Multimodal Composing-to-Learn: Understanding How Bilingual Adolescents Analyze Literature Through Multiple Modes in Digital Environments

• In Event: 34.018 - Excellence in Education Research: Early-Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

A growing majority of today’s adolescents lead technologically saturated and networked lives where digital multimodal communication is vital for self-expression and connecting with others. Despite youth’s multimodally rich lives, there exists a dramatic disconnect in schools where emphasis is placed on traditional print-based writing. Very little research has studied multimodal composition for academic purposes. This study begins to address this need by examining how bilingual adolescents analyzed literature through multiple modes (e.g., visuals, sound, text, movement) when creating a variety of digital products in an urban 10th grade English Language Arts class. Integrating sociocultural and social semiotics theoretical frameworks, eight focal students were closely followed as they collaboratively created multimodal projects connected to literature (e.g., hypertext literary analysis, persuasive soundscape, and literary theme videos). Data collection for the focal students included screen capture during in-class workshops, video observations, and student retrospective design interviews. Data was also collected for all students enrolled in the 10th grade ELA class (n=94), including their final products and written reflections. Findings revealed how the digital projects provided semiotic freedom for bilingual students to delve into literature and develop their analyses through multiple modes. There was variation in how studies relied on different modes to analyze themes, literary devices, intertextual connections, and their own personal reactions. In addition, students drew upon and transmediated the ideas developed in their multimodal compositions in distinct ways when subsequently writing academic literary analyses. These findings have implications for understanding how bilingual students’ literacy learning is revealed, travels, and transforms across different modalities in digital environments, as well as how English Language Arts teachers can effectively integrate digital multimodal projects to support literary analysis.

Author

• Blaine E. Smith, University of Arizona