Updated on 2026/06/26

写真a

 
LINDENBERG, Dennis
 
Affiliation
Faculty of Science and Engineering, Global Center for Science and Engineering
Job title
Associate Professor(non-tenure-track)
Degree
Ph.D. in Education ( 2025.03 Waseda University )
Profile

My research examines how meaning is created across different modes of communication, with a particular focus on the relationships between language, images, gesture, and other semiotic resources. Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics, multimodal discourse analysis, and social semiotics, I investigate how verbal and visual elements interact to communicate ideas, shape interpretations, and influence audience engagement.

A major area of my research concerns student presentations and multimodal communication in educational contexts. I explore how presenters integrate spoken language, body language, and visual materials on slides, and how insights from multimodal research can be applied to improve communication, learning, and presentation effectiveness. I am also interested in innovative pedagogical approaches, including the use of visuals, conceptual metaphors, and creativity-oriented activities in foreign language education.

More recently, my work has expanded to the study of generative AI and visual meaning-making. I investigate how text-to-image systems represent concepts, construct symbolic meanings, and employ visual-verbal relationships that extend beyond the information explicitly provided in prompts. Through this research, I aim to contribute to a better understanding of contemporary AI-generated communication and to develop AI-assisted methodologies for large-scale multimodal discourse analysis.

Research Experience

  • 2025.09
    -
    Now

    Waseda University   Faculty of Science and Engineering   Associate Professor   Associate Professor

  • 2024.10
    -
    Now

    Sophia University   Center for Language Education and Research   Lecturer   Part-time Lecturer

  • 2025.04
    -
    2025.09

    Waseda University   School of Political Science and Economics   Lecturer   Part-time Lecturer

  • 2025.04
    -
    2025.09

    Waseda University   School of Law   Lecturer   Part-time Lecturer

  • 2024.10
    -
    2025.09

    Dokkyo University   School of International Liberal Arts   Lecturer   Part-time Lecturer

  • 2024.04
    -
    2025.09

    Rikkyo University   Center for Foreign Language Education and Research   Lecturer   Part-time Lecturer

  • 2022.09
    -
    2025.09

    Showa Women's University   Faculty of International Humanities Department of International Liberal Arts   Lecturer   Part-time Lecturer

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Education Background

  • 　
    -
    2025.03

    Waseda University   Graduate School of Education   English Education  

    Doctoral Program

  • 　
    -
    2021.03

    Waseda University   Graduate School of Education   English Education  

    Master Program

  • 　
    -
    2014.09

    University of Cologne   Faculty of Philosophy   Linguistics  

  • 　
    -
    2011.09

    Aichi Prefectural University   School of Foreign Studies  

Committee Memberships

  • 2025.12
    -
    2027.11

    Waseda University  Waseda University Animal Experimentation Review Committee

Research Areas

  • Linguistics / Foreign language education

Research Interests

  • Sociocultural Theory

  • Multimodality

  • English for Specific Purposes（ESP）

  • Cognitive Linguistics

  • Systemic Functional Linguistics

 

Papers

  • How a text-to-image model adds meaning beyond minimal prompts: An SFL-informed intersemiotic analysis of visual-verbal relations

    Dennis Lindenberg

    Multimodality & Society   OnlineFirst  2026.06  [Refereed]

    Authorship：Lead author

    　View Summary

    AI-generated images now function as routine multimodal texts, yet we know little about how they construct meaning beyond minimal prompts. Using an SFL-informed multimodal framework, this study analyses intersemiotic expansion, projection, and affect in a purpose-built corpus of 120 text-to-image outputs produced with a strictly controlled two-line prompt. Four subject types differing in animacy and conventional agency were crossed with six minimally specified predicates spanning material, mental, verbal, and projective processes (five independent generations each). Coding shows that divergence from prompts follows stable semiotic patterns rather than random variation. Action-oriented predicates strongly license specification and addition, whereas predicates foregrounding internal states rely more heavily on projection and selective specification. Subject type modulates these strategies: schema-rich human subjects constrain variation, while biologically misaligned or non-agentive subjects trigger compensatory environmental reconfiguration, explicit projection, and heightened affective loading. Projection peaks where subject plausibility is lowest, and affect intensifies for prompts involving desire or internal states. These findings suggest that AI-generated images operate as multimodal meaning-making artefacts that actively reconstrue ideational, interpersonal, and textual meanings, rendering culturally sedimented visual schemas analytically visible.

    DOI

  • Exploring multimodality in L2 English online presentations: A social-semiotic framework to analyze and instruct relations between verbal and visual modes

    Dennis Lindenberg

    Waseda University Repository   甲第7328号   1 - 253  2025.05  [Refereed]

    Authorship：Lead author

    DOI

  • Logico-semantic relations between spoken text and slides' visual elements in student presentations conducted online in the English as a Foreign Language context

    Dennis Lindenberg

    VISUAL COMMUNICATION   24 ( 2 ) 319 - 345  2025.05  [Refereed]

    Authorship：Lead author

    DOI

    Scopus

    5
    Citation
    (Scopus)

  • Multimodal meaning-making in student presentations: the impact of explicit feedback in a German as a foreign language classroom

    Dennis Lindenberg

    Multimodal Communication    2023.12  [Refereed]

    Authorship：Lead author

    DOI

    Scopus

    1
    Citation
    (Scopus)

  • 'The Genome Is the Brain of the Cell!' How Japanese English Learners Mediate Understanding of Academic Content through Metaphor

    Dennis Lindenberg

    METAPHOR AND SYMBOL   38 ( 1 ) 23 - 49  2023.01  [Refereed]

    Authorship：Lead author

    DOI

    Scopus

    2
    Citation
    (Scopus)

  • Modes and intersemiotic cohesion in student presentations performed online: An SF-informed multimodal discourse analysis

    Dennis Lindenberg

    ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES   69   67 - 79  2023.01  [Refereed]

    Authorship：Lead author

    DOI

    Scopus

    22
    Citation
    (Scopus)

  • The effect of task constraints on idea generation in creative word-formation group work for beginner-level German learners

    Dennis Lindenberg

    SYSTEM   103  2021.12  [Refereed]

    Authorship：Lead author

    DOI

    Scopus

▼display all

Presentations

  • Targeting multimodality in presentations conducted online: The impact of concept-based instruction on EFL students’ understanding of intersemiotic relations

    Lindenberg Dennis

    AILA 60th Anniversary World Congress (AILA 2024) 

    Presentation date： 2024.08

  • Multimodal cohesion in student online presentations

    Lindenberg Dennis

    Annual International Conference on Education (AICE 2021) 

    Presentation date： 2021.10

  • A systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis of cohesion in student online presentations

    Lindenberg Dennis

    The Pragmatics Society of Japan - Metaphor Research Meeting 

    Presentation date： 2021.10

  • Conceptual metaphor in EMI: Difficulties for EFL students

    Lindenberg Dennis

    The English Language and Literature Society of Waseda University 

    Presentation date： 2020.09

Research Projects

  • Visual-verbal coordination in student English presentations: Effects on audience attention and recall

    Waseda University  Waseda University Grants for Special Research Projects (Early Career Researchers)

    Project Year :

    2026.04
    -
    2027.03
     

    Lindenberg Dennis

Other

  • Coordinator, English Degree Program (EDP) Center for English Language Education in Science and Engineering (CELESE), Waseda University

    2025
    -
    Now

  • Tonen International Scholarship Foundation Scholarship

    2021.04
    -
    2024.03

  • The role of metaphor in academic textbooks used in an English as a foreign language context

    2021.03
    -
    　

    　View Summary

    [Master Thesis] Japan, Waseda University, Graduate School of Education

  • Rotary Yoneyama Memorial Foundation

    2020.04
    -
    2021.03

  • Perception and reception of modern Japanese literature in postwar Germany

    2014.07
    -
    　

    　View Summary

    [Master Thesis] Germany, University of Cologne, Department of Japanese Studies, Faculty of Arts and Humanities

 

Syllabus

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Teaching Experience

  • Academic Lecture Comprehension

    Waseda University  

    2026.04
    -
    Now
     

  • Academic Reading

    Waseda University  

    2026.04
    -
    Now
     

  • Communication Strategies

    Waseda University  

    2026.04
    -
    Now
     

  • Concept Building and Discussion

    Waseda University  

    2026.04
    -
    Now
     

  • Academic Study Skills

    Waseda University  

    2025
    -
    Now
     

  • Academic German

    Rikkyo University  

    2025
    　
    　
     

  • Advanced English

    Dokkyo University  

    2025
    　
    　
     

  • Academic Writing

    Dokkyo University  

    2024
    -
    2025
     

  • German Training

    Rikkyo University  

    2024
    -
    2025
     

  • German (Beginner)

    Rikkyo University  

    2024
    -
    2025
     

  • Career German

    Rikkyo University  

    2024
    -
    2025
     

  • English Writing

    Dokkyo University  

    2024
    -
    2025
     

  • Communicative Speaking and Listening

    Showa Women's University  

    2022
    -
    2025
     

  • Advanced Reading and Writing

    Showa Women's University  

    2022
    -
    2025
     

  • Advanced Academic Oral Skills

    Showa Women's University  

    2022
    -
    2025
     

  • Critical Thinking Skills

    Showa Women's University  

    2024
    　
    　
     

  • Academic Oral Skills

    Showa Women's University  

    2022
    -
    2024
     

▼display all

 

Academic Activities

  • Reviewer for "Acta Psychologica (Elsevier)"

    Peer review

    2025.12
    -
    2026.03

  • Reviewer for "BMC Psychology (Springer Nature)"

    Peer review

    　
    -
    2026.03

  • Reviewer for a Routledge book proposal (monograph in multimodality and discourse analysis)

    Peer review

    　
    -
    2026.03

  • Reviewer for "Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (Springer Nature)"

    Peer review

    　
    -
    2025.04

  • Reviewer for "Visual Communication (SAGE Journals)"

    Peer review

    　
    -
    2023.08

Research Institute

  • 2025
    -
    2026

    Waseda Research Institute for Science and Engineering   Concurrent Researcher