多模态理论视阈下的大学英语创新教学模式案例研究

A Case Study on Innovative Pedagogy of College English—From a Multimodal Perspective

摘要: 本案例研究以多模态理论(社会符号学视角)为理论视阈，以问卷、采访及多模态话语分析为研究方法，探索将多模态引入大学英语教学教改所产生的影响、学生对多模态教改的态度及其多模态教学参与中体现出来的特征。研究发现，绝大部分学生肯定多模态对大学英语学习的积极作用，尤其是激发学习能动性及兴趣方面(97%同意)，学生的多模态意义创造作品展现出对图形、颜色等非文字模态的偏爱，即相比语言模态，展现出对非语言模态的较强的识读能力。也正是这些非语言模态赋予了学生在英语学习、使用时额外的意义输出渠道，让学生有效地参加到大学英语学习活动中，而不是如以往一般由于英语语用能力的不足而无法有效地参加到传统的、以英语语言模态为主的学习活动中。然而，如何有效将多模态所激发的教学优势与具体教学实践结合，仍需进一步探索。就如研究发现，部分学生肯定多模态之余，也困惑于此种创新教学模式是如何与提高自身英语能力挂钩的，这就需要教师深入地、充分地进行具体的多模态教学活动的设计与实施，以具体的教学任务为基点，有效地衔接宏观教改创新和微观教学实效。

Abstract: Drawing on multimodality theory from the perspective of social semiotics, the case study probes into how the introduction of multimodality may affect the reform of college English teaching, what attitudes toward such multimodal pedagogy are possibly held by students, and what characteristics may emerge during the pedagogical process. The study found that the majority of students agreed the positive role played by multimodality in learning college English, particularly in arousing learning agency and interest (97% agree). In students’ multimodal output, a preference to non- verbal modalities was detectable: Compared with verbal modality, these non-verbal counterparts show students’ higher-level literacy ability in their multiliteracy repertoire, which also enable them more channels to make meaning in learning English and engage in relevant learning activities rather than to be hindered from the conventional ones due to their inadequate English language proficiency. However, the further study on how to dovetail the pedagogical advantages from mulimodalities with specific pedagogical praixs is still required. Also as found by the study, some students, though embracing multimodality, were confused about how this innovative pedagogy can exactly promote their language proficiency, which calls for teachers’ engagement into deep and adequate multimodal pedagogical design and implementation, as well as teachers’ efforts to merge marco-innovation in pedagogy with micro-pedagogical effect on the basis on specific pedagogical tasks.