An Action Research on Incorporating Multimodal Composing to Facilitate Student Engagement in Continuation Writing Tasks in Chinese High School EFL Teaching

Abstract

Recently, multimodal composing has become a popular topic in current research on English writing teaching in China. Existing research has rarely delved into student engagement in multimodal composing in Chinese high school English teaching systematically. To address this gap, this study used a mixed-method approach and introduces multimodal composing to investigate its impact on high school students' engagement in English story continuation writing tasks. Findings show that the incorporation of multimodal elements significantly amplifies students' engagement across affective, behavioral, cognitive, and social dimensions. However, students’ excessive focus on the graphic elements within multimodal compositions may have a negative impact on the narrative quality. While affirming the positive role of multimodal composing on student engagement, the study also identified the challenges in applying multimodal composing in the Chinese education context, providing insights for future research and pedagogical implementations.