internationalization and globalization. a multimodal analysis of...

Internationalization and Globalization. A Multimodal Analysis

of Italian Universities’ Websites

Sole Alba Zollo

University of Naples Federico II/L’Orientale

[email protected]; [email protected]

Abstract

Through a multimodal discourse analysis approach, this study tries to identify the verbal and

non-verbal distinctive features of the collected data based on a sample of Italian universities’

official websites. I will also compare the organization of signs on the web pages and

frameworks of the websites of Italian universities to a sample of British universities.

The potential meanings these may hold for users and how they may relate to the ongoing

processes of internationalization and globalization in online environments will be taken into

account. A social semiotics perspective will allow to investigate how signs are displayed

on the screen through the interaction of a variety of modes including images, colours, writing,

font and layout.

Keywords: multimodality, university website communication, institutional academic English

1 Introduction

This paper is part of a wider interdisciplinary project aimed at analysing institutional English used

by European universities on their websites, comparing it to the language found on the websites of

British and Irish universities. The whole project involves scholars from different research fields and

focuses on the university governance by examining the institutional and regulatory process.

A research unit will focus on economics, by scrutinizing the effects of competition within a general

regulatory framework, while another group of scholars will investigate European university

websites from a linguistic and multimodal perspective.

The present analysis will be conducted on a subcorpus of Italian universities’ official websites

comparing it to a subcorpus of English universities’ websites and in particular it will focus on the

web pages devoted to international students aiming at evaluating the present level of integration

and internationalization of the Italian academic system. . Before illustrating the analysis in more

detail it is necessary to give an overview of the Bologna Process policy of internationalization.

2 Bologna Process policy of internationalization

The Bologna Process aims at establishing a common high education and research area. Its central

objective is to facilitate internationalization by adopting a system of easily readable and

comparable degrees and a system with two main cycles (undergraduate and graduate), by

establishing a system of credits, by promoting mobility and European co-operation in quality

assurance and assessment. The Bologna Process has thus forced European universities to

implement reforms at a local, national and European level. It has prompted internationalization in

European High Education institutions by increasing the number of networks and partnerships for

Journal of Multimodal Communication Studies, vol. III, issues 1-2/2016

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curriculum development as well as research and innovation; by increasing the number of joint

degrees; by enhancing the vertical mobility of students; opening up new degrees in order to attract

students and, lastly, by developing marketing strategies for the promotion of European High

Education abroad.

The Bologna Process is the biggest educational reform ever undertaken in Europe and

worldwide. Nonetheless, results are far beyond the expectations and, in fact, Italian universities –

with only few exceptions – are still below the European average in terms of attractiveness and

accessibility. In today’s context of increasing competition, collaboration and exchange among

universities on a global scale, the importance of these principles is undeniable both for individual

Italian universities and for the entire national academic system. To achieve the strategic objectives

of the Bologna Process, universities need to disseminate information on the web in multiple

languages, and especially in English, due to its unparalleled global reach.

Different Italian universities have implemented this requirement to different degrees, and

preliminary investigations reveal a rather disappointing situation. Interventions aimed at supporting

multilingual communicative strategies are, therefore, needed to strengthen internationalization

policies. A work hypothesis is that traditional top-down state-driven regulatory strategies seem to

have failed both at European level and in Italy, too.

In other words, the Bologna Process has tried to harmonize the European higher education

system through a series of different actions for example by promoting a European dimension of

education programmes and mobility activities, helping the identification of degrees and courses

across Europe and enhancing the attractiveness of European universities worldwide. A hierarchical

approach to regulation has been adopted creating framework policies on European level to be

implemented through national policies. Despite the efforts made at national and local level there

are still significant and sometimes diverging differences due to cultural and social factors. In order

to verify the developments of the process of internationalization of European universities the

European Union itself has established a “Bologna Process Follow Up Group” with the intention of

evaluating the state of advancement of the policies adopted.

Against this general framework, I will investigate to what extent the communicative strategies

of the Italian university websites help Italian universities to build their image of internationalized

institutions in accordance with the Bologna Process.

3 Institutional academic English and the online communicative context

An increasing number of Italian universities provide sections of their websites in English, trying to

reach a wide international audience of both people, such as students and researchers, and

institutions, such as education organizations and research centres. Not many studies have been

devoted to this phenomenon, in particular with reference to the linguistic features of institutional

English as it is used on the websites of Italian universities. Many studies have been devoted to the

use of English as a lingua franca in scientific and academic international environments. The use of

English as a lingua franca plays an important and obvious role in the online institutional discourse

of European universities, so in the last few years it has arisen great interest leading researchers to

build and analyze corpora of English as a lingua franca (Seidlhofer 2001; Mauranen 2003).

Academic discourse has attracted constant interest within English linguistics, but studies have

mostly focused on disciplinary academic English, and especially on scientific writing. Institutional

English produced within academia has not received much attention, apart from some notable works

such as Fairclough’s (1993) investigation of promotional discursive practices performed in the

institutional communication of British universities. In recent times, researchers have taken into

account spoken and written English within the academic environment, shedding light on

traditionally neglected fields such as interactions in study groups, dialogues with administrative

staff, web-based course guides and prospectuses. Moreover, Biber’s remarkable study (2006)

focuses on a range of characteristics which are specific to the diverse academic registers, including

the institutional ones, specifying that the correct fruition of these texts is in reality a fundamental

condition for the success of disciplinary academic communication. In a recent work Bernardini et

Sole Alba Zollo: Internationalization and Globalization. A Multimodal Analysis…

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al. (2010) have analysed a comparable corpus of English-language websites of Italian and

British/Irish universities. Corpus-based studies tend to marginalize the purpose toward which

online communication takes place, concentrating mostly on merely linguistic aspects. This

phenomenon, in fact, remains underinvestigated from a multimodal perspective and this work will

endeavour to bridge this gap.

4 Corpus and research questions

For this study I have built up two multimodal corpora extracted from six Italian university websites

and six English university websites. I have decided to collect the data from the biggest and the

smallest universities by number of students, one for the North, one for the Centre and one for the

South of Italy and England.

The biggest Italian universities1 taken into account are the University of Turin for the North

(64,824 students), the University of Rome La Sapienza for the Centre (10,9510 students) and the

University of Naples Federico II for the South (81,552 students). The smallest ones2 are the IUAV

of Venice for the North (5,147 students), the University of Tuscia for the Centre (7,131 students)

and the University of Basilicata for the South (7,778 students). Concerning the English universities

the corpus is based on the following biggest universities3: the University of Manchester for the

North (40,680 students), the University College of London for the Centre (13,2325 students) and

the University of Southampton for the South (24,135 students). While for the smallest ones4 I have

taken into account the York St John University for the North (5,975 students), the Norwich

University of the Arts for the Centre (1,635 students) and the University of Winchester for the

South (6,330 students).

In order to verify to what extent the Italian university system has implemented the Bologna

requirements I have focused only on the web pages devoted to international students and the

investigation has tried to answer the following research questions:

how are signs displayed on the screen through the interaction of a variety of modes including

images, colours, writing, font and layout? To what extent do the communicative strategies of the

Italian university websites help Italian universities to build their image of internationalized

institutions in accordance with the Bologna Process?

5 Multimodality

We live in a multimodal epoch where meaning is rarely made with language alone. Multimodality

is the study of different semiotic modes in a text or communicative event. It is “the combination of

different semiotics modes – for example, language and music – in a communicative artefact or

event” (van Leeuwen 2005: 281). It is impossible to have a text which is pure language and

moreover with digital technology it has become easier to mix modes. A page cannot create

meaning through the use of language alone but relies on a combination of linguistic, graphic and

spatial meaning-making resources. Moreover, after a period of the dominance of writing as the

vehicle of communication, under the influence of technology, there is now what Kress (1998)

defines a “tectonic shift” taking place in the semiotic landscape of representation, changing our

conception of the page significantly.

Social semiotics (Hodge and Kress, 1988) has been developing its methodological framework

for more than a decade, starting from Visual Grammar (Kress and van Leeuwen 1996, 2006) and

founding Multimodal Discourse Analysis (Kress and van Leeuwen 2001). Since then, many

scholars have been investigating this field and have produced a number of valuable works, in some

1 It refers to the number of students in 2014-15. This information was retrieved from http://statistica.miur.it/. 2 Idem. 3 It refers to the number of students in 2013-14. This information was retrieved from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_the_United_Kingdom_by_enrollment. 4 Idem.

http://statistica.miur.it/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_the_United_Kingdom_by_enrollment


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cases elaborating original results, for example Baldry and Thibault (2006). Although referring

explicitly to Hallidayan linguistics, social semiotics and multimodal analysis demonstrate that a

multimodal approach to texts gives new perspectives to the interpretation of language and

communication.

There is increasing interest among scholars from different disciplines (linguistics, education,

sociology, media studies) in the role of modes in representation and communication. These modes

are perceived as closely connected in the communicative process and multimodal discourses have

been investigated in a range of contexts, including workplaces, museum exhibitions, online

environments, across a range of genres and technologies.

A fundamental aspect of multimodality is the analysis of language, but embedded within

a wider semiotic frame. It is part of a multimodal ensemble. In fact, many studies have focused on

the relationship between language and images, for instance the early work of Kress and van

Leeuwen (1996), Lemke’s work on science textbooks (1998), works by Martinec and Salaway

(2005) and research by Bezemer and Kress (2008). They draw on Systemic functional grammar to

identify the dependency relations between image and text. Martinec and van Leeuwen’s (2008)

research on the inter-semiotic interplay in new media texts suggests that the word-image relations

are remade through their reconfiguration in digital media, even though these relations are not

completely established. Significant theoretical investigation of interaction between image and

language has demonstrated that technological developments have led to the fact that images are

becoming increasingly central in communicative events. And, secondly, screens are, more and

more, displacing the media of the printed page (Jewitt 2002, 2008). Consequently, it is difficult to

consider writing in isolation from the multimodal ensembles in which it is embedded.

People have always used non-verbal elements to communicate but the use of technologies

surely allows modes to be configured in different ways. New technologies play an essential role in

how modes are made available, configured and accessed (Jewitt 2006) and they can impact on

design and text production and interpretative practices. Much has been written about the dominance

of the visual in contemporary society. Several multimodal studies have focused on how the

different modes are organized on the page or screen of textbooks, websites and other digital

learning resources (Bezemer and Kress 2008; Jones 2005; Norris 2004; O’Halloran and Smith

2011) as well as films, adverts and other new media texts (O’Halloran 2004; Burn 2009; Baldry

2004). Other studies have focused on the “technologisation” of practices and communication and

interaction more generally (Marsh 2005; Unsworth et al 2005). Much of this research examines the

dynamics of the interaction between image and writing in narratives, relations between book and

computer based versions of texts, and the role of on-line communities, as well as hypertexts which

enmesh writing, image and other modes in digital technologies (Luke 2003; Lemke 2002).

Over the last few years, an increasing attention has been paid to specialized communication in

English used in institutional contexts (Martin and Christie 1997; Gotti 2003) and many studies of

multimodality have been conducted on text making in digital and online environments (Lemke

2002; Adami 2013) but there is not much on English in the institutional academic domain.

Multimodality is gaining pace as a methodological approach, since writing no longer seems

sufficient in understanding representation and communication in a range of fields and the need to

understand how writing interact with non-verbal modes has become necessary in the online

communicational landscape.

All modes require to be studied with a view to the underlying choices available to

communicators, the meaning potentials of resources and the purposes for which they are chosen.

All modes have been shaped through their cultural, historical and social uses to realize social

functions as required by different communities. “People orchestrate meaning through their

selection and configuration of modes. Thus the interaction between modes is significant for

meaning making” (Jewitt 2012). Modes interplay in digital media. The word-image relations are

remade through their reconfiguration in digital media, even though these relations are not

completely established (Martinec and van Leeuwen 2008). New technologies play an essential role

in how modes are made available, configured and accessed (Jewitt 2006) and they can impact on

design and text production and interpretative practices.


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The collected corpus will be investigated following mainly the three functions –

ideational/representational, interpersonal/interactive and textual/compositional – identified by

Kress and van Leeuwen in their “grammar of visual design” (1996, 2006). The representational

function of the website pages under investigation corresponds to what the page is and represents.

The interactive function corresponds to the relation between the author and the user of the pages.

Finally, the compositional function corresponds to how the other two are represented on the page,

for example salience and info structure.

6 A multimodal contrastive analysis of the Italian and English university websites

Following the Bologna process policy the MIUR (Ministry of Education, University and Research)

has realized an informative website called “Study in Italy” (http://www.study-in-italy.it/) addressed

to students who desire to attend higher education courses in Italy, both at undergraduate and

postgraduate level. On this website international students can find useful information on study

opportunities and student life and university services, in addition to country information.

What is interesting here is that, as you can see in Example 1, by explaining why Italy should

be the right choice for international students the first thing which is immediately underlined is the

fact that Italy is one of the first countries to implement the education reform and consequently it

should convince students to choose Italy for their study career instead of other European countries.

(1) Why Italy?

Italy has played an important role in European higher education: it is one of the four

countries that first engaged to create the so-called "European Area of Higher Education"

(Sorbonne Declaration, May 1998), thus starting that type of higher education reform which,

known as “Bologna Process” (Bologna Declaration, June 1999) is being implemented all

over Europe.

The university web pages under investigation often refer to the Bologna Process. For example, in

the “international academic programs” of the University of Turin5 we find an informative text

where the emphasis is on the internationalization of Italian higher education system and on the fact

that thanks to the Bologna Process the institution has facilitated the mobility of students. Example

2 shows how the significant role played by this reform is stressed linguistically by the repetition of

the verb “internationalize” and the adjective “international” and the use of expressions such as “one

of the first”.

(2) Internationalizing the Italian university means developing and offering international

academic programs. On 13th December 1985, on the basis of an international agreement

between Italy and France, the University of Turin signed with the French University of

Savoy one of the first binational course of degree. The statements of the Bologna process

(and the 1999 Italian University reform) established as its major goal the harmonization of

the higher education system structure to be implemented in Europe within 2010. The process,

carried out on an international, national and institutional level, has led to a series of

initiatives to foster mobility students through specific programs.

Similarly, on the page about the international agreements6 of the University of Rome La Sapienza,

the use of adverbs such as “strongly, actively” (see Example 3) reinforces the concept that the

university is engaged in the promotion of the internationalization of higher education.

(3) Sapienza University strongly believes in and actively promotes the internationalisation of

higher education. Studying abroad is a unique and fortifying student experience, but more in

general the inward and outward mobility of students and staff dramatically enhances the

quality of learning, teaching and research, as well as laying the foundations for future global

relationships with partners throughout Europe and around the globe.

5 It is available at http://en.unito.it/international-relations/international-academic-programs. 6 It is available at http://en.uniroma1.it/study-us/courses-and-programmes.

http://en.unito.it/international-relations/international-academic-programs

http://en.uniroma1.it/study-us/courses-and-programmes


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Sapienza actively pursues both bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements with universities from

around the world to promote research and didactic activities and support the international

mobility of teachers, researchers and students.

Sapienza also supports the process of university internationalisation by implementing and

participating in the Erasmus+ Programme, the EU's new programme (2014-2020) for

boosting skills and employability through education, training, youth and sport.

From a multimodal perspective, as you can see in Figures 1 and 2, the interaction between modes –

typefaces, colour and writing – is very little. Typography is one of the modes which often plays an

important role in the verbal and visual interplay of online communication. According to Stockl

(2005) typefaces can illustrate emotions or indicate the author’s intended audience. Moreover,

textually, the layout can facilitate access to the information of a given text. Similarly, van Leeuwen

affirms that “a new typography has emerged which no longer sees itself as a humble craft in the

service of the written word, but as spearheading innovation in graphic design, and which no longer

sees typography as an ‘abstract art’, but as a means of communication in its own right” (van

Leeuwen 2006: 142). On the contrary, from a compositional point of view, on the pages analysed it

seems that font and typefaces do not contribute to making the pages more accessible and easy to

read. Even if the writing and layout are essential and concise, in terms of multimodal interaction it

seems that the modes involved live separately on the page without appealing to readers.

Figure 1. Student services section – University of Venice IUAV


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Figure 2. Student services section – University of Turin

The analysis reveals that often there is a lack of web-genre awareness, since the content of some

pages seems to be simply copied from another text type and attached on the webpage. For instance,

in the section “Welcome to Naples” of the University of Naples Federico II we find a very long

page crowded with unnecessary information about Naples (see Example 4). It is a very pedantic

text probably extracted from a tourist guide or booklet and without any type of elaboration it has

been inserted on the webpage without considering the distinctive characteristics of the web

communication. So the page results hard to read and not suitable for the Internet genre. Even if

there is a slight attempt to make the other modes interact by introducing some photos of Naples and

colours (see Figure 3), actually, the pictures are not cohesively well structured with the verbal text.

. In the text we find too much historical information and there is little attempt to promote the city

through promotional rhetorical strategies, a well-known tendency of contemporary institutional

discourse.

Figure 3. Welcome to Naples – University of Naples Federico II


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(4) Rooted in legend the origins of Naples are shrouded by mystery. It is believed that the city

was founded on the spot where the siren Parthenope died, thus the origin of the city’s ancient

name. It is generally accepted though, that the earliest colonisers were of Greek origins (thus

the name of Neapolis, the new city as opposed to Palepolis, the old city) and that the earliest

settlement was on the isle of Megaride (where, currently, Castel dell’Ovo stands) between the

ninth and seventh centuries B.C. The new city was laid out in the Greek and Roman fashion

with “cardus” (a narrow street running from North to South) and “decumanus” (wider,

running from East to West) road system, as can be seen nowadays walking down Via dei

Tribunali and Via Benedetto Croce (Upper decumanus) and Via San Biagio dei Librai,

(Lower decumanus). The city of Naples, with its gentle climate, fertile soil and magnificent

scenery, attracted a great deal of interest; thus, the city had to weather many dominations, not

always benevolent. Most can be traced nowadays through superb archeological sites. There

are few remnants of the Roman period in central Naples, but many can be seen in the nearby

towns of Pozzuoli, Herculaneum and Pompei (the most visited site in Europe). There is

suggestion that Emperor Constantine founded the oldest basilica of Naples, the recently

restored chapel of Santa Restituta, located not far from the Cathedral (Il Duomo). The first

Christian cemetery of Southern Italy was built in Naples and can be visited at the catacombs

of Saint Gaudioso. The Normans conquered Naples in the ninth century. Castel Capuano

(currently the Court House) and the Castel dell’Ovo (Egg’s Castle), the royal palace of Roger

II are the major testimony of that period. In 1224 Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and

King of Sicily, founded in Naples the first publicly funded university and in 1266, Charles I

of the Anjou family, transferred from Palermo to Naples the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily.

In 1279 the construction of Castel Nuovo began, perhaps one of the most impressive

medieval castle that can be visited today.

In the 16th century, Naples became the capital of the Spanish viceroyalty. The construction

of residences for the aristocracy both in the ancient city centre and outside the city walls

provided the city with a good equilibrium, with both luxury buildings, and less ostentatious

ones being built to cope with the demand for housing: the Orsini, Marigliano and Corigliano

Palaces are all examples of civil Renaissance buildings. To the Bourbon dynasty we owe the

construction of major buildings such as the Teatro San Carlo (Opera house) inaugurated in

1737, the Royal Palace of Capodimonte, and the impressive Royal Hostel for the Poor

(Palazzo di Fuga). Undoubtedly, the many foreign dominations, contributed to the

cosmopolitan character of the city. For the better or the worse, modern Naples maintains this

character and features an almost unique blending of natural beauties, high-end culture,

magnificent buildings, museums, churches, spectacular gardens found in the most unexpected

places, and most peculiar people. A mixture with no peer in the whole world! It is contended

that Naples is the best open-air museum in the world and there is ample evidence to support

this contention. There are, obviously, good reasons as to why Naples was included by the

UNESCO in the World’s Heritage list. But Naples allure goes way beyond its history, culture

and architectural masterpieces. Its lively atmosphere, its very special food and drinks its

music and the very attitude of its people make the city a most special place that everybody

should visit at least once in a lifetime!

Even when the interaction of different modes is present, such as on the University of Rome La

Sapienza website (see Figure 4), the interplay between writing, colour and image is not very

dynamic and students are not mentioned or directly addressed neither linguistically nor visually.

In England the situation is completely different. The English university websites are highly

interactive taking into account the users’ needs and the marketization of education system has

pushed the institutions to elaborate new communicative and persuasive strategies where the

students are more and more associated with goods consumers.

In order to overcome the economic crisis capitalism constantly changes itself and in this way

economic development can continue relentlessly. This transformation generates new relations

between the economic, political and social spheres and the various levels of social life such as the

national and local. This leads to the commodification and marketization of fields which in the past

were not subject to the logic of the market, for example the education field.

English university websites pay more attention to students’ desires by accommodating the

information provided to the needs of their international audience. For Fairclough (1992: 210)


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“commodification of educational discourse is not just matter of vocabulary; it is also a matter of

genre. Education is one of a number of domains whose orders of discourse are being colonized by

the advertising genre […]”.

Figure 4. Life in Rome – University of Rome La Sapienza

Modes such as videos and images are able to evoke an atmosphere which is more immediate than

that given by words alone. Instantaneously they create a world which potential students can

identify with. Most images in fact represent students doing things (sitting in classes, using

equipment, chatting, etc.), showing an inspiring and relaxing environment. Because of the

commodification of education there are a lot of linguistic features used which are typical of

advertising discourse. There are also Virtual Open Day web pages (see Figure 5) which help

projecting an enticing image for the “product” and for the potential students as a part of it.

Figure 5. Virtual Open Day – University of Southampton


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In all the English websites analyzed the student becomes the real protagonist. He/she is always

mentioned and often present visually. For example, the York St John University has created a page

where you can find student profiles (Figure 6). They are students who come from different cultural

and religious backgrounds but they have one thing in common: they all are part of the same

education community and have experienced life and study at the York St John University. Visually

they are depicted in a short shot looking directly at the reader. These ‘demand’ images serve to set

up a personal relationship between the participants and the reader. When you click on one of the

photos you enter another page where you find more details and information about each student

(Figure 7). Here you find the testimonies of each student where through quotations they express

their opinions about the university. A very common advertising strategy, that is narrating personal

stories, is exploited here to promote the academic institution.

Figure 6. Student profiles – York St John University

Figure 7. A student profile – York St John University


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In other sections, not only do we find a video gallery where the different courses (undergraduate

courses, postgraduate courses and international courses) are explained in detail but the most

interesting thing is that they are described by the students themselves. They express their views too

and for example in order to shorten the gap between the institution and the prospective students,

there is also the possibility to watch walking tours to accommodation realized by students. Thus,

students can familiarize with the services offered and practically they can have an idea of how to

reach their accommodation for example before arriving at the campus. They can watch and learn

directions in advance and there is also the possibility to download the transcripts.

In other pages we have found a verbal and visual symmetrical relationship. Figure 8 and

Example 5 show discursive features such as the use of direct quotations by the Lord Mayor and the

Director of Higher York as an instrument of legitimation which are anchored to the two official

pictures taken during the welcome event.

Figure 8. International news – York St John University

(5) City of York Welcomes International Students

International students from across the globe received a civic welcome to the City of

York on Monday 4 November.

International students from York’s further and higher education institutions were

formally welcomed to the city by the Rt Hon the Lord Mayor, Cllr Julie Gunnell

at an event organised by Higher York in the Mansion House. Each year, York’s

universities and further education colleges receive over 3,300 international

students who bring fantastic cultural diversity to the city.

The Lord Mayor said: ‘International students bring so much to our city and I’m

delighted to be able to welcome them to York on behalf of residents. I hope they will

enjoy their time in the city and come to think of York as a home from home during

their time here.’

International students come to York from a wide range of countries, including

Canada, China, India, Norway, South Africa, Thailand and the USA. Some come for

a number of years, others for shorter durations, but all add to the cultural diversity of

the city. They bring with them new ideas, traditions and important international


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connections which help make York recognised as an important city on the European

and world stage.

13 International Students from York St John University were invited to attend the

prestigious event and those who attended were extremely grateful for the

opportunity to meet the Lord Mayor and socialise with other international students

from across the City.

Jessica Grant, Director of Higher York said ‘The partnership between York’s

colleges and universities continues to flourish and this event is just one of the ways

partners are working together to welcome students and staff to the city.’

By comparing the Italian and English pages devoted to the promotion of the towns or cities where

the universities are based, the results are quite diverging. Looking at the University of Basilicata

website, when clicking on the section devoted to international students you only have a list of

university addresses and phone numbers. Even when we find other modes involved such as photos

(see Figures 9 and 10) they are not appealing and promotional. They are just pictures of grey

buildings and snowy landscapes which is not the ideal image of southern Italy international

students might have. Moreover, the oblique angle creates detachment rather than engaging the

reader.

Figure 9. University of Basilicata Figure 10. University of Basilicata

On the contrary, the English pages (see Figures 11 and 12) are rich of information stressing all the

advantages of towns such as Southampton or Winchester and through videos and pictures the

institutions foreground all the positive aspects of the two towns building an image of ideal place

where to live and study.


13

Figure 11. University of Southampton

Figure 12. University of Winchester


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English websites are also highly interactive since for example the Norwich University of the Arts

(see Figure 13) offers online office hours to students and parents. Contrarily, as already stated

above, most Italian universities under investigation show a lack of web-genre awareness and the

interactivity and interaction between the institutions and their “consumers” are completely absent.

Figure 13. Norwich University of the Arts

However, the University of Turin website seems to be slightly different since there is an attempt to

use different promotional verbal and visual strategies. We find some promotional strategies such as

the use of contract forms, exclamation marks and nurturing metaphors (see Example 6), but in

terms of composition and verbal and visual interplay it does not seem to be very effective (see

Figure 14).

(6) Choosing a university isn’t easy. You want a place that can make your dreams come true,

educate you and provide you with the knowledge, life skills and resources that will give you

an edge in the world. Sapienza University of Rome is just that place. We have been

nurturing students for centuries.

Merging centuries of tradition with cutting-edge didactic activities, research and innovation,

Sapienza provides top quality education and research opportunities. Indeed, it ranks amongst

the top Italian universities and shows a strong performance worldwide, too. And it all takes

place in one of the most breath-taking cities in the world: Rome. If this is what you’re

looking for come to our next Open Day or register for a visit with the Hello Office and

experience a day at Sapienza!


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Figure 14. Courses and programmes – University of Rome La Sapienza

7 Conclusions

Through the use of the multimodal tools outlined by Kress and van Leeuwen (1996, 2006), the

analysis shows that, ideationally, the English university web pages are more dense with interactive

signs; interpersonally, thanks to the colour palette and fonts, they contribute to the process of

marketization of educational discourse, and, textually, the verbal and visual interplay confers

salience to the value of interactivity and attractiveness.

Within the internationalisation of a common European Higher education area (EHEA), Italian

websites, on the contrary, display lack of awareness of effective communication even though some

of the ones explored show a very slight attempt to be more promotional (University of Turin,

University of Rome La Sapienza). The different modes involved do not interact effectively thus

providing quite static pages. It seems that most Italian universities only comply to regulations

without taking into account users’ needs.

In order to implement the Bologna process Italian universities’ websites need to improve web

mediated communication acquiring a better awareness of the peculiarities of the genre and improve

communicative competence in English. In order to achieve internationalization and a greater

European integration the institutions should improve online verbal and visual communication

focusing mainly on the attractiveness and accessibility of their websites. Far from being complete

and detailed, this study requires to be implemented in future conducting, for example, some

empirical research on the reception of both English and Italian university websites.

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