4.3.5　Testimonial

Customer testimonial，or word-of-mouth from service customer，is a frequently used strategy in promotional discourses produced by service companies due to their assumption that word-of-mouth transmission，as a means of positive evaluation from first-hand experience，affects the receiver effectively and transforms into an impact on the profits of the firm.A frequently made receiver-related assumption is that the receiver views word-of-mouth information as more important than company-controlled information（Söderlund and Rosengren，2007）.In a service context，due to the intangibility of services，it is often assumed that the service customer is particularly inclined to rely on inter-personal sources before making his or her decision.This inclination may at least partly account for the reason for the inclusion of the stage Testimonial in quite a number of the English learning advertisements.That is，these companies are clear that they are service-based and their potential customers will take the experiences of former customers as an important criterion in the pre-purchasing stage.Thus they make use of customer testimonials which are testimonies of satisfaction and direct recommendation to influence potential customers.

The Testimonial stage in the English learning leaflets and brochures often consists of three or four witnesses/testimonies.The general semiotic pattern of a piece of testimonial is a verbal text which is assumed to be the experience and evaluation of the concerning language school by a former client，supplemented by a photo of this witness.The verbal text and the photo also show special structures and features different from those in other stages.

4.3.5.1　The verbal text in Testimonial

A general pattern of Testimonials are as follows：at the beginning is the satisfaction with the language school，then followed by a recount of past experiences which usually include a process of change.Specifically，the learner had had problems in English learning，then going to the specific language school turned out to be a turning point，the learner started to make significant progress which might be presented with elaboration.In some cases，the recount of change may be a little different in content：the leaner had had doubts about the language school，but it turned out that the doubts were groundless;the results of the teaching and learning were highly satisfying and this part might also be a little longer due to elaboration.The ending is often the affective commitment of the learner to the school.The topical development and structure of the testimonial verbal text are summarized in Figure 4.16.The squares with bold frames mean obligatory phases whereas other squares might be optional.

Figure 4.16　Topical development and structure of Testimonial text

In the following are two examples taken from the corpus.In the first example（see Table 4.2），the text was written by the parent of a young child learner.The text is elaborated and structured with the standard scheme of the testimonial genre.This can be attributed to the experiences and the knowledge in written genres of the adult author since she is assumed to hold at least a Bachelor's degree in English language according to the text.

Table 4.2　Topical structure of the verbal text in a Testimonial：an elaborate example

The testimonial text below（see Table 4.3）is excerpted from a leaflet of another language school.The author，judged from the photo，is a young woman in her twenties.Her testimonial is much shorter and less elaborated than the first example.But all the key sub-topics and components are included.

Table 4.3　Topical structure of the verbal text in a Testimonial：a brief example

The Points in the Testimonial text are also generalized in the following.

Point for Problem：lack of interest of the child in English learning;lack of efficiency in English learning

Point for Encounter with the school：love at first sight or initial doubt

Point for Changes for better：improvement in the interest and effect in English learning;good interpersonal relationship in the school;confidence and happiness

Point for Affective commitmen t：satisfaction and appraisal for the specific language school/training company，sometimes enhanced by promise of future support.

The reason for the inclusion of the testimonial in promotional genres is that people assume that transmission of word-of-mouth has an emotion-inducing potential.It is assumed that the act of word-of-mouth transmission awakes the sender's memories of emotion-inducing incidents and brings back the emotions felt at the time of the original experience（Söderlund and Rosengren，2007）.Söderlund and Rosengren's research confirms this assumption and also finds that the sender's assessment also has a direct impact on the receiver's attitude toward the firm.Moreover，the net result of the process is more positive attitude toward the firm，and a higher level of purchase intent in relation to this firm for the participants who have received positive word-of-mouth.Therefore，the Testimonial stage in which customers give positive evaluation is useful for the promotion purpose of the leaflets and brochures.In the case of English learning，the testimonials from former customers are especially important for the decision making because the language schools and companies are totally based on service which is intangible and more subject to the word-of-mouth than those tangible products.

4.3.5.2　The pictorial text in Testimonial

The images that accompany the testimonial texts are less glamorous.The photos of the clients are seen slightly from above and smiling at the camera，somewhat selfconscious.These testimonial pictures are clearly taken on location and the colours do not have the enhanced saturation and texture of those in the Reader Attraction.Instead，they are highly naturalistic with lower sensory modality，and thus show features of the look of a snapshot，of a record of a real person in a real environment.

The spatial organization of the stage is usually horizontal.That is，the picture is on the left and the verbal text on the right.In Kress and van Leeuwen's（1996）terminology，the picture serves as Given and the verbal text New.We，therefore，think of the people in the photo，female in most cases，as someone“already known”，perhaps as someone just like us，real Chinese people who struggle for a better mastery of the English language，and who do not necessarily look like supermodels.The New is her satisfactory experiences with and appreciation to the particular language school or company.