MULTIMODALITY, MASS MIGRATION AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Abstract: This paper aims to discuss the use of multimodality in English language teaching. The corpus consists of a set of activities based on a series of pictures related to the seizure of two trucks carrying US-bound migrants in 2011. Two different groups, comprised of pre-service and in-service English language teachers, took part in the research. The first part of the activity involved loose interpretations of the pictures and a discussion about migration nowadays. Afterwards, other activities were carried out based on Luke and Freebody's four-resources model (1990). Some preliminary analyses lead us to conclude that the reading of images is very much culturally sensitive and that multimodal ways of meaning making are becoming more powerful in the globalized, digital era, turning them into an important means for English teaching nowadays.

摘要：本文旨在探讨多模态（multimodality）在英语教学中的应用。本研究语料库包含一系列基于2011年截获两辆搭载赴美移民卡车相关图片的教学活动。本研究共有两组参与对象，分别由职前英语教师与在职英语教师构成。活动第一环节为对图片的开放性解读，并围绕当代移民议题展开讨论。随后，基于卢克与弗里博1990年提出的四资源模型（four-resources model）开展后续教学活动。初步分析结果表明，图像解读具有显著的文化敏感性，且在全球化数字时代，多模态意义构建方式的影响力日益增强，现已成为当代英语教学的重要手段。