Multimodal Literacy

Multimodal Literacy

In doing my autoethnographic dissertation I looked at an electronic Voicethread that supports my iterative growth and interaction, offering a portfolio to examine my self-directed learning, defining and understanding multimodal literacy practice is essential. My multimodal literacy practices helped my study tell its story of my ontological and epistemological changes as a migrant English teacher.

Multimodal literacy has a long history that is deeply intertwined with movements in 21st-century skills and literacy practices. Camiciottoli & Campoy-Cubillo (2018) explain how multimodal literacy is entwined in ELT. Clarifications are made about not using multimodality theory or methods for this study. This section closes with canonical definitions of multimodal literacy and how they are important to this study’s interpretation of the teacher researcher’s funds of knowledge under inquiry. 

During my graduate coursework, I was interested in discourse analysis, especially multimodal discourse analysis. When starting this study I thought I would be utilizing it as a method. However, I found that stancing myself, in the personal as well as the cultural interpretations of the artifact, was being eclipsed instead of teased apart and made explicit in my first runs at the data. However, multimodality was still very much at the forefront of this study as I was choosing to analyze a multimodal text, not simply a written text. Therefore, I have chosen to highlight multimodal literacy practices to strengthen the conceptual framework of funds of knowledge. 

In Camiciottoli & Campoy-Cubillo (2018) they give a historical introduction of multimodal literacy practices, and their study focuses on the importance of multimodality in English language teaching. While the paper focuses on English language learners, their introduction and navigation of the history of multimodality have been the most helpful in understanding this field. The research explores the utilization of various modes of communication to improve multimodal communication methods. It also introduces novel resources and methods that involve multiple forms of expression for teaching English tailored to specific purposes at the university level.

This research enabled me to observe the rise of multimodality studies and their exploration of texts employing diverse semiotic elements. Walsh (2010) defines multimodal literacy as the capacity to make sense of multimedia and digital texts through activities such as reading, viewing, comprehending, responding to, producing, and interacting with them.

Linguists and educators involved in English language instruction incorporate various modes of communication into their classroom materials, reflecting the impact of digital content with multiple semiotic elements on learners' lives, both within and beyond the classroom (Street et al., 2011). Multimodal literacy holds significant importance in language education, as it enables students to leverage semiotic modes beyond written or spoken language, such as visual, gestural, and spatial elements, to enhance their comprehension and production of texts in the target language more efficiently (O'Halloran, Tan, & Smith, 2016).

Let’s look at three key experts’ work for their definition of multimodal literacy. Early research in multimodality studies has Kress and van Leeuwen (1996) brings to light the importance of non-verbal communicative resources (gestures, facial expression, visuals) to construct meaning in social interactions. Jewitt (2009) and O’Halloran & Smith (2012) have been helpful in understanding just how big and cumbersome multimodal studies have become. Looking at the scholarship, multimodality is a theory, a field of inquiry as well as a methodological application. I am not using multimodality as a theorization for this study. However, as a multimodal artifact, not simply a written text, is under examination, it is important to be aware of the semiotic movements and resources that will be on display in the study.

Van Leeuwan (2017) defines the concept of multimodality as a form of inquiry with roots in linguistics focusing on the meaning-making potential of multimodal resources and the way they are integrated into multimodal texts. Three dimensions are given for multimodal literacy: rules & conventions; aesthetic; and critical. Multimodal literacy requires textual as well as contextual knowledge, such as visual grammar and its use in specific contexts. The aesthetic dimension appreciates the uses of layout, color, and typography. The critical dimension alerts us to the use of digital technology as a mode of corporate communication that may have drawbacks in other contexts.

With the focus on English teachers’ practices as well as these core definitions of multimodal literacies, the Voicethread, its ancillary texts, and the panel discussion’s analysis of them, will nuance the specific modes for their meaningful impact in pedagogical choices and the decolonization that is circulating. These multimodal literacies fall within the repertoire of my teaching and living funds of knowledge.