A Study Of The Effectiveness Of Multimodal Teaching Mode In Preschool English Learners' English Learning

Multimodal instruction is a relatively new teaching mode in early English teaching.It is adopted to stimulate learner's different senses to ‘feel' language in different contexts through different media.In multimodal classrooms,teachers always try to use different materials to maximize students' learning motivation by visual,auditory,tactile,olfactory and gustatory teaching means.Greater emphasis has been placed on preschool learners' language development since the issue of Learning and Development Guide for Children 3-6 Years in the year 2001 by the Chinese government.However,due to the fact that early English teaching is still at its early stage,teachers often use mixed teaching methods such as TPR,audio-visual method,the situational teaching with games,songs and pictures.The lack of scientific standard and system of English teaching methodology can not ensure the effectiveness of English teaching for preschool English learners on the same level.What's worse,although a variety of early English teaching strategies are measured by some educators,there are teachers and parents who place too much attention on test scores,which may discourage learners' inner interests in English at a very early age.Meanwhile,there is little study on multimodal instruction,especially on its application in preschool English teaching and learning.This thesis aims to examine the effectiveness of the multimodal teaching mode in preschool English learners' English learning.Two research questions are to be answered in the study:1.What are the responses of the preschool English learners' parents to the multimodal English teaching mode?2.Is the multimodal English teaching mode suitable for preschool English learners? What is the effectiveness of the multimodal teaching mode in preschool English learners' English learning?To acquire accurate information about multimodal teaching,an interview is conducted among six preschool English learners' mothers,and tests on 32 preschool English learners are carried out.Relevant analyses of the data lead to the following findings: Firstly,compared with the traditional teaching methods,the multimodal teaching mode is better for students' overall development.Secondly,parents pay more attention to teaching methods than teaching content in their children's early English learning,and give a higher opinion of multimodal instruction.Thirdly,in multimodal classrooms,learners' learning motivations tend to be stimulated more easily.Fourthly,learners in multimodal instruction outscored learners in traditional instruction in English listening and speaking tests.Based on the research,some implications can be drawn concerning preschool English learners' English teaching and learning:(1)Educators should highlight the importance of family-school cooperation for preschool English learning;(2)Teachers should reflect and update their teaching strategies in multimodal teaching for preschool English learners' individual differences;(3)Listening competence should be given priority to preschool English learners in multimodal instructions;(4)A variety of assessments should be conducted carefully for preschool English learners' performance.