A Study On College English Teaching Model From The Perspective Of Multimodal Discourse Analysis

Multimodal discourse analysis(MDA) is an independent and advanced academic research field on the basis of discourse analysis. MDA refers to the phenomenon of communication that people use multi-sensory organs, like vision, touching, hearing, etc. to communicate through language, sound, action and other means and semiotic resources. International linguists begun to study multimodal discourse since 1990 s, in contrast, domestic researches started late. Chinese scholar Li Zhanzi introduced the MDA theory into China in 2003. After more than ten years of theoretical exploration and practical research, the research on multimodal discourse has achieved fruitful results. More and more teachers are applying the theory into college English teaching. The related researches on college English teaching in China and abroad mainly focus on the application of specific skills and the analysis of teachers’ classroom discourse, while on college English teaching model, the researches focus only on one single aspect.Based on the previous study and two theoretic bases: System Functional Linguistics and Multimodal Discourse Analysis Theory, this study will adopt the methods of qualitative and quantitative to construct a new teaching model to improve the quality of college English teaching.The research questions of this study are as follows:(1) What characteristics does the multimodal college English teaching model have?(2) What qualities and skills should college English teachers have in multimodal college English teaching model, and how should teachers carry out the college English teaching under this teaching model?(3) What are the standards of multimodal college English teaching materials?First, questionnaires are delivered for 30 teachers and 167 college students from Shenyang Normal University, and among them there are 124 students of other majors and 43 art students. The purpose is to investigate their attitudes to the current college English teaching situation and college English teaching model, and it finds that most of the students and teachers are not satisfied with the current college English teaching situation and teaching model, therefore there is a need to make college English teaching reform. Meanwhile observing the behaviors of college English teachers and students who learn the textbook of Longman English Interactive(LEI), interviewing three college English teachers and six students, the study lasts for 14 weeks.From data analysis, the findings of this research are as follows:First, multimodal teaching proposes to take advantage of the multi-channel, like internet, pictures, role-play, etc. and diversified teaching methods to motivate students’ multi-sense. Multimodal teaching model(MTM) includes teachers’ multimodal teaching, students’ multimodal learning, multimodal teaching materials, multimodal teaching evaluation and multimodal teaching administration. Whether the multimodal college English teaching model can be carried out or not largely depends on the quality of teachers and teaching materials, whether the teachers have higher teaching quality and skills or not, whether the college English teaching materials are in accord with the requirements of multimodality or not.Second, college English teachers should have the following quality in multimodal college English teaching model: profound professional knowledge; ability to organize and manage the classroom; good teaching attitude; proficient technique for using multimedia; self-consciousness of reflection. During the teaching process teachers should try their best to enhance their own ability of oral English and expression, take full advantage of the non-verbal to communicate with students, learn to make appropriate courseware and integrate various resources well.Third, the requirements of multimodal teaching materials are as follows: cultivating students’ ability of using English in an all-rounded way; stimulating students’ multimode to promote their learning efficiency; multimodal teaching materials include not only the traditional paper-based teaching material but also the multimedia CD-ROM and the online teaching and learning platform, which can provide students with good learning materials; students can learn anywhere and anytime; teaching ideas and textbook compiling ideas should focus on the students to cultivate students’ ability of active learning, autonomous learning, individualized learning and collaborative learning; the layout of the textbook should combine with the multimodal idea.Besides, this research also provides some suggestions for teaching evaluation, teaching administration, teachers’ teaching and students’ learning.