Investigating Literacy Practices in a University EFL Context from Multiliteracies and Multimodal Perspective: A Case Study

Abstract

This study attempts to investigate the literacy practices of EFL teaching and learning in higher education level from multiliteracies and multimodal perspective. Mixed methods were used: questionaires to the students, interviews with both teachers and students, focus group discussion with students, observation, and documents. The study was focused on the English reading and writing classroom activities. The results of the study revealed that most participating students frequently utilized on screen text and digital devices instead of printed paper in their reading and writing activities. In addition, despite the fact that teachers still used print-based literacy, they supported the adoption of digital and multimodal literacy in their teaching. The findings also indicated that there was mostly misconception of English literacy skills limited to the only targeted skills of English language, and yet the nature of reading and writing practices has developed towards incorportion of printed based texts with multimodal texts. Nevertheless, some challenges occured in integrating multimodality into practices including curriculum design and different learners’ qualification. Findings collected from the this study might have implications for the curriculum development within the framework of multiliteracies and multimodality in the contemporary teaching and learning English language particularly in response to the emergence of technology.

Conceptions of Literacy in English Language Education Context

“…Less understanding toward the comprehensive conceptions of literacy might have implication to the teachers' literacy development and eventually affect to their teaching practices. Therefore, the misconception of teaching English focusing only on the English core skills should be avoided [9].…”

“…Pedagogy of Multiliteracies was introduced to adapt the advancement of technology utilizing multimodality [4,[22][23][24]. Moreover, today's learners are considered as digital natives [2], and therefore, the nature of learning has shifted from print based into digitalization [9]. An additional point to emerge from this study is that teachers should follow the rapid growth of technology and adopt them in their teaching practices.…”

“…Out of school textual language experiences (e.g., chatting, browsing, etc.). However, in English language education context, there was still misconception of literacy limited only to the core of English skills such as reading and writing [9]. Moreover, the teachers' perception toward literacy might affect their pedagogical approaches in their classroom.…”

Multilingual and Multimodal Literacy Beyond School : A Case Study of an Adult Vlogger in China

“…For example, Fukunaga's (2006) study on Japanese as foreign language learners suggested that reading animes could contribute to the development of word recognition, listening skills, pronunciation, and cultural awareness. Another study has analyzed EFL students' literacy practices in the language classroom, with special attention to the media of communication (Nabhan & Hidayat, 2018). It is reasonable to believe that foreign language literacy practices also occur in multiple contexts and involve various communication channels and semiotic resources (e.g., Nabhan & Hidayat, 2018;Rothoni, 2018).…”

“…Another study has analyzed EFL students' literacy practices in the language classroom, with special attention to the media of communication (Nabhan & Hidayat, 2018). It is reasonable to believe that foreign language literacy practices also occur in multiple contexts and involve various communication channels and semiotic resources (e.g., Nabhan & Hidayat, 2018;Rothoni, 2018). Focusing only on the linguistic aspect would seriously undermine the complex nature of literacy.…”