Teachers' Integration of Multimodality Into Classroom Practices for English Language Learners

TLDR

Multimodal teaching is known to benefit students, yet little is understood about how English‑language‑learner teachers incorporate multiple modes into their curricula. The authors investigated how two teachers with limited ELL experience used multimodality to teach content‑area classes to English‑language learners. Data were collected electronically from TESOL graduate courses, including online discussion posts and multimodal final projects (videos) that showcased teachers’ multimodal instructional practices. Employing multiple modes enhanced ELLs’ content understanding, expressive confidence, and psychological safety, increased their sense of accomplishment and self‑esteem, while teachers identified technology and administrative constraints, highlighting implications for TESOL research and teacher education.

Abstract

Despite the proven benefits of multimodal teaching and learning (i.e., through visual, sound, movement, print-based text, and technology) for students, little is known about how teachers of English language learners (ELLs) integrate multimodality into their existing curriculums. In this study, the authors examined how two teachers who had limited experience with ELLs employed multimodality to teach ELLs in their content area classes. The study was situated within online teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) teacher education graduate courses, and thus all the data were electronically collected, including online discussion posts and multimodal final projects in which teachers demonstrated their multimodal teaching practices with ELLs through videos. Qualitative analysis of the data revealed that employing multiple modes for instructional supports to enhance linguistic text gave teachers opportunities to help ELLs gain nuanced understanding of subject-matter content knowledge, powerfully express what they learned, and discover a psychological refuge. Importantly, multimodal teaching was found to enhance ELLs' sense of accomplishment and self-esteem. The teachers also identified various issues around technology and lack of support from administration as constraints for integrating multimodality into the classroom setting. The findings have significant implications for research and teacher education in TESOL.