GRAPE-MARS: a new tool for multimodal analysis for research on second languages

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present GRAPE-MARS (Multimodal Analysis Research Software) (https://www.grape.uji.es/mars), a free open-source software developed by GRAPE (Group for Research on Academic and Professional English) for the multimodal analysis of videos in the context of second language research. Multimodal research has come a long way in recent years, especially in discourse analysis, although studies related to translation, pragmatics, and others have also been carried out. GRAPE-MARS is a programme with a simple interface and user-friendly that can be used by researchers, teachers, and students, and whose aim is to facilitate the task of identifying the elements or modes that make up discourse and to facilitate their representation. At a time when digital genres, with their inherent multimodality, are becoming increasingly prominent, GRAPE-MARS can be an essential tool for unpacking their constituent elements and contributing to more complete multimodal analyses that aid second language research.