What comes to mind when you hear the word “literacy”? Many may immediately think of the act of reading, writing and spelling, but with the advent of new technologies, literacy now encompasses a set of skills and strategies that go beyond traditional print media to include digital media as well. Writing, on-screen visuals and other modes often converge to communicate multiple meanings, prompting the reader to consider more than one interpretation of a text. Assistant Professor Victor Lim Fei, from NIE’s English Language & Literature Academic Group, talks to SingTeach about his research projects which have a key focus on multimodal literacy.

Students’ In- and Out-of-School Literacies

The age of digital interconnectivity has seen children and adolescents of today well adept at consuming, creating and sharing content across different social media platforms. Playing digital games and building virtual worlds can also be a means for them to socialize and interact with one another. These communicative practices are considered as “out-of-school” literacies, which refer to literacy practices used outside of school settings and are less likely taught as part of the school literacy curriculum.

Assistant Professor Victor Lim Fei, from NIE, is interested in how to bridge such out-of-school literacies with what students are learning in the classroom. Defining multiliteracies as “the broadening of literacy beyond language learning to include other ways of communication, such as images, animation, sound and music”, he says that it is also about engaging students about their out-of-school experiences.

“A multiliteracies learning experience will thus have students engaging not just critically and cognitively with knowledge, but also emotionally and creatively through various ways of expression, performance and making,” he says.

“A multiliteracies classroom will focus on not just the learning of language, but will also give attention to how meanings are made multimodally.”

Multimodal Meaning-Making in the Classroom

Victor explains that multiliteracies is one of the pedagogical emphases of the English Language Syllabus 2020. The first phase of his research project, which was conducted in 2019, seeks to understand how multiliteracies are currently taught in the English Language classroom in Singapore schools.

The study found that multimodal texts, which refer to texts that combine two or more modes such as written language, spoken language, visual, audio, gestural and spatial, were commonly used in the English Language classroom. However, they were more often used as stimulus for reading and writing, and less for the teaching of critical viewing and effective representing skills.

“The objective of critical viewing is to help students develop the knowledge and skills to analyse and evaluate multimodal texts that use visuals,” he explains. “Although the explicit teaching of viewing skills was observed in some lessons, less attention was given to the explicit teaching of representing skills which can involve students’ creation of multimodal artefacts.”

Noting that there are limited opportunities for students’ multimodal meaning-making in many of the English Language classrooms, he recommends that students should be given opportunities to construct knowledge through participating in collaborative learning activities.

“It is also important to use relatable learning resources, drawing on their prior knowledge and experience, and connecting what they learn in school with what they experience out of school,” he adds.

Preparing Teachers for Multiliteracies Pedagogy

The second phase of the project, which was implemented from 2020 to 2021, adopted a design-based research approach with a goal to build up the skills of teacher leaders who can be advocates of the teaching of multiliteracies. The research team, together with the teachers, co-designed and developed a total of six lesson packages and one assessment package on multimodal literacy learning.

“We introduced teachers to the learning processes of encountering, exploring, evaluating and expressing as a framework to design for multimodal literacy learning. The aim is to strengthen teacher expertise in guiding students’ interpretation of multimodal texts, as well as supporting their multimodal composing,” he comments.

He reflects that more needs to be done as teachers will need further support in designing meaningful learning for their students. He believes that communities of practice are useful platforms for teachers to share ideas, resources and experiences on multiliteracies learning and teaching.

“Such ground-up initiatives can be complemented with professional learning such as pre-service training and in-service sessions. These will create more opportunities for teachers to demonstrate their confidence and competence in applying multiliteracies pedagogies,” he adds.

Metalanguage to Foster Media Literacy Skills

How can schools foster media literacy and critical thinking skills? Victor emphasizes that for students to critically engage with media, they must first be supported with the resources to not only understand, but also how to think and talk about the meanings made in the multimodal texts. Introducing a metalanguage, that is language to describe language, is an important aspect of this process.

“Beyond understanding how meanings are made, a metalanguage also provides teachers and students with a common vocabulary to have a dialogue on the shifts and changes in meaning across forms of texts,” he remarks.

Equipped with a metalanguage, teachers and students can progress to analyse the texts at a deeper level. This can include questioning the point of view offered in the text and considering other possible perspectives that may have been absent, suppressed or ignored. For example, primary school students can explore alternative endings of a fairy-tale or experiment with what might have happened if the gender roles were reversed.

“Having a semiotic awareness of the ways meanings are made in the media text is necessary before students can identify the implicit values inherent in the text and make better judgements about the messages they are presented with,” he contends.