Multi- Modal Learning - research

 

Empowering English as an Additional Language students through digital multimodal composing

Melissa Barnes, Ekaterina Tour

First published: 23 April 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.12319Citations: 2

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/lit.12319

I chose this research article because it is about students for who English is a second language and this pertains to several of my students and “many come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Humanitarian entrants are usually from low socio-economic and educational backgrounds due to past histories and circumstances. “

They explained multimodal as “The New London Group (1996) identified five different modes of meaning-making: linguistic, visual, audio, gestural and spatial. When texts involve two or more modes, they are called ‘multimodal’ (Elola & Oskoz, 2017; “

The text continues on to say that students are empowered and given voice as students are interacting with different viewpoints and this can change their own viewpoint which then leads to change in their own behaviours. Multi-modal texts also allow for students to engage in discussion. 

The research focuses on the choices given in the multi-modal activities  in this case, lead to social justice but found that “research exploring digital multimodal composing from a critical literacy perspective is scarce.”  Also, the students were given the means to develop their own multimodal texts.

This paragraph containing the results is especially interesting when it talks about their home language, the value in the development of skills and that the reflection of interest and identities supported critical literacies.

“First, it was found that both the students and pre-service teachers valued the development of skills, knowledge and understandings associated with digital multimodal composing and its transferability to the everyday classroom, particularly given the students' limited previous exposure. Second, students enjoyed creative and free experimentation with a range of multimodal and multilingual resources to create digital texts reflecting their interests and identities, which, in turn, supported critical literacies. Finally, the students were positioned as knowledgeable and active meaning-makers through strategic scaffolding by the pre-service teachers and peer interaction in home language in the process of digital multimodal composing.”

The students liked how they could change the power dynamics of a classroom as being students who could help others. I see this in my class with students who are willing to assist others.

This reading has given me the understanding that multi-modal texts empower students especially when they have the choice in their follow-up activity and how the scaffolding is so important. It was a very interesting article that has given me food for thought.