Critical multimodal literacy with moving-image texts

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shin-ying Huang
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Text Comprehension ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Teacher Inquiry ◽  
Multimodal Literacy ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Moving Image ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Language Classrooms

Purpose This paper aims to examine language learners’ critical multimodal literacy practices with a moving-image text, focusing on text comprehension and interpretation rather than text production. It takes a critical perspective towards multimodality and proposes the simultaneous emphasis on critical and multimodal literacies. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative teacher-inquiry adopts critical multimodal literacy as the framework for understanding learners’ literacy practices. The course implementation highlights images, sounds and words as encompassing the five modes of visual, aural, linguistic, gestural and spatial (Arola et al., 2014) in emphasizing the multimodal in critical multimodal literacy, and the purposeful organization of the images, sounds and words as reflecting the critical in critical multimodal literacy. The analysis also adopts Serafini’s (2010) concentric perceptual, structural and ideological perspectives as the tenets of critical multimodal literacy. Findings The findings show that focusing on images, sounds, words and their purposeful organization enabled the students to critically examine a moving-image text through considerations for the multiple modes and arriving at the structural and ideological interpretive perspectives. Originality/value This study fills a gap in the literature, as very little research has been done to investigate the ways in which language learners engage with, that is, comprehend and interpret, moving-image multimodal texts. In addition, it presents a critical multimodal literacy framework based on Serafini’s (2010) tripartite perspectives and offers pedagogical suggestions for incorporating critical multimodal literacy in language classrooms.

Adolescent English language learners’ digitally mediated multimodal compositions: multimodal enactment across different genres of writing in the EFL context

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joohoon Kang
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Creative Processes ◽  
Efl Context ◽  
Multimodal Composing ◽  
Multimodal Compositions

Purpose This paper aims to investigate adolescent English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ digitally mediated multimodal compositions across different genres of writing. Design/methodology/approach Three Korean high school students participated in the study and created multiple multimodal texts over the course of one academic semester. These texts and other materials were the basis for this study’s qualitative case studies. Multiple sources of data (e.g. class observations, demographic surveys, interviews, field notes and students’ artifacts) were collected. Drawing upon the inductive approach, a coding-oriented analysis was used for the collected data. In addition, a multimodal text analysis was conducted for the students’ multimodal texts and their storyboards. Findings The study participants’ perceptions of multimodal composing practices seemed to be positively reshaped as a result of them creating multimodal texts. Some participants created multimodal products in phases (e.g. selecting or changing a topic, constructing a storyboard and editing). Especially, although the students’ creative processes had a similarly fixed and linear flow from print-based writing to other modalities, their creative processes proved to be flexible, recursive and/or circular. Originality/value This study contributes to the understanding of adolescent English language learners’ multimodal composing practices in the EFL context, which has been underexplored in the literature. It also presents the students’ perspectives on these practices. In short, it provides theoretical and methodological grounds for future L2 literacy researchers to conduct empirical studies on multimodal composing practices.

Multimodal Literacy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy A. Mills ◽  
Len Unsworth
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Digital Images ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Multimodal Literacy ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Making Meaning

Multimodal literacy is a term that originates in social semiotics, and refers to the study of language that combines two or more modes of meaning. The related term, multimodality, refers to the constitution of multiple modes in semiosis or meaning making. Modes are defined differently across schools of thought, and the classification of modes is somewhat contested. However, from a social semiotic approach, modes are the socially and culturally shaped resources or semiotic structure for making meaning. Specific examples of modes from a social semiotic perspective include speech, gesture, written language, music, mathematical notation, drawings, photographic images, or moving digital images. Language and literacy practices have always been multimodal, because communication requires attending to diverse kinds of meanings, whether of spoken or written words, visual images, gestures, posture, movement, sound, or silence. Yet, undeniably, the affordances of people-driven digital media and textual production have given rise to an exponential increase in the circulation of multimodal texts in networked digital environments. Multimodal text production has become a central part of everyday life for many people throughout the life course, and across cultures and societies. This has been enabled by the ease of producing and sharing digital images, music, video games, apps, and other digital media via the Internet and mobile technologies. The increasing significance of multimodal literacy for communication has led to a growing body of research and theory to address the differing potentials of modes and their intermodality for making meaning. The study of multimodal literacy learning in schools and society is an emergent field of research, which begins with the important recognition that reading and writing are rarely practiced as discrete skills, but are intimately connected to the use of multimodal texts, often in digital contexts of use. The implications of multimodal literacy for pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment in education is an expanding field of multimodal research. In addition, there is a growing attention to multimodal literacy practices that are practiced in informal social contexts, from early childhood to adolescence and adulthood, such as in homes, recreational sites, communities, and workplaces.

scholarly journals Multimodal Literacy through Children’s Drawings in a Romani Community

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 90-104
Author(s):  
Hsiao‐Chin Kuo
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Funds Of Knowledge ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Children's Drawings ◽  
Multimodal Literacy ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Children’S Drawings ◽  
Future Research Directions

Being part of an ethnographic research project, which investigated the funds of knowledge and literacy practices of a Romani community in northwestern Romania, this paper presents an exploratory examination, seeking ways to understand drawings and sketches as multimodal texts produced by five Romani children in this community. In general, Romani people, living on the margins of society, have often been labeled illiterate and been discriminated against. The examination of these Romani children’s drawings and sketches illuminated two features of their multimodal literacy practices— intertextuality and design—and scrutinized the stereotype of illiteracy thrust upon the Romani people. Based on the examination of the multimodal literacy practices of these Romani children, implications are drawn, including pedagogical applications, and future research directions are suggested.

scholarly journals Meaning-making in fifth-graders’ multimodal texts

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Jusslin ◽  
Ulrika Magnusson ◽  
Katarina Rejman ◽  
Ria Heilä-Ylikallio ◽  
Siv Björklund
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Multimodal Literacy ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Fifth Grade Students ◽  
Writing Research ◽  
Semiotic Approach ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Research Questions

Despite a growing body of research on multimodal writing, scholars still express a need for formal frameworks for discussing multimodal literacy practices and call for  research on multimodality in education that develops a vocabulary to approach multimodal texts in teaching. This study answers this call by presenting an analysis that adds to the field of  multimodal writing research, and thus furthers the knowledge of different semiotic potentials of modes in student-produced texts. Drawing on a social semiotic approach to multimodality, a total of 299 texts, written by fifth-grade students from three schools in Sweden and Finland, are analyzed. The aim is to explore semiotic modes used in the student-produced written texts. The guiding research questions are: (1) What modes are used in the texts, and (2) what meanings are realized through the different modes in the texts. Results showed that six different modes were used to realize meanings in five categories: create representative meaning; visualize phenomena and assignments; foreground important areas; design the text; and decorate the paper. These categories offer a vocabulary that can describe semiotic potentials of the modes and how they realize different meanings in multimodal texts. Such a vocabulary can aid teachers in cultivating, supporting, and assessing students’ multimodal writings that contain multiple modes. From these results, we suggest that acknowledging the diversity of the modes and their meanings in student texts can help raise the awareness of how students also make meaning in modes beyond writing and image.

Bus riding leitmotifs: making multimodal meaning with elementary youth on a public school bus

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antero Garcia ◽  
Stephanie M. Robillard ◽  
Miroslav Suzara ◽  
Jorge E. Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Public School ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Visual Observation ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Multimodal Literacy ◽  
School Bus ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Design Based Research ◽  
Sound Levels

Purpose This study explores student sensemaking based on the creation and interpretation of sound on a public school bus, operating as a result of a desegregation settlement. To understand these multimodal literacy practices, the authors examined students’ journeys, sonically as passengers in mobile and adult-constructed space. Design/methodology/approach As a qualitative study, the authors used ethnographic methods for data collection. Additionally, the authors used a design-based research approach to work alongside students to capture and interpret sound levels on the bus. Findings Findings from this study illustrate how students used sounds as a means to create community, engage in agentic choices and make meaning of their surroundings. Moreover, students used sound as a way around the pervasive drone of the bus itself. Research limitations/implications Research implications from this study speak to the need for research approaches that extend beyond visual observation. Sonic interpretation can offer researchers greater understanding into student learning as they spend time in interstitial spaces. Practical implications This manuscript illustrates possibilities that emerge if educators attune to the sounds that shape a learner’s day and the ways in which attention to sonic design can create more equitable spaces that are conducive to students’ learning and literacy needs. Originality/value This study demonstrates the use of sound as a means of sensemaking, calling attention to new ways of understanding student experiences in adult-governed spaces.

Access, Opportunity, and Curriculum Making Through Multimodal Meaning-Making and Technology Integration in Teacher Education

2020 ◽  
pp. 188-213
Author(s):  
Christi U. Edge
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Technology Integration ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Multimodal Literacy ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Secondary Reading ◽  
Critical Friends ◽  
Curriculum Making

This chapter describes an investigation into exploring meaning making through multimodal literacy practices and technology integration for teacher education within the context of an online, secondary reading course for K-12 teachers. Through the use of a collaborative conference protocol, discourse with cross-disciplinary critical friends, and visual thinking data analysis strategies, a teacher educator examined existing multimodal literacy practices and then studied course redesign and technology integration. Results include recognizing opportunities for diverse learners to access and use prior knowledge in the construction of new knowledge, reframing the course delivery platform as a multimodal “text,” increasing opportunity for learners to construct and communicate complex understandings through multimodal texts and technology-infused assessments, and learners' curriculum making through transmediation mediated by technology.

scholarly journals Identity, Literacy, and English-Language Teaching

2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonny Norton
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Community Practice ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Language Classrooms

In the field of English-language teaching, there has been increasing interest in how literacy development is influenced by institutional and community practice and how power is implicated in language-learners’ engagement with text. In this article, I trace the trajectory of my research on identity, literacy, and English-language teaching informed by theories of investment and imagined communities. Data from English-language classrooms in Canada, Pakistan, and Uganda suggest that if learners have a sense of ownership over meaning-making, they will have enhanced identities as learners and participate more actively in literacy practices. The research challenges English teachers to consider which pedagogical practices are both appropriate and desirable in the teaching of literacy and which will help students develop the capacity for imagining a wider range of identities across time and space. Such practices, the research suggests, will necessitate changes in both teachers’ and students’ identity.

Creating Access, Opportunity, and Ownership Through Cross-Cultural Meaning-Making in Academically Diverse Online Courses

2019 ◽  
pp. 42-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christi U. Edge ◽  
Abby Cameron-Standerford ◽  
Bethney Bergh
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Multimodal Literacy ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Self Study ◽  
Relationship Of

As a group of three teacher educators representing reading, special education, and educational leadership, the authors conducted a self-study of their online teaching practices with the guiding question of “How can we use multimodal literacies to re-see our practices and to empower others to construct and to communicate meaning?” The purpose was to explore the pedagogic potentials of multimodal literacy by acting upon recent findings from their longitudinal, collaborative self-study into how they use and learn through visual literacy. They sought to extend their line of inquiry and to more inclusively empower learners to negotiate and to make meaning through multimodal literacy practices. Findings document how using protocols to critically “read,” discuss, and collaboratively make meaning from their online teaching practices illuminated the relationship of multimodal texts, visuals and literacy practices in fostering access, opportunity, and ownership for learners in online courses.

Standing in Dorothy’s Shoes: What Can Language Teachers Learn from Dorothy Heathcote? Part One: Where Dorothy Came From, What She Did, and How It Can Support Language Development

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-12
Author(s):  
Ben Cowburn
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Process Drama ◽  
Drama Education ◽  
Educational Drama ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Dorothy Heathcote ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Many

From the 1960s onwards, Dorothy Heathcote became a highly influential figure in UK drama education. Her practice, based around unscripted, participatory dramas in which students were often guided by a teacher working ‘in role’, helped to shape the way drama is taught in schools today, particularly within the process drama approach. Influenced by a range of educational theorists and practitioners, Heathcote developed a style of educational drama that she saw as being distinct from ‘theatre’, and more concerned with experiencing drama than performing it. To this end, she developed a number of dramatic techniques, such as ‘Teacher in Role’ and ‘Mantle of the Expert’, to help students inhabit dramatic contexts and learn through the direct imagined experience of a particular place, time or problem to be solved. These techniques have much to offer language teaching, particularly when communication is the main goal. Placing students in dramatic contexts is claimed to enhance motivation and engagement and lead to more truly authentic communication than is often found in language classrooms. Using a framework based on Heathcote’s techniques, and those developed by other process drama educators, language teachers can begin to explore the many benefits drama can offer language learners.

Whirling in between the personal and the impersonal

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-284
Author(s):  
Armen E. Petrosyan
Keyword(s):  
Organization Theory ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Organizational Life ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Goals ◽  
Last Stage ◽  
First Time ◽  
Current Paradigm

Purpose The paper aims to present a systematic conceptual analysis of the problem of organizational goal and to reduce the insights into it provided by the main conceptions taken in their development from one to another, to break out of the ruling paradigm and outline a new solution. Design/methodology/approach The study has been carried out from the historical and critical perspective. Findings The paper discovers the logic of the evolution the approaches to organizational goals have undergone and portrays it in a matrix form in the heart of which is the “zigzag effect”: each posterior stage returns to the essential elements rejected by those preceding it, and the last stage, being diametrically opposite to the first, is, at that, as well as the latter, akin to the intermediate stages. The opportunities afforded by the current paradigm have been exhausted and it seems to run to an impasse. Instead, the author suggests a new frame of orientation: organizational goals are closely interknit with personal, but not reducible to them and bear fundamentally transpersonal character, while the mechanism of involving the preferences of individuals and groups in goal-setting is based on the self-contained interests of the organization they pertain to. Research limitations/implications The findings, conclusions and generalizations obtained can serve for a necessary ground to researchers getting deeper into the essence of what bonds organizational life and activity. Practical implications The material empowers practitioners to comprehend the difficulties of framing cohesive goal and find efficient ways to overcome them. It is of value also to the teachers seeking to present a more exact and elaborate view of teleological foundations of management and organization theory. Originality/value Both the conceptual analysis of the evolution of the approaches to organizational goals and the author’s exposition of its logic and vision of their nature are provided for the first time.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document