e-Pedagogium 2020, 20(4):7-13 | DOI: 10.5507/epd.2021.012

Didactic Connotations of Text-book Pictorial Adjuncts

Václav Řeřichaa, Libor Prágerb
a Institute of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Education, Palacký University, Žižkovo nám. 5, 771 40 Olomouc, Czech Republic
b Institute of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Philosophy and Science, Silesian University in Opava, Masarykova tř. 37, 746 01 Opava, Czech Republic

The article Didactic Connotations of Text-book Pictorial Adjuncts suggests a theoretical basis for development and assessment of didactic effect of pictorial adjuncts in foreign language textbooks. Barthes's (1977) theoretical interpretation of a press photograph message in three stages, a source of emission, a channel of transmission and a point of reception, is compared to textbook pictorial adjuncts that need to undergo didactic treatment in the first two stages; only then learning effect at the point of reception may be achieved. Comprehensive studies of pictorial adjuncts were written twenty or thirty years ago and the recent preference for photographs without didactic treatment in foreign language textbooks has been explained as attempts of publishers to blend text-book pictorials with visual environment of magazines. The article discusses the concept of "didactic code" at the source of emission and the possibilities of broader context of adjunct pictorials. A delicate balance between text and its pictorial adjunct must be achieved to avoid mere repetition or amplification of the set of connotations already given in the image. The presented theoretical basis is more relevant today than it might have been thirty years ago. It is general enough to be applicable in the prevailing visual digital environment and specific enough to be used for a detailed analysis of the learning effect based on the source of pictorial emission and its channel of transmission irrespective of the technology.

Keywords: adjunct pictorials, didactic code, emission, transmission, learning effect, visual environment, textbooks, connotations.

Received: November 16, 2020; Revised: January 29, 2021; Accepted: February 18, 2021; Published: April 22, 2021  Show citation

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Řeřicha, V., & Práger, L. (2020). Didactic Connotations of Text-book Pictorial Adjuncts. e-Pedagogium, 20(4), 7-13. doi: 10.5507/epd.2021.012
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