Teacher engagement with digital multimodal composing in a Chinese tertiary EFL curriculum

Abstract

While previous studies have examined the impact of digital multimodal composing (DMC) as a new literacy activity on second language (L2) learners’ language development, L2 teachers’ engagement with DMC is under-conceptualized and underexplored. Based on a qualitative analysis of five teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) who implemented in their curriculum a year-long DMC program within which students produced multimodal videos, this study presents three forms of teacher engagement with DMC. In the first form, the teachers used DMC as an instrument for traditional exercises of speaking and writing with incidental attention to the multimodal aspects of DMC, while in the second, the teachers manifested ambivalence about the means and the ends of using DMC. The teacher in the third form used DMC as integral to pedagogy with attention to not only students’ language use, but also strategic use of multiple resources. These results suggest that teacher engagement with DMC can be conceptualized as a multifaceted continuum. The findings also reveal that these individualized engagements were directed by teachers’ conceptions of themselves, students, and language and mediated by contextual factors associated with the prescribed curriculum and high-stakes testing regimes. The paper concludes with implications regarding ways to promote teacher engagement with DMC in digitalized instructional landscapes.