Developing a systemic functional approach to teach multimodal literacy

TLDR

Multimodal literacy enables students to critically analyze multimodal texts and express ideas through effective multimodal productions. The article aims to demonstrate the importance of teaching multimodal literacy and to present an instructional approach tested in a Singapore secondary school. The instructional approach, grounded in Systemic Functional Theory and the Learning by Design Framework, offers scaffolds that introduce multimodal text features, functions, and common meaning‑making strategies.

Abstract

Abstract This article argues for the importance of teaching multimodal literacy in schools so as to adequately equip students to navigate the multimodal communicative landscape. Developing multimodal literacy in students is about developing in them the ability to view multimodal texts critically and for them to represent their ideas through the production of effective multimodal texts. This article describes an instructional approach developed to teach multimodal texts and describes the trial of the approach in a secondary school in Singapore. The approach is informed by Systemic Functional Theory and is aligned to the Learning by Design Framework widely used in multiliteracies. The systemic functional approach provides scaffolds for students to access the meanings made in multimodal texts by introducing the features and typical functions of the text, as well as highlighting the common strategies used in these multimodal texts to make meaning.