An Investigation Of The Application Of Multimodality To College English Teaching

With the quick pace of science and technology, the transmission of information isdiversified. Traditionally, the means of communication used by people only focuses on text orlanguage modality. Nowadays, people send information through multiple modalities,including chart, picture, audio and video and so on. For example, television advertisementsapply pictures, audio and words together. Without exception, English teaching in collegeshows this feature. Teachers are prepared to utilize several modes to finish activities throughmultiple medium.This study takes the winners of The Third SFLEP National Foreign Language TeachingContest as the subjects. The aims of the study include analyzing the modalities these excellentteachers used in the teaching procedure, summarizing the features of multiple modalities andputting forward some suggestions to teachers who take up the duty of teaching English incollege.The researcher collected24instructional videos and24Power Point coursewares. Theteaching material involves six topics. In other words, every four teachers dwell on a sametheme. Through watching instructional videos and studying Power Point courseware, theresearcher uses record sheets, one for recording modalities in each teaching procedure, andthe other for recording modalities in Power Point courseware to collect modality information.The researcher also takes notes of the features of using multiple modalities in each lesson.Following that, data analysis was conducted. The results show that teachers adopt multiple modes to teaching, including language,text, chart, picture, audio and video. Among the selected modes, language is the mostfrequently used mode and the second one is text. In the aspect of Power Point courseware,teachers’ levels in designing and choosing mode in Power Point are various. The features ofmultimodality classroom teaching are listed in the following. Firstly, teachers use differentkinds of modes to finish the teaching. Secondly, the interaction between teachers and studentsis frequent and students can give active response to teachers’ questions. Thirdly, teachersorganize multiple activities to stimulate students’ interest. Furthermore, all the studentsinvolve in the class and cooperate with teachers well. Besides, teachers’ level of designingPoint Point courseware is relatively high and few teachers use the blackboard.