The Significance of Multimodal Discourse in English Curriculum

What Is Multimodal Discourse

1.1 What is Discourse? Discourse is an important means for humans to convey information, serving as a linguistic unit with communicative significance or contextual semantics.

1.2 The forms of discourse can be monomodal (单模态) or multimodal (多模态). Here, mode refers to the pattern or method of information transmission in discourse.

1.3 The spoken or written language we use in daily conversation or writing is usually a single mode, and the spoken words or written articles are referred to as monomodal discourse (单模态语篇).

1.4 “Multimodal” is relative to “monomodal.” If, in addition to language, we also use images, emojis, sound effects, animations, and other means, the discourse contains two or more modes and is called multimodal discourse (多模态语篇).

The Significance of Multimodal Discourse in English Curriculum

Classification of Modes in Multimodal Discourse

2.1 The “modes” in multimodal discourse can be divided into two main categories: Linguistic Mode and Nonlinguistic Mode.

2.2 Linguistic modes can be various languages such as Chinese, English, Spanish, etc., and can be either spoken or written, either oral or printed.

2.3 Nonlinguistic modes can be further divided into four subcategories: visual Visual (e.g., nonlinguistic symbols, charts, graphics, images, colors, animations, etc.), gestural Gestural (e.g., nonlinguistic expressions, gestures, postures, performance art, etc.), spatial Spatial (using space and position to convey meaning, such as installation art), and aural Aural (e.g., nonlinguistic sounds, music, sound effects, etc.).

2.4 Multimodal discourse involves the use of any two or more of the above five categories of modes, combined to convey information or express meaning.

Why Emphasize Multimodal Discourse Teaching in English Curriculum

3.1 In the digital information age, multimodal discourse is ubiquitous in our daily work and life. For example, textbooks, picture books, PPTs, and electronic whiteboards commonly used in classroom teaching; movies, television, advertisements, WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Meipian, Toutiao, Xiaohongshu, etc. are all familiar examples of multimodal discourse.

3.2 In recent years, the emphasis on multimodal discourse teaching in English curriculum essentially reflects the objective development of modern society.

3.3 The English curriculum standards for primary and secondary schools (2017/2022) mention the fifth skill in cultivating English language skills—“seeing,” which mainly aims to develop students’ ability to accurately decode information and meaning from English multimodal discourse.

¹The linguistic mode in multimodal discourse is precisely the “linguistic” mode. Be careful not to confuse it with the “language” referred to in everyday discourse, such as body language, symbolic language, and color language. In multimodal discourse, body language, symbolic language, and color language all belong to nonlinguistic modes.

Key Points and Challenges in English Multimodal Discourse Teaching

4.1 Multimodal discourse teaching shares the same key points and challenges as traditional discourse teaching, focusing on the aspect of English language and culture. From the perspective of curriculum education and English teaching, there is no essential difference in the key points and challenges between multimodal discourse and traditional reading or listening single modal discourse; both guide students to accurately decode the form of discourse to obtain information and construct meaning.

4.2 Student Advantages. Compared to the linguistic mode (语言模态), the other four modes in multimodal discourse, whether charts, icons, images, or sound effects, colors, animations, do not pose cognitive challenges for the generation of students who have “grown up reading images.” As “digital natives,” primary and secondary school students are generally more familiar with various modes outside of language than their teachers.

4.3 Differences between Native and Foreign Languages. Chinese students’ understanding of information and meaning construction in English multimodal discourse differs significantly from that in Chinese multimodal discourse; thus, the key points and challenges in teaching also vary. When students understand multimodal discourse of similar difficulty in English textbooks or outside reading, the difficulties still mostly lie in the English language. At this time, nonlinguistic modes such as images and videos can serve as aids for academic understanding of the English language.

4.4 Cultural Aspects. Nonlinguistic modes often feature culturally significant elements, such as certain colors, symbols, and gestures that have different special meanings in English culture compared to Chinese culture, which may affect the overall meaning conveyed and understood in multimodal discourse. In teaching multimodal discourse, students should be guided to pay sufficient attention to these nonlinguistic modal elements.

4.5 Utilizing Nonlinguistic Modes. In foreign language multimodal discourse teaching, the function of nonlinguistic modes typically manifests in two aspects: one is to stimulate students’ reading interest and motivation, and the other is that students activate their existing life experiences and cognition through recognizing these nonlinguistic elements, serving as scaffolding to improve the speed and accuracy of language understanding.

4.6 English teachers need to keep pace with the development of the times and actively understand various nonlinguistic modes familiar to students. In multimodal discourse teaching, actively utilizing nonlinguistic modes to create rich contexts that align with students’ cognitive experiences will guide students to fully leverage their existing foundational knowledge and life experiences, focusing on the synergy of various modes in meaning conveyance, integrating the enhancement of language abilities, thinking quality, and aesthetic abilities into the entire process of multimodal discourse analysis and understanding. Furthermore, multimodal discourse teaching usually does not require any special “design.”

(Examples of multimodal discourse analysis: curriculum standard cases, textbook cases, PPT cases, and extracurricular discourse cases, discussed in another article)

Additional Notes

6. 1 Specific Requirements for “Multimodal Discourse” in Curriculum Standards

The following is the specific description of “multimodal discourse” teaching in the “Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standards (2022 Edition)” for primary and junior high school English (high school segment omitted. See English Curriculum Standards (2017/2020)):

1) In the curriculum content section, it mentions the language skill requirement of “seeing.” “Seeing” generally refers to the skill of using graphics, tables, animations, symbols, and videos in multimodal discourse to understand meaning. Understanding multimodal discourse requires not only the use of traditional reading skills but also the observation of information in charts and understanding the meanings of symbols and animations.

2) In the content requirements section: Level 1 and Level 1+ teaching requirements include “inferring meanings conveyed by images, sounds, and colors in multimodal discourse (e.g., animations, book covers and backs, invitation cards, and greeting cards)”; Level 2 and Level 2+ teaching requirements include “understanding the meanings conveyed by multimodal discourse (e.g., animations, posters, and book covers and backs), extracting key information”; Level 3 and Level 3+ teaching requirements include “understanding the meanings conveyed by non-text resources in multimodal discourse.”

3) The academic quality section for Level 3 (grades 7-9) requires “being able to understand the main content of multimodal discourse (e.g., broadcasts, television programs, etc.) and obtain key information.”

4) In the curriculum implementation section, English teachers are required to “enhance the effectiveness of information technology use. Teachers should fully recognize that modern information technology not only provides multimodal means, platforms, and spaces for English teaching but also offers rich resources and opportunities for language learning and usage across time and space, playing a crucial supporting role in creating good learning contexts, promoting educational concept renewal, and transforming teaching methods.”

6. 2 Relevant Requirements for Teachers in the Standards

The “Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standards” (2022 Edition) states: In the digital information age, English teachers need to keep pace with the times, continuously improve their information literacy, especially focusing on the unique discourse functions of various nonlinguistic modes in information transmission and meaning construction. Information technology provides rich modal means, tools, and platforms for English teaching, and English teachers can fully utilize and integrate these resources to create meaningful and interesting contexts, improving the effectiveness of English learning and promoting the development of students’ core competencies, better achieving the overall goal of curriculum education.

6. 3 Keeping Up with the Times While Staying True to the Original Intent

In the past two to three decades, the attitudes towards multimodal foreign language teaching or second language teaching in the field of international foreign language teaching or second language teaching have been inconsistent. Similar to the long-standing debate between different schools on Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), there have also been different claims such as strong multimodality (Strong Version) and weak multimodality (Weak Version). From the current overall situation, weak multimodality may be more suitable for our national conditions, teaching conditions, and learning conditions. For foreign language teaching, while actively exploring how to fully utilize multimodal resources, it is still necessary to remain true to the original intent of foreign language curriculum education, especially to be vigilant against various formalistic and technological practices that may mislead teachers and students in teaching.

6. 4 Two Related Concepts: Multimodal and Multimedia

Closely related to “multimodal” is another concept called “multimedia.” The distinction between these two concepts is still under discussion and there is no consensus. The generally consistent view is that the distinction mainly lies in the different perspectives: “multimodal” highlights the way or model of discourse construction; “multimedia” highlights the technical means or tools. When not emphasizing the distinction between the two, the terms may sometimes be used synonymously.

Original source: “Primary School Teaching Design” (English) 2022, Issue 11. The content has been modified.
Special thanks to teachers Zhang Yanwen and Jiang Zhenhai for their valuable suggestions on the writing of this article.

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The Significance of Multimodal Discourse in English Curriculum

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