An Empirical Study of Application of Multimodal Approach to Teaching Reading in EFL in Senior High School

Abstract

English Reading skill is one of the most important skills for senior high school students who learn English as a foreign language (EFL). However, the present ELF teaching method is still teacher-centered which neglects students’ learning interest and their participation in the process of teaching. In 1990s, Western scholars proposed multi-modal theory which suggests that semiotic resources (sound, images, video, animation, motion, color, facial expressions, etc.) can be used to stimulate different senses of students so as to improve their learning efficiency. The present study is intended to apply the multi-modal approach to EFL reading teaching in senior high school and tries to find out whether the multimodal teaching can stimulate students’ interest in English reading and improve their reading proficiency. In this study, with students of a high school in Anhui in China as the research subjects, an English reading teaching experiment was carried out. The analysis of data collected from reading tests and questionnaires indicates that the application of multi-modal teaching approach in high school EFL reading teaching can stimulate students’ interest in English reading and improve students’ English reading proficiency, and that most students take a positive attitude towards multimodal teaching approach.