Re-visiting and Re-imagining Multimodalities in EMI and Language Education: Digital Technologies, Designing Learning, and Innovative Pedagogies

Re-visiting and Re-imagining Multimodalities in EMI and Language Education: Digital Technologies, Designing Learning, and Innovative Pedagogies

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With advancements in digital technologies, particularly generative artificial intelligence (AI), multimodal communication has garnered even more attention from scholars, educators, and policymakers worldwide. In the domain of foreign language education and EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction), the integration of multimodality has provided teachers with the lens of “semiotic technologies” (Djonov & van Leeuwen, 2012) to (re)design learning opportunities for diverse learner groups. As AI technologies become accessible to many students and competency-oriented education is emphasized to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs), this panel presents five studies on innovations in EMI and foreign language education by revisiting and reimagining multimodalities in various teaching and learning contexts.

 

1) Professor Fei Victor Lim will discuss the value in adopting the lens of semiotic technologies to examine the role of digital tools in the design of learning experiences.  Viewing digital tools as semiotic technologies involves a consideration of the design, use, and socio-cultural context in which the semiotic practice is situated. In the classroom, semiotic technologies influence the knowledge representations, pedagogic relations and organisation of learning. 

 

2) Professor Jack Pun will report a case study in EMI science classrooms about how students encounter multimodal challenges in learning science. Drawing from a video database, this case study on Grade 10-11 EMI science lessons illustrates (a) the challenges that science students face when they create thematic patterns in a laboratory class and (b) characterizes the processes of how students make meaning of practical work activities.

 

 

3)  Teacher-student interaction is fundamentally multimodal and identified as an essential pedagogical resource in both EFL and EMI settings. Professor Yen-Liang Lin will explore the verbal and nonverbal aspects of teacher-student interactions, including gestures, in EMI classrooms at a Taiwanese higher education institution, highlighting how these varied forms of communication enhance student comprehension.

 

4) Effective visualization strategies are paramount in enhancing verbal communication in EMI classrooms. The presentation by Professor Wen-Chun Chen highlights that well-designed visual are not simply supplementary to verbal speech; they significantly elevate the teaching content for better comprehension and memory retention. Understanding the complexities of information hierarchy and visual flow in slide and handout designs can greatly improve the quality of teaching and learning.  Examples will be provided for demonstration.

 

5) Professor Yu-Shan Fan points out that multimodal communicative competence has received increasing attention in EMI and EFL context; however, one pertinent inquiry is identifying the specific multimodal elements and rhetorical patterns that warrant evaluation in teaching practices. This necessitates an exploration of how various elements of multimodal communication, including visual, auditory, and interactive components, are manifested and effectively utilized at varying stages of performance proficiency. Dr. Fan will report a framework that delineates scalable and easy-to-apply-for-assessment benchmarks for each criterion, allowing for a nuanced evaluation that recognizes the evolving capabilities of learners.

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Djonov, E. & van Leeuwen, T. (2012). Normativity and software: A multimodal social semiotic approach. In S. Norris (Ed.), Multimodality and practice: Investigating theory-in-practice-through-method (pp. 119–137). New York: Routledge.