Possibilities and Challenges of Multimodal Literacy Practices in Teaching and Learning English as an Additional Language

I review a decade of empirical research specifically addressing possibilities and challenges of multimodal literacy practices in learning and teaching English as an additional language, particularly for adolescent multilingual English language learners (ELLs). Given the lack of empirical research and discussions about multimodal literacy practices of ELLs, this review focuses on the issues of multimodal literacy practices of ELLs and their teachers. Thus, I look mainly at the promise and potential of engaging ELLs in multimodal literacy practices and potential tensions of implementing multimodal literacies into classroom practices. Findings of this review suggest more empirical research related to how ELLs consume, interpret, and produce multimodal texts as well as some implications for pedagogy.

[1]  Paige Ware,et al.  Language Learners and Multimedia Literacy In and After School , 2008 .

[2]  T. Austin,et al.  Using Digital Technologies to Address Aboriginal Adolescents' Education: An Alternative School Intervention. , 2009 .

[3]  Fatima Pirbhai-Illich,et al.  Aboriginal Students Engaging and Struggling With Critical Multiliteracies , 2010 .

[4]  P. Neufeld,et al.  “Podcast Time”: Negotiating Digital Literacies and Communities of Learning in a Middle Years ELL Classroom , 2010 .

[5]  Mark Evan Nelson,et al.  MODE, MEANING, AND SYNAESTHESIA IN MULTIMEDIA L2 WRITING , 2006 .

[6]  P. Anders,et al.  “From the Koran and Family Guy”: Expressions of Identity in English Learners’ Digital Podcasts , 2012 .

[7]  Lynde Tan,et al.  From print to critical multimedia literacy : one teacher's foray into new literacies practices , 2009 .

[8]  L. Kajee.  Multimodal representations of identity in the English-as-an-additional-language classroom in South Africa , 2011 .

[9]  J. Jenson,et al.  Teaching Multimodal and Digital Literacy in L2 Settings: New Literacies, New Basics, New Pedagogies , 2011, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics.

[10]  C. Jewitt.  Multimodality, “Reading”, and “Writing” for the 21st Century , 2005 .

[11]  Youngjoo Yi,et al.  Technology and “Self-Sponsored” Writing: A Case Study of a Korean-American Adolescent , 2010 .

[12]  K. Mills.  Multiliteracies: interrogating competing discourses , 2009 .

[13]  Lasisi Ajayi.  A Multiliteracies Pedagogy: Exploring Semiotic Possibilities of a Disney Video in a Third Grade Diverse Classroom , 2011 .

[14]  Judith A. Rance-Roney,et al.  Jump-Starting Language and Schema for English-Language Learners: Teacher-Composed Digital Jumpstarts for Academic Reading. , 2010 .

[15]  Margaret C. Hagood,et al.  Developing Literate Identities with English Language Learners through Digital Storytelling , 2008 .

[16]  Sheila Benson,et al.  A Restart of What Language Arts Is: Bringing Multimodal Assignments Into Secondary Language Arts , 2008 .

[17]  V. Cook.  The poverty-of-the-stimulus argument and multicompetence , 1991 .

[18]  Jason Ranker.  Composing Across Multiple Media , 2008 .

[19]  C. Jewitt.  Re-thinking Assessment: Multimodality, literacy and computer-mediated learning , 2003 .

[20]  Marjorie Siegel,et al.  More Than Words: The Generative Power of Transmediation for Learning. , 1995 .

[21]  Lasisi Ajayi.  Meaning-Making, Multimodal Representation, and Transformative Pedagogy: An Exploration of Meaning Construction Instructional Practices in an ESL High School Classroom , 2008 .

[22]  Christine Develotte,et al.  The use of the webcam for teaching a foreign language in a desktop videoconferencing environment , 2010, ReCALL.

[23]  Loretta Kasper,et al.  New Technologies, New Literacies: Focus Discipline Research and ESL Learning Communities , 2000 .

[24]  G. Hull,et al.  Locating the Semiotic Power of Multimodality , 2005 .

[25]  Tuba Angay-Crowder,et al.  Putting Multiliteracies into Practice: Digital Storytelling for Multilingual Adolescents in a Summer Program. , 2013 .

[26]  K. Mills.  Deconstructing Binary Oppositions in Literacy Discourse and Pedagogy , 2005 .

[27]  M. Walsh,et al.  Rethinking Literacy Education in New Times: Multimodality, Multiliteracies, & New Literacies , 2011 .

[28]  Claire Maree Wyatt-Smith,et al.  Valuing and evaluating student-generated online multimodal texts: rethinking what counts , 2005 .

[29]  G. Kress.  Multimodality: Challenges to Thinking About Language , 2000 .

[30]  N. Hornberger.  Biliteracy, Transnationalism, Multimodality, and Identity: Trajectories Across Time and Space , 2007 .

[31]  D. Alvermann.  Effective Literacy Instruction for Adolescents , 2002 .

[32]  Sandra Lee McKay,et al.  Multiple Discourses, Multiple Identities: Investment and Agency in Second-Language Learning among Chinese Adolescent Immigrant Students. , 1996 .

[33]  Eveline Chan,et al.  Bridging multimodal literacies and national assessment programs in literacy , 2009, The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy.

[34]  Maureen Walsh,et al.  Worlds Have Collided and Modes Have Merged: Classroom Evidence of Changed Literacy Practices. , 2008 .

[35]  Lasisi Ajayi.  English as a Second Language Learners' Exploration of Multimodal Texts in a Junior High School , 2009 .

[36]  Terry Royce.  Multimodality in the TESOL Classroom: Exploring Visual-Verbal Synergy. , 2002 .

[37]  P. Wolfe.  Transmediation as a Tool for English Language Learners to Access Academic Discourse , 2010, Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education.

[38]  Margaret Early,et al.  Adolescent ESL Students' Interpretation and Appreciation of Literary Texts: A Case Study of Multimodality , 2008 .

[39]  C. Jewitt.  Multimodality and Literacy in School Classrooms , 2008 .

[40]  Suzanne M. Miller,et al.  Reframing Multimodal Composing for Student Learning: Lessons on Purpose from the Buffalo DV Project , 2010 .

[41]  Jennifer Bateman,et al.  Rethinking Composing in a Digital Age: Authoring Literate Identities Through Multimodal Storytelling , 2010 .