Multimodal Texts: Making Language Learners into Designers
Abstract: This study explored English language learners' multiliteracies with regard to their design of multimodal texts (in this case, presentation slides). More specifically, the study aimed to discover how the learners acted as designers to construct meaning via various semiotic resources (i.e., linguistic, visual, gestural, auditory and spatial modes) in multimodal text production. The framework of multimodal analysis developed in this study was based on the New London Group's (1996) multiliteracies pedagogy, and the specific analytical criteria used in this work were adapted from Cope and Kalantzis' (2000) model of multimodal design. By exploring the patterns of the students' multimodal text production, it is expected that implications for developing multiliteracies pedagogy can be revealed.