Picture Writing

Language Learning and Visual Images: Imagetexts as Memory Markers

Throughout the course of this seminar in Picture Writing, we have discussed the complex interplay between words and images, dissecting varied levels of effectiveness in terms of expression of information. A clear, uncluttered, and meaningfully selected or created image can say more on its own than it would if language were to be lazily or carelessly added, just as an effective and purposeful linguistic message might be obscured by vague or overpowering images. But when both language and image are consciously and carefully selected and combined, words and image can work in synergy to convey meaning most clearly, on perhaps a more holistically felt level.

As language teachers, we are always looking to find something familiar in a word or phrase — be it a legitimate word root or a silly random connection to the sound or look of a word that will help a student remember it. We also rely on images to express meaning in order to reduce the amount of English spoken in class. Exploring these connections between image and text leads to even more conscious and purposeful choices of images, both with and without accompanying or supportive text, in all classroom transactions.

In the essay "Beyond Comparison: Picture, Text, and Method," W.J.T. Mitchell uses the term imagetext to denote a synthesized combination of image and text. ² In this unit I ask students to combine words (in the form of French language vocabulary) and images (of landmarks in Paris) into a cohesive entity that embodies both information and vocabulary learning related to the place, as well as any emotional connection that is evoked. These created imagetexts may contain one word, strings of words, or a sentence, as dictated not only by language fluency but also by whatever factors of emotion are at play.

As students explore Paris over the course of this unit, they will be asked to create imagetexts of each spot in sketch or draft form, constructing a skeleton of an image with a shade of the affective or atmospheric tone the place holds for the student, and incorporating self-chosen key words or phrases that best evoke both the factual as well as the emotional truth of the place for that student. They will record these interactions with places in a sketchbook that will function as their scrapbook of Paris. From this larger personal collection of reflections and observations, students will choose their favorites to use in the creation of their personalized site map of Paris. See "Activity II: Imagetext Scrapbook" in the Classroom Activities section of this unit.

In his book Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud explains different ways of combining image and text in comic-strip panels, depending on whether the image or the text is more prominent or whether the two are equally important to the meaning of the panel. ³ There are also distinctions made concerning how the words function in the panel. Here I will bend those concepts to fit the language-learning needs of imagetext creation in my classroom. At the outset of the unit, students should be given a brief explanation of the categories explained below, so that they may approach their scrapbook drafts with this in mind if they'd like. But since the scrapbook portion of this unit is really meant to be experiential, personal, and reflective, I don't want students bogged down by too many requirements at that stage. So although they should be aware of the ultimate expectations, they should not get overly concerned with them until they are working on their favorites for the final drafts.

All imagetexts in this unit will be created with an equal partnership between words and image; it is what the words are saying or how they are functioning in relation to the image that will change. Words will either: 1) reflect the image, 2) reflect knowledge about the image, or 3) reflect feelings about or evoked by the image. Put another way, students will create imagetexts that describe, tell, and connect.

    IMAGETEXT OPTIONS:

    Words Reflect Image
      (words and image say same thing)
        DESCRIBING

    Words Reflect Knowledge about Image
      (words and image say different but complementary things)
        TELLING

    Words Reflect Feelings / Words Do Not Reflect Image
      (words and image say different things)
        CONNECTING
  

After they have researched and explored sites within Paris, students will practice describing, telling about, and connecting to (or expressing feelings about) the landmarks they have "visited" in Paris. Depending on language strengths and weaknesses and what you think each student should try to accomplish, you will select a guideline for the finished product. For example:

Create ten final imagetexts. Two must describe, two must tell, two must connect, two must describe and tell, and two must connect and describe or tell.

That guideline would give students a degree of freedom while still requiring them to stretch themselves in different and increasingly complex ways. To that end, you may also wish to issue parameters concerning minimum number of sentences and multi-word panels and maximum number of single word panels.

Another option in imagetext creation is a variation on a montage, in which words are used to create the image or a portion of the image. For example, the Eiffel Tower could be "drawn" out of words that tell about it, so that the lines of the drawing are made of the selected telling keywords, or the gargoyle detail at the top of Notre Dame could be created out of emotional connection words and the rest of the image could be straight image or image combined with background describing words. Much like the panels explained above, these montages can be categorized as those that describe, those that tell, and those that connect.

Alternatively, students may choose to model the image portion of their imagetexts on the related street-view illustrations found in Robinson's Paris Line by Line. In these illustrations, several landmarks are sketched in a single panel as they appear on the length of a street, for example. So for our purposes, each landmark and corresponding text would constitute one imagetext, even though it is in the larger frame of several other landmarks on a page. Here, words could be incorporated into the buildings themselves or they could occupy the white space in some aesthetically impressive and mood-enhancing way.