Undergraduate Students’ Meaning Making Process in the Creation and Analysis of Multimodal Texts After Receiving Training on Multimodality

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In the realm of education, information and communication technology (ICT) has played an important role in different learning fields and in second language learning processes. Scholars in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) have been concerned about how technology and research convey and how technology serves as a tool or mediator of various types of SLA processes. One of the educational practices that has evidenced changes is the inclusion of new types of texts such as multimodal ones. Scholars agree on the potential of multimodality to foster the meaning making processes in a second language (L2) learning. Taking into consideration the instructional support that learners require in order to make meaning after understanding and designing multimodal texts, different authors support the idea that it is necessary to be able to read multimodal texts in order to be able to create them. They also add that it is also necessary to create multimodal texts to facilitate the meaning making in the reading process which helps learners make sense of the modes and genres available in multimodal texts. During this study, students were introduced to multimodal literacy prior to creating multimodal texts which were later analyzed by their classmates in terms of multimodality. Therefore, the study is based upon the following research question: how may the informed construction of students own multimodal texts facilitate their meaning making processes when interacting with these kinds of texts? This study followed a case study methodology and was supported by instruments such as students’ artifacts, students’ reflections and a focus group. For the analysis of data, there were three main pre-established categories and one emerging subcategory. Findings suggest that students became aware of the role of multimodal literacy in several senses and that the use of authentic language was promoted through the creation of multimodal texts.