Importance Of Multimodal Literacy

Multimodal literacy is important in the modern classroom as it includes all the knowledge and thinking skills students use that include spoken, printed, visual and digital texts. Each mode uses a different way of sending a message or communicating with audience The mode could be a book, a dialogue or short film. The student will develop or learn skills in literacy to organise their thoughts and respond to the mode. Over the year’s modal types have expanded specifically due to the digital communication technology which has impacted on all aspects of life. It is the responsibility for educators to keep up and design pedagogy that is current and engaging. The importance of this in both the real world and the classroom should be high on the agenda …show more content…
Multi meaning many and modal being the manner or form. In literacy this means the different ways a message or conversation is recorded. Specific to this is the way in which the spoken, written and presented message is conveyed to an audience. Multimodal literacy is the range of forms people communicate. This can be demonstrated through texts, speech, films, audio and more. The Australian Catholic University’s article ‘Multimodal literacy: What does it mean for classroom practice?’ Defines multimodal literacy as “Referring to meaning-making that occurs through the reading, viewing, understanding, responding to and producing and inter- acting with multimedia and digital texts.” (Walsh, 2010). The key to this definition is the development of skills and understandings to produce the most effective pathway to respond to and convey …show more content…
It is important to use multimodal texts to teach literacy. There are five classifications of modes according to (Anstey & Bull, 2010); linguistic, visual, audio, gestural and spatial. It is important to use a range of these when teaching literacy. Secondary students should acknowledge and understand these classifications. The example used in the lecture (Cunneen, 2010) on the story of The Three Little Pigs is an example of engaging students at all levels of learning. (Primary and Secondary). The children’s book version was one that is familiar to all students and is primarily a narrative to entertain and teach a lesson. The second version, the newspaper report, is for a different purpose, to inform and possibly influence. Both have the same field and tenor but the mode is different. The literacy response may depend on the social and cultural environment, and the context and purpose. What literacy skills do the students need to practice, develop and extend? This will inform the type of multimodal response the student will give. It is important as a teacher that a framework for this response is given and a multimodal literacy criterion is explained and developed. In the above example, students could be asked to compare the two modes, explaining how the mode has impacted on the understanding of the