knowledge area appears to be central in the text, and furthermore to clarify aspects that might be unclear or even lacking in the text for the content to become clear.

As a third step of the analysis, we have focused on figurative language, given both through verbal language and through other resources. From the educational perspective, teachers and students can “break up” the content of the figurative language and, for instance, discuss the reach of analogies and how well they function in relation to the content in question.

The final step of the analysis deals with explicit and implicit values. Implicit values can for instance be given through metaphors or in illustrations, or through the choice of content. In relation to the educational perspective, teachers and students can discuss dichotomies such as right or wrong, us or them, male or female, explicit or implicit, since such dichotomies, whether in combinations or singly, can reveal underlying values.

We would like to stress two things in particular. First, multimodal analyses can be an aid for teachers to reveal a number of specific features of the text, and this can be a basis for classroom discussions with the students. That, however, does not mean that the teacher needs to point out all the different aspects in every single multimodal analysis. Second, the teacher can always decide to attach more or less weight to the different aspects when analyzing the texts. For example, when working with a topic such as attractive force in the physics classroom, discussing values might not be as important or interesting as it would be in history or religion.

Also, we want to point out that close readings of text quite often lead to expositions of potential challenges or even discoveries of “flaws” in the text. We would claim, however, that it is almost impossible to write a textbook that works perfectly for students without giving them some kind of scaffolding. Therefore, our main aim in developing our model, and in scrutinizing texts with the help of it, is to provide teachers and students with tools that can be helpful in various text encounters. Also, when students have developed their knowledge about texts and multimodality at a general level, this knowledge can be used to cope with a variety of textual challenges.

1 Texts and Multimodal Text Focus in Different Content Areas

In some content areas, highly abstract or complex content needs to be concretized, such as the digestive system, chemical bonds in science, or political systems and aspects of social security in social sciences or economics. Quite often, seemingly simple texts contain a number of potential challenges. This in combination with unclear connections between verbal text and illustrations can lead to unnecessary challenges for the novice in the field. In each text encounter, students need to be aware of the ways in which all semiotic resources, in themselves or in combinations, may carry important meaning.

In our model, special attention has been paid to figurative language. Within the science area, metaphors are part of the disciplinary discourse. At the same time, different forms of figurative language are used for pedagogical reasons to connect to students’ everyday life, or to visualize abstract content. Since figurative usages are so affluent, there are good reasons to discuss them and to “unpack” them to discuss their “reach”. Such discussions can also be enlightening for the teacher, who can then see what ideas they lead to among the students. This is important, not least from the perspective of second language learning.

Social sciences, too, use an abundance of metaphors. Here the question of values becomes especially important. Some values are clearly and openly expressed, while others are more hidden in writing and illustrations. One way of making values visible is to make comparisons. Especially dichotomies like us/them, female/male, center/periphery can make visible what is implied in the text. Another aspect of values in texts is the fact that the choice of illustrations can encompass stereotypes in ways that might not be as obvious as they would be if given through words.

When analyzing digital texts it is perhaps even more evident what a multimodal analysis can do. Such texts often contain numerous animated or still visual illustrations of various kinds, sometimes in connection with audio clips. Since digital texts often include links, there is no clear reading order, and in the case of external links there might be uncertainty about what is actually “the text”. The use of digital games has also become more common in teaching and learning. In these cases, it is important to scrutinize the content and what you can actually learn from the game, with or without other resources. As we have shown in analyses above, our model can also be a tool for assessing the learning potentials of games.

A number of subject areas have components of “doing” apart from the more theoretical aspects of the content. This accounts for parts of mathematics, experimental work in the science area, the critical discussions of source material in history or exercises in producing different genres in mother tongue subjects. Some school subjects also have a clear emphasis on training practical skills, such as music and design, crafts, or vocational programs.

2 Multimodal Texts and the Future of Learning

Even though we use a couple of examples from pedagogical games and an Internet page used for the early school years, we have mainly focused on printed textbooks or textbooks that have been published in two versions: one paper-based, one digital.

However, there are good reasons to be open to the challenges associated with digital techniques such as mobile learning, the flipped classroom, video communication, simulations, and game-based learning. With texts used in such settings, multimodal aspects are vital for information and knowledge processing as well as for knowledge representation.

We hope that a greater and more systematic focus on multimodal aspects of texts, where our model can be one important tool, can be one way of dealing with the new text landscape associated with the digitization of education. We also hope that our way of tackling texts can make teachers feel confident when working with multimodal texts in these new domains, with regard to (i) the evaluation of content and structure in text that students encounter in their learning process, (ii) cultivating students’ multimodal text production, and (iii) the assessment of students’ multimodal texts.

3 Afterword

Our model was developed for analyzing and working with texts such as the ones analysed in Part II of the book. Since it was developed in relation to multimodal texts, from an extended text concept, it has later been adapted and used in wider contexts. One example is an analysis of a physics lesson, where the lesson itself including activities and resources used was regarded “text” (Danielsson 2017). In another study the model was used to analyse museum exhibitions (Insulander 2019).