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In this paper, we propose a pedagogical approach for teaching and learning multimodal literacy, specifically, the application of multimodal discourse analysis for genre awareness. The mastery of specific oral genres is seen as desirable to help students become competent professionals. This is the case of Product Pitches (PPs) in the business field and Research Pitches (RPs) in the academic field. The former are short presentations that introduce a product to the market, the latter constitute an emerging way of disseminating ongoing research to the general public. A salient characteristic of both is their multimodal nature, which has raised an increasing interest in multimodal approaches to genre pedagogy. Our aim is to develop students’ analytical skills to make them aware of the variety of semiotic modes and the importance of using them coherently. The pedagogical approach is facilitated by specialised software that supports the systematic teaching and learning of multimodal genres.

The growing interest on science dissemination offers new opportunities to communicate science openly to various audiences, but also brings on the challenge of adapting to an audience that does not share the same academic background. This adaptation has been referred to as recontextualization. In the case of the formats that concern this study, that is, TEDx Talks and YouTube science dissemination videos, their multimodal nature suggests that recontextualization, and therefore engagement as a crucial aspect of this process, is likely to go way beyond purely linguistic aspects. The aim of this study is to unveil how engagement strategies in two science dissemination formats (a face to face talk and an online video) are realized through complex multimodal ensembles, and to highlight differences across them. In order to fulfill this aim, two talks by the same presenter and dealing with similar content were selected for analysis: a TEDx talk and a YouTube science dissemination video from the channel PBS Space Time. The recordings were annotated using the software Multimodal Video Analysis. The annotation included engagement strategies; embodied modes, that is, modes carried out using the body; and, in the case of the YouTube video, filmic modes, that is, modes triggered by the editing process of the recorded video. Our results show that the role of both embodied and filmic modes is paramount in the realization of engagement strategies. Our findings also bring to the fore significant differences in the ways in which the two distinct audiences are engaged, concerning the frequency and use of both semiotic modes and engagement strategies.

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