Implementing digital multimodal composing in L2 writing instruction: a focus on developing L2 student writers

Abstract

This article introduced a teaching innovation practice, i.e., digital multimodal composing, in College English course in mainland China. The purpose of this practice is to respond to the developing L2 student writers’ difficulty of lacking linguistic resources to express their creative ideas, and empower them to leverage multiple modes other than the language mode to make their meaning, and meanwhile to raise their interest, motivation, and enjoyment in L2 writing. Data were collected from student interviews in conjunction with DMC samples. It was reported that a majority of the developing L2 student writers positively perceived the affordances of DMC, that is, having access to multiple modes to fully express creative ideas, feeling more enjoyable and less anxious in L2 writing, being more motivated to interact with authentic audiences, and forming the habit of constantly revising scripts. This points to important pedagogical implications for the future implementation of digital multimodal composing projects by launching individual digital multimodal composing tasks, constructing and validating DMC rubrics, and enhancing collaboration between teachers and researchers to bring innovative DMC pedagogy into L2 writing instruction practice.