Exploring Pre-service EFL Teachers’ Multimodal Literacy Practices: Implications for Teacher
Education
Dixon López Bustos
Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas
School of Science and Education
Master in Applied Linguistics to the Teaching of English
Bogotá, Colombia
Exploring Pre-service EFL Teachers’ Multimodal Literacy Practices: Implications for Teacher
Education
Dixon López Bustos
Thesis Director:
Alejandro McNeil, M.A.
A thesis submitted as a requirement to obtain the degree of
M.A. in Applied Linguistics to the Teaching of English
Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas
School of Science and Education
Master in Applied Linguistics to the Teaching of English
Bogotá, Colombia
NOTE OF ACCEPTANCE
Thesis Director: _________________________________
Alejandro McNeil, M.A.
Juror: _____________________________________
Acuerdo 19 de 1988 del Consejo Superior Universitario
Artículo 177: “La Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas no será responsable por las
Acknowledgements
I take this opportunity to express gratitude to all the people who contributed to the work
described in this thesis. I thank my academic advisor Alejandro McNeil for his patience and
support, and my jurors Edgar Aguirre Escobar and Carlos Rico Troncoso who provided me with
helpful insights to improve and complement my work. I would also like to thank the faculty
members in the master’s program, from whom I learned so much throughout these years.
Abstract
This document reports a research study conducted in a distance education undergraduate TEFL
program from a private university in Colombia. Throughout a pedagogical implementation in a
writing course, a group of pre-service EFL teachers engaged in a multimodal composition
experience. Following the procedures of a qualitative case study, data was gathered through the
participants’ artifacts, a questionnaire, and interviews in order to inquire about the literacy
practices the pre-service EFL teachers engaged in when composing multimodal texts, and gain
insights about their views towards multimodal literacy teaching from this experience. Findings
showed that the pre-service EFL teachers engaged in culturally situated literacy practices as they
used available meaning-making resources to create new meanings. Also, the pre-service EFL
teachers recognized the potential and the affordances of multimodal texts in literacy teaching and
acknowledged that the teaching of multimodal literacy requires collaboration and teamwork.
Resumen
Este documento reporta un estudio que se llevó a cabo en un programa a distancia de formación
de docentes de inglés como lengua extranjera en una universidad privada en Bogotá, Colombia.
Mediante una implementación pedagógica en un curso de escritura, un grupo de docentes de
inglés en formación participaron en una experiencia de composición multimodal. Siguiendo los
procedimientos de un estudio de caso cualitativo, se recolectaron datos a través de artefactos de
los participantes, un cuestionario y entrevistas, con el fin de informarse acerca de las practicas de
literacidad de los docentes en formación a la hora de componer textos multimodales, y de sus
puntos de vista sobre la literacidad multimodal, a partir de esta experiencia. Los resultados
mostraron que los docentes en formación llevaron a cabo practicas de literacidad situadas
culturalmente y usaron recursos disponibles para la construcción de significados, con los que
crearon nuevos significados. Además, los docentes en formación reconocieron el potencial y las
posibilidades que los textos multimodales pueden ofrecer en la enseñanza de literacidades; y
reconocieron que la enseñanza de la literacidad multimodal requiere colaboración y trabajo en
equipo.
Palabras clave: practicas de literacidad multimodal, EFL, formación de docentes, educación a
Table of Contents
List of Figures ... i
List of Tables ... ii
Chapter One ... 1
Introduction ... 1
Statement of the problem ... 4
Research questions ... 6
Research objectives ... 6
Justification ... 7
Chapter II ... 10
Literature review ... 10
Understandings of Literacy ... 10
Multimodality and Multimodal Literacy ... 13
Designs of meaning ... 14
Teacher education and distance education ... 16
Research on multimodal literacy ... 20
Chapter III ... 26
Research design ... 26
Type of study ... 26
Role of the Researcher ... 28
Data gathering methods and procedures. ... 29
Ethical considerations ... 30
Chapter IV ... 32
Instructional Design ... 32
Pedagogical Intervention ... 35
Learning Outcomes ... 43
Chapter V ... 45
Data Analysis and Findings ... 45
Data management ... 45
Data analysis procedures ... 46
Findings ... 48
Culturally situated literacy practices ... 50
Using available meaning-making resources to create new meanings ... 55
Recognizing the meaning potential and affordances of multimodal texts ... 60
Teaching is a multimodal experience ... 63
Multimodal literacy teaching: a collaborative effort ... 65
Chapter VI ... 67
Conclusions and Pedagogical Implications ... 67
Further research ... 72
References ... 74
Appendices ... 81
Appendix A ... 81
Appendix B ... 82
Appendix C ... 83
List of Figures
Figure 1. Common production tasks in EFL ... 5
Figure 2. Structure of a theme-based unit ... 36
Figure 3. Integration of the pedagogical intervention ... 38
Figure 4. Integrated-skills task for the creation of a comic ... 41
Figure 5. Integrated-skills task for the creation of a poster ... 42
Figure 6. Display of findings ... 49
Figure 7. Ana’s cartoon on kind-hearted lies ... 51
Figure 8. Carlos’ cartoon on kind-hearted lies ... 52
Figure 9. References to popular culture ... 53
Figure 10. Luisa's take on poverty ... 54
Figure 11. Layout options for creating comics ... 56
Figure 12. Narrative structure of comics ... 57
Figure 13. Visual cues to support written meaning ... 58
List of Tables
Chapter One Introduction
Being literate, traditionally understood as having the ability to read and write, is highly
valued in the contemporary world. Even though other aspects of education can be contested, “no
one questions the importance of reading and writing as foundational skills” (DiSessa, 2000, p.1).
Similarly, it is fair to say that the development of reading and writing skills in foreign language
(FL) learners represents a crucial part of their learning process, since these skills are essential for
creating and understanding meanings in the foreign language (FL), and for constructing
communicative competence.
However, literacy is a much more complex and dynamic term. For instance, current
directions in literacy studies see literacy as a socially constructed practice (Baynham, 1995; Gee,
1996; Barton & Hamilton, 2000). This implies that literacy cannot refer only to reading and
writing as isolated decoding and coding skills, but that it is learned through the social practices
of our daily lives. From this perspective, literacy practices are always mediated and shaped by
the roles community members assume in various social contexts.
Additionally, emerging literacies are being considered, in great part because of the advent
of new technologies. The rapid development and spread of the Internet and other ICT during the
last decades has undoubtedly influenced everyday modes of communication. Indeed, these
technologies are becoming so fundamental to society that most areas of social practice in daily
life are affected by the ‘information revolution’ (Snyder, 1999). One of these emerging notions
do with understanding different ways of knowledge representation and meaning-making. Even
though the linguistic text is still dominant, other modes like image, gesture and sound are
becoming more important to communication. In this regard, the growing use of ICT is playing a
definite role because they facilitate the production and access to a wide variety of modes that go
beyond the written text.
As an EFL teacher, teacher educator, and technology enthusiast, I believe that the
complexity of literacy brings about challenges, as well as opportunities that need to be addressed
in the classroom. Apart from the necessity to incorporate the skills to effectively use ICT,
teachers are now required to rethink their understanding of literacy if they are to improve their
teaching and learning practices. With these ideas in mind, I planned and implemented a
pedagogical intervention that took place in a distance education writing course for pre-service
EFL teachers, and carried out a study with the purpose of exploring their experiences as they
engaged in the composition of both traditional and computer-mediated multimodal texts.
The present report aims to describe this research experience along six chapters. The first
chapter includes the statement of the problem, the research questions and objectives, and the
justification for the study. The second chapter contains a review of literature with a discussion of
the main constructs that support this work, as well as a state of the art of research on multimodal
literacy. Chapter three provides an account of the research design for this study, which includes
the type of study, the context in which it took place and the participants that were involved, and a
description of the data gathering methods and procedures. Chapter four presents the instructional
design with an account of the pedagogical intervention that was implemented. Chapter five
explains the procedures for data management and analysis, as well as the findings of this
limitations, and recommendations for further research. In the following section I will start by
setting the background and provide a description of the contextual factors, observed issues, and
Statement of the problem
The distance education B.A. program in teaching English as a foreign language at
Universidad Santo Tomás is an undergraduate program that trains EFL teachers for the different
cycles of the Colombian educational system. Distance education implies that the program is
flexible in its delivery and organization, allowing the pre-service teachers to carry out most of
their learning activities and interactions in an online learning environment (Moodle), but also
including complementary face-to-face classes that correspond to 10-30% of class work,
depending on the different types of subjects and contents.
In this program, I am the teacher in charge of some subjects that have to do with the
development of language skills, particularly, intermediate and advanced EFL reading, and
writing courses. During the process of syllabus design, and as I searched for information to
prepare my classes, I started to inquire about literacy teaching and learning. I came across a
variety of sources that argued for the importance of embracing broader notions of literacy;
notions that go beyond traditional conceptions of learning how to read and write. This initial
interest led me to interview my colleagues and to examine the syllabi of some of the courses
offered in the program. During this inquiry, I found that most of the activities proposed in the
courses that were reviewed, and that entailed some kind of production in EFL, required
pre-service teachers to write compositions that favored the use of linguistic text -mainly, papers and
forums- and rarely asked learners to employ other ways of meaning making such as pictures,
Understanding literacy with its different possibilities for meaning making presents a
challenge for EFL literacy teachers. Kress (2000) even claimed that “it is now impossible to
make sense of texts, even of their linguistic parts alone, without having a clear idea of what other
modes of representation might be contributing to their meaning” (p.337). With this idea in mind,
and considering the aforementioned findings, I realized that the dominance of the linguistic text
was a limiting situation for the program, that was preventing pre-service teachers from getting a
better understanding of what literacy entails nowadays. The limitations were even more
pronounced, considering that this is a distance education program in which most interactions are
mediated by ICT and thus, have the potential to facilitate multimodal literacy practices that may,
in turn, inform the pre-service teachers’ views of literacy teaching.
As a way to address this concern, I planned and implemented a pedagogical intervention
in one of my writing courses, and carried out a study with the purpose of exploring the
pre-service teachers’ experiences as they engaged in the composition of both traditional and
computer-mediated multimodal texts. The research questions and objectives that guide the study
are presented below:
Research questions
What literacy practices do pre-service EFL teachers engage in when composing multimodal texts
in a distance education writing course?
What insights about the pre-service EFL teachers’ views on multimodal literacy teaching can be
gained from their experiences with multimodal texts?
Research objectives
To describe the literacy practices pre-service EFL teachers engage in when composing
multimodal texts in a distance education writing course.
To yield insights regarding the pre-service EFL teachers’ views on multimodal literacy teaching
Justification
In my teaching context, promoting activities that address literacy practices mediated by
ICT is particularly relevant. The fact that I teach a distance education writing course, in which
most of the learning activities and interactions occur online, means that the pre-service teachers I
teach are already familiar with the mediation of ICT in learning and teaching processes. Thus, in
addition to the objective of helping pre-service teachers to learn writing strategies and develop
writing skills, my challenge as a teacher educator is to help them to question their current views
and to approach literacy from multiple modes of learning and communicating so that they can
use this knowledge to shape and enhance their own teaching practices.
The broader approach to understanding literacy this study advocates for is supported by
current theory. From a sociocultural view, literacy is more inclusive than reading and writing,
and encompasses ways of knowing that cannot be detached from the social contexts they are
embedded in. Rather, “literacy is a complex social practice learned through dialogic
communication and apprenticeship into literate discourse communities” (Warschauer, 1997,
p.96).
Additionally, the use of digital technologies confronts learners with situations that
involve the utilization of an ever-growing variety of skills, requiring them to develop new kinds
of literacies. It is here where a multimodal view of literacy gains relevance since “literacy
pedagogy must now account for the burgeoning variety of text forms associated with information
I believe that the intricate nature of today’s literacy practices provides many research
opportunities. I agree with Snyder (2001) when she claims that, in regard to literacy studies, the
challenge is twofold: The challenge for researchers is to extend understanding of the ways in
which the use of ICT may shape literacy practices. The challenge for teachers is to learn “how to
use the new technologies efficiently, ethically and responsibly, with a view to taking advantage
of their educational potential” (p.118). Thus, the relevance of studies like the one that is
proposed in this report is both theoretical and practical.
Colombian policies in foreign language education are not distant to the aforesaid
challenges. The issue is addressed in the document Lineamientos curriculares - Idiomas
extranjeros in its fourth chapter Las nuevas tecnologias en el currículo de lenguas extranjeras
(MEN, 1999), which points out that in order to have competent readers capable of responding
effectively and critically to the ongoing social, technical and cultural changes, we should think of
the exploration and use of new technologies, and fulfill the need for training on text production
and comprehension according to the advances of electronics and telecommunications.
Given the significance of literacy teaching and learning, Colombian EFL teachers should
strengthen their knowledge in ways that allow them to empower learners to use different modes
of representation to make meaning. For this to happen, teacher educators are required to provide
future teachers with tools to understand and identify the role of ICT in literacy teaching, and
suggest new principles and strategies for an effective teaching in the classroom. As a
contribution to this purpose, and considering that information technology will continue bringing
changes to the field in the coming years, the present study becomes relevant and is aligned with
In the review of literature that follows, I will present a discussion of the main constructs
that support this work, as well as a state of the art of research on multimodal literacy. Even
though the aim of this review is not to provide an exhaustive account of research on this field, it
does reflect the growing interest of educators in having a better understanding of multimodal
Chapter II
Literature review
In the following pages, I present a discussion of the main concepts that underpin this
study. Initially, I revise a conceptual framework for literacy to then focus on theory on
multimodal literacy. Afterwards, I address relevant theory on pre-service teacher education and
some considerations about distance education, and the role of ICT in teacher education. I
conclude this chapter with a review of research articles that are related to multimodal literacy
experiences.
Understandings of Literacy
Literacy is a complex term that is used to represent a wide variety of phenomena that
surround the acquisition of reading and writing skills. There is general agreement among
scholars that the term involves far more than the simple ability to code and decode texts. In this
regard, Gee (1996) calls literacy a socially contested term whose traditional meaning —the
ability to read and write — appears rather straightforward and obvious. However, in such
traditional definition, literacy is extracted from its social, cultural, and historical context. When
treated as a technical skill or mental operation independent of social context, literacy is
associated with consequences that have no relation to the social situations in which it is
embedded (Evans, 2005).
Johns (1997) states that literacy is much more inclusive than “reading and writing”, and
by each other as well as by the skills of speaking and listening. Moreover, literacy includes ways
of knowing particular content, languages and practices, and refers to strategies for understanding,
discussing, organizing and producing texts. These abilities are mediated by the social context in
which a discourse is produced and the roles of text readers and writers.
In this line of argument, a sociocultural approach to literacy suggests that reading and
writing, whether in the first or second language, cannot be seen as a set of decontextualized
skills. Baynham (1995) argues that literacy must be understood in context as situatedsocial
practice acquired principally through exposure to literate communities. Then, literacy practices
can be interpreted as things people do with texts to create meanings in social communities
(Street, 1984; Baynham, 1995; Barton & Hamilton, 2000). A similar view is offered by
Warschauer (1997) who states that literacy is a complex social practice learned through dialogic
communication and apprenticeship into literate discourse communities. He adds that literacy
practices involve skills of abstraction, reflection, analysis, interpretation, cross-cultural
understanding, collaborative problem-solving and critical thinking.
This idea is sustained by Snyder (1999), who claims that being literate also involves the
capacity to analyze the practices and universes of meaning in which texts are embedded. “Being
literate entails the capability to enter actively into creating, shaping and transforming social
practices and universes of meanings” (p.8). In this perspective, learners entering a community of
practice (Wenger, 1998) must creatively assimilate not merely the vocabulary and syntax of a
language, but complex patterns of language use in social process.
The understanding of literacy as a socially situated practice is only one of the many
directions that have been taken in literacy studies. With the development of the information and
Even though it is understood that the use of ICT is reshaping our literacy practices and that new
literacies must be considered, there is no agreement in the definitions and terminology used to
refer to them. During the review of literature that I carried out for this study, I found terms like
digital literacy (Lanham, 1995), computer literacy (DiSessa, 2000), electronic literacies
(Warschauer, 1999), new literacies (Lankshear and Knobel, 2003), e-literacies (Kaplan, 1995),
multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996), among others. When discussing digital literacy,
Lanham (1995) comes up with even more specific notions, such as reproduction literacy, which
involves skills in utilizing digital reproduction in learning; information literacy, which has to do
with the ability to evaluate the acquired information, and identifying false, irrelevant or biased
sources; lateral literacy, which is based on constructing knowledge from non-linear navigation
and would correspond to the abilities involved in using hypertexts; and, photo-visual literacy,
which is the ability to read information from graphical interfaces and would be the literacy to
command in order to perform well in visual environments.
The wide variety of theoretical approaches to understanding literacy, only reinforces the
the need to carry out research to carefully examine our practices as literacy teachers, and
establish connections with our immediate teaching contexts. In my particular case, I have
become interested in getting a better understanding of the ways in which we, as literate agents,
use different types of media to convey and make sense of meanings. This interest led me to
consider the idea of multimodal literacy as a key concept in this work. The following section
Multimodality and Multimodal Literacy
The theory of multimodality addresses the way in which people communicate and
interact, not just through writing, but also through speaking, gesture and visual forms. The switch
from a dominant mode – writing – to the simultaneous use of different modes, has been
facilitated by the increasing use of ICT in our daily lives. About this, Eshet (2002) claims that
the advancement of computer interfaces shows the trend of evolving from non-interactive,
text-based complex interfaces, into intuitive picture-text-based graphic interfaces. This evolution marks
three major trends: an increase in the level of visualization, an increase in the level of
interactivity and a decrease in the level of cognitive mediation required to reach proficiency.
Kress (1998) analyses the same phenomenon. He states that after a period of some two to
three hundred years of the dominance of writing as the means of communication and
representation, there is now a deep shift taking place in the system of media, represented by a
rapidly increasing use of visual and aural modes of communication. The development and
expansion of the electronic technologies is one of the causes of this tendency and will keep
contributing to set up visuals and audio, as complementary to written language in many domains
of public life.
In his analysis, Kress (1998) compares the features of three different modes of conveying
meaning: speech, writing and visual language. Speech is necessarily a temporally, sequentially
organized mode. These features lead to an underlying logic of sequence on time and thus to the
representation of sequential events in the world. Writing differs from speech in that sequences of
actions can be changed into the textual mode of narrative. The visual language, by contrast, is a
spatially and simultaneously organized mode. Its spatiality and simultaneity lead to an
All modes of expression produce semiotic objects (meanings), and each one produces a
distinct view of the world. The differences between the kinds of language and the interaction
among them, offer a wide range of possibilities for communication, which in the educational
setting, can benefit the experiences of learners.
At this point, it is important to clarify that, even though multimodal texts are associated
with ICT, not all multimodal texts are digital. While it is true that most writing in the 21st
century is mediated through digital technologies, there are many non-digital multimodal texts,
such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines. In fact, Adler-Kassner and Wardle (2015) claim
that there is no such a thing as a mono-modal text. That is to say, all texts are multimodal. Even
written papers can be recognized, not only for their linguistic mode, but also from visual features
like font, special arrangement of the page, paragraph distribution, etc. With this clarification,
multimodal texts, as referred to in this work, are understood as those texts that take great
advantage of visual, aural, and textual modes to convey meaning.
Designs of meaning
One final notion that is closely related to a theory of multimodality is that of Designs of
meaning. The New London Group (1996) introduced the concept of Designs of meaning, both to
refer to the meanings that are already available, and the process of creating new meanings. They
explain that, as we use the word grammar to refer to the logic of the creation of written language,
the notion of Design, which is usually issued to refer to the visual dimension, can cover the
logics of the creation of meaning in other modes of representation. The term can also identify
either the organizational structure of products, or the process of designing. They propose to treat
Design, involving three elements: Available Designs, Designing, and The Redesigned. Available
Designs are the meaning-making resources that learners draw upon in order to create their own
meanings. Designing is the process of meaning creation and recreation itself. The Redesigned is
the outcome of the meaning-making process and is never a repetition or reorganization of the
initial available designs. These three elements emphasize the fact that meaning making is an
active and dynamic process, and not something governed by static rules. Writers design and
redesign all the modes of representation they draw upon in the production of multimodal texts in
order to convey their intended meanings. Later on, in the data analysis section of this paper, I
will revisit the concept of Design when analyzing the multimodal texts composed by pre-service
teachers.
In the previous pages, I have presented the different theoretical considerations about
literacy that underpin this study. This revision helped me to identify important elements that
constitute my understanding of literacy for the purposes of this work:
Literacy practices are meaning-making processes that are socially situated and thus are
learned through our interactions and communication with others. These processes are
multimodal in nature. Being literate means that one has the capability to create and comprehend
new meanings by employing different modes of representation, each one of which contributes to
the ultimate meaning that we want to convey or understand. When literacy practices are
mediated by technology, they are reconfigured and facilitated due to the affordances of digital
Teacher education and distance education
In this section, I address some considerations about pre-service teacher education and
distance education, in order to account for the context in which the pedagogical intervention took
place, and the people who participated in it. Teacher education has become an important factor
for governments around the world. The efforts on the expansion of schooling that characterized
the public policies on education in developing countries for the last decades, now pose the
challenge of recruiting and training new teachers in order to replace the large numbers of
teachers due to retire, and complete the drive for universal schooling (UNESCO 2008, p. 22).
Nonetheless, the importance of teacher education is not only related to numbers and volumes.
The quality of education at all levels is a current concern for education ministers, especially in
countries like Colombia, where there is a need for highly-qualified teachers who are aware of
classroom realities, and knowledgeable about current pedagogical theories. It is within this set of
conditions that distance education comes into play.
For the purposes of this study, distance education is understood as “forms of educational
provision that use contemporary technologies to enact varied combinations of synchronous and
asynchronous communication on learners and educators physically separated from one another
for part or all of the educational experience” (Danaher & Umar, 2010, p. 12). I consider that this
definition is aligned with the pedagogical model, and the type of learning activities and
mediations that are used in the context where the study took place (see chapter IV, p. 32-33).
Also, it accounts for two of the main institutional principles of the university I work for, which
are the integration of ICT to curricula for the advancement of the institutional mission (USTA,
2010), and the generation of actions of social, cultural, and educational influence in the different
The role of distance education in teacher education acquires relevance, since it enables
teacher education to take place in the regions where proper training is most needed, and also,
through the growing use of information and communication technologies (ICT), it makes
possible the creation of virtual communities of practice in which working teachers can learn from
experienced practitioners and from each other (Daniel, 2010).
In their review of contemporary research on open distance learning in teacher education,
Danaher and Umar (2010) claim that the experiences of many developed and developing
countries have shown that, when properly organized and managed, distance education can enable
countries to:
• Provide cost-effective pre-service and in-service teacher education;
• Support school-based pre-service and continuing professional development programs for
teachers;
• Upgrade unqualified teachers and enable qualified teachers to acquire higher teaching
qualifications;
• Provide teachers in remote or rural areas with access to professional training in order to
meet their continuing professional development needs; and
• ensure quick dissemination of information to large numbers of teachers about curriculum
innovations, new teaching methodologies and practices, and new professional standards
for teaching.
The intersection between teacher education and distance education has also been
considered from the field of language teacher education. Hall and Knox (2009) reported the
findings of a large-scale international survey of TESOL teacher education providers, that aimed
education by distance is firmly established in language education, which, in turn, presents both
opportunities and responsibilities:
For language teachers, distance education is a chance to participate in the discourse
community of language education in ways and from locations where it would once not
have been possible. For language teacher educators, it is an opportunity to be involved in
a field whose practices and knowledge base are undergoing rapid and important change,
and to contribute to the directions of those changes. For researchers, it is an opportunity
to explore, document, and theorize these developments and their implications. (2009, p.
78)
Hall and Knox (2009) add that the evolution of traditional roles and practices challenge
educators, administrators, and researchers to include people and perspectives once excluded, and
to embrace people and perspectives once distanced.
In the local context, there has been an increasing interest in exploring the integration of
ICT into teacher education programs. Even though most studies are not framed within a distance
education context, they reflect the attention that researchers have given to the opportunities that
these mediations offer. In this regard, Espitia and Clavijo (2011) carried out a study in which
tools such as blogs, learning software, e-mail, forums and internet-based tools were used by a
group of EFL teachers to improve EFL learning and teaching. The study was divided into two
phases. In the first phase, the participants planned, discussed, and implemented a pedagogical
project for young EFL learners. In the second phase the participants reported and evaluated their
performance using forums and blogs with their students. The study showed that teacher
education experiences are crucial for teacher learning to integrate the use of forums and blogs in
language pedagogy from a perspective that values communication, collaboration and
participation as central elements of learning.
Another study, by Clavijo and Quintero (2012), developed with a group of 34 TESOL
students of a public university in Bogotá, Colombia, focused on the need to rethink the pedagogy
of language in order to promote the development of foreign language competencies and digital
literacy among students. The study analyzed the pedagogy implemented in virtual environments
through collaborative projects, debates on topics proposed by students, design and development
of personal blogs, and the creation of wikis. The results showed that the pedagogy based on
collaborative projects developed by students turned out to be an enriched learning experience
with the inclusion of ICT, and that this pedagogy could become a model for the pre-service
teachers’ future teaching practice. The pedagogical experience also showed complementary
relationships between teaching contents and students’ personal interests, which have
consequences to learning.
In yet another study, Mora et al. (2012) present the collective experience of two
professors and three students in implementing WebQuests in a pre-service English education
component. Implementing WebQuests in this pre-service program enabled an expansion of the
conceptual framework that is currently in place for WebQuests by adding ideas about
competences and socio-cultural and critical thinking theories. This implementation process
generated a series of changes in the way students saw themselves as learners and future teachers,
gaining more ownership of the idea of WebQuests. The instructors, as the result of their work,
are now thinking of better ways to redefine their practices, and expand the boundaries of
As it has been shown in the previous paragraphs, there is a growing necessity for
understanding the intersection between teacher education and distance education. Even though
there have been efforts for studying the connection between these two domains of practice, at
both international and national instances, there are still many questions to be solved. Hopefully,
this study will contribute to this area of research in our country.
Research on multimodal literacy
There is a considerable body of research on multimodal literacy. However, national
sources on this regard are still scarce. In this section I present a review on recent qualitative
research that addresses literacy practices from a multimodal perspective. This review focuses on
the different perspectives that researchers have had towards multimodal literacy, and the types of
findings that were obtained in each study.
Early & Marshal (2008) explored a multimodal approach that integrated language and
content teaching in order to support high school ESL students with limited English proficiency to
engage in complex interpretations of literary works in English and to portray their interpretations
linguistically in written academic discourse. Students were able to display their interpretations of
literary texts by means of visual representations based on mandalas, a kind of Hindu traditional
diagrams. The study concluded that a multimodal approach, in combination with cooperative
group work and L1 use, has considerable potential in promoting ESL students’ academic
success.
Something worth mentioning about this study is that it fostered the use of multimodal
texts that were not mediated by ICT. As discussed in previous paragraphs, multimodal texts are
use of some kind of technological mediation, in this study the absence of such mediation does
not represent a difficulty for analyzing multimodal literacy practices. I also consider this piece of
research a valuable source because it showed that a combination of the linguistic and the visual
modes helped students frame and express their ideas in a more effective way.
A study carried out by Ranker (2007) describes how John, a former student, composed
texts during an informal writing group at an American school. The author found that John
borrowed elements from popular culture: video games, television, web pages and comics, in
order to “assemble” his own meanings. The author used the multiliteracies design framework
(New London Group, 1996) to analyze Johns compositions and to provide a metalanguage for
understanding, appreciating, and interacting pedagogically with the complexity of students'
composing processes that incorporate popular media. Something interesting about this study is
that the research project emerged from theoretical developments, rather than the students’ actual
needs. Also, this study provided insights in regard to the analysis of multimodal texts.
Hughes, King, Perkins, & Fuke (2011) examined how literacy skills develop and how
image, text and sound converge to make meaning for adolescents when reading and
writing/creating multimodal sequential art panels in the style of graphic novels. The study
comprises two case studies. The first case study focused on six male students in a grade 11
workplace preparation English class at a secondary school east of Toronto, Canada. During six
weeks of class time they read two graphic novels and created a series of their own. The second
case involved six different students, males and females, in a multigrade alternative program for
expelled students. Over six weeks, they read a variety of graphic novels. Their unit culminated in
the creation of sequential art panels that told the story of a turning point in their lives or the event
material artifacts from classroom sessions, semi-structured interviews with selected students and
field journals as instruments for data collection. Given the nature of the study, students’ products
(their own graphic novel examples) were a fundamental source of data, and some samples were
used in the article to present the results of the study. The findings of this study suggest that the
reading and writing of graphic novels can help teachers to engage students who normally resist
traditional writing while developing the multimodal literacy skills needed for success in the 21st
century. If compared with the study by Ranker (2007) the analysis of students’ products is less
rigorous and instead, there is higher focus on students’ attitudes towards the process of writing.
Situated within a ‘new literacies’ framework, Turner (2011) looked specifically at
Multimodal Media Production (MMP) in the development of ICT literacies. The study aimed to
answer the following questions: What specific how-to ICT skills did students develop? How
does the acquisition of skills in the MMP process further students’ literacies, namely the ability
to interpret and produce texts? How does students’ understanding of the utility of ICT literacies
across contexts change?
The study took place in a MMP course at an urban public school in California USA, in
one of the most impoverished, lowest performing districts. The participants were an average of
30 African American and Latino middle school students.
The study found that students improved their basic computer, Internet research, and
audiovisual skills. Additionally, their literacies were further developed as they learned to
creatively interpret and articulate their meanings. Besides, students were able to articulate how
these skills and literacies were translatable across different contexts. Something I highlight about
computer literacies, but also helped students develop critical literacy skills as they engaged in
discussions about the use of media in their contexts.
Bruce (2009) carried out a study that explored the way in which students created video
compositions in a secondary English language arts media studies program. Students (tenth to
twelfth graders) were required to complete two curricular assignments: a music video and a
mini-documentary. For both requirements, they were free to choose their own songs and topics. The
guiding research questions for this project were: What are the specific processes by which
students in the study composed video? How can their processes be described in a model of video
composition? The study found that video composition is a complex, recursive process that allows
for sequential multimodal representation of thoughts and ideas.
Ajayi (2009) explored how adolescent learners were encouraged to use multimodal
resources to interpret a cellular phone advertisement and construct their understanding of it, in a
classroom setting that attempted to make connections with the students’ out-of-the-classroom
literacy practices. The study was carried out in a Junior High school in the United States.
Eighteen English learners participated in the study for three weeks. Most of them were Hispanic
and classified as low socioeconomic status. The data collected for this study included the
students’ annotated drawings, their classroom oral explanations of the drawings, the teacher’s
questions, explanations, and comments; and whole-class discussions around the artifacts. In
addition, post treatment interviews were conducted with the participating students.
The findings revealed that the students situated meanings of the advertisement texts in
specific contexts that reflected their own social and cultural experiences. The use of
different paths and fostered critical literacy practices by offering ESL students’ opportunities to
create new identities and challenge discursive practices that marginalize them.
Smythe and Neufeld (2010) studied a seven-month digital literacy intervention in a
grades 6 and 7 classroom in Canada. Committed to exploring new approaches to meeting the
diverse learning needs of their students, the teachers of these courses extended their usual
curriculum focus on written narrative using pen-and-paper technologies to incorporate spoken
word, sound, art, and music in the form of learner-generated podcasts. The study adhered to
methods of ethnographic classroom research that included prolonged and repeated participant
observations, semi-structured interviews, field notes, and member checking. The study found
that in producing their podcast, students drew upon what was at hand, including popular culture,
the transnational cultural identities they negotiated on a daily basis, and their capacity for
creativity, play, and collaboration.
In the local context, Farias and Obilinovic (2009) carried out a collaborative experience
between two groups of EFL novice teachers from Chile and Colombia. They explored the
potential of a virtual platform and other ICT to create communities of practice and interest by
engaging in critical pedagogy activities that allowed the participants to look at their education
from a comparative perspective. Even though the authors center the study on aspects of
communities of practice and critical literacy, they also address multimodality and identify it as a
factor that may help teachers understand how the different modes of presenting the information
to the second language learner may facilitate, or hinder, the interaction needed.
Finally, Shin and Cimasko (2008) examined how ESL writers used available modes in
multimodal argumentative essays posted on the Internet. Specifically, they looked at how writers
meanings, as well as how the kinds of strategies writers employ can lead to a richer
understanding of multimodal composing practices. The study was conducted in the context of an
ESL freshman composition course at a large university in the United States and included 14
undergraduates of different nationalities. The findings indicate that word-dominated discourse
was the primary factor in selecting available modes. Non-linguistic modes were primarily used to
illustrate written essays. However, students also used non-linguistic modes to project cultural and
national identities and to express emotional connections with their topics.
In this chapter, I presented a discussion of the main concepts that support this study:
literacy, the theory of multimodality and multimodal literacy, pre-service teacher education, and
distance education. Two major conclusions can be drawn after this literature review. The first
one is that the dynamic nature of literacy, the constant advances on ICT, and the complexity of
literacy learning require from researchers and educators to keep working on investigating how
literacy practices are enacted in the educational context and how they evolve over time. The
second conclusion is that, with the progress of technology, and the current need for more and
better-trained teachers, the role of distance education and ICT for learning will become even
more important for teacher education. Teacher educators now have the challenge of integrating
ways of learning that facilitate the inclusion in professional development programs of those
teachers who otherwise would not have access to them.
The aforementioned conclusions support the need for doing research on multimodal
literacy and teacher education, and therefore are in agreement with the objectives proposed for
the present study. In the following pages I will proceed to explain the context and
Chapter III
Research design
In this chapter, I present a detailed description of the research design that was selected for
this study, which aimed at answering the following research questions: What literacy practices
do pre-service EFL teachers engage in when composing multimodal texts in a distance education
writing course? What insights about the pre-service EFL teachers’ views on multimodal literacy
teaching can be gained from their experiences with multimodal texts? First, I present the type of
study. Second, I describe the context and the participants that were involved. Then, I briefly refer
to my role as a researcher. Later, I review the data collection instruments and procedures that
were used, and lastly, I address some ethical issues that were considered as the study took place.
Type of study
This research study was framed within the descriptive tradition (Ellis, 2012), considering
that the purpose of the study was to generate interpretations and descriptions of phenomena
occurring in a particular social context. A qualitative case study design was selected, since it
offered an appropriate framework to account for the literacy practices involved in a multimodal
writing experience of a group of pre-service teachers at Santo Tomás University. According to
Merriam (1988) a qualitative case study is "an intensive, holistic description and analysis of a
single instance, phenomenon, or social unit" (p.9). Case studies are descriptive and heuristic, and
rely on inductive reasoning in handling multiple data sources.
purpose of such observation is to probe deeply and to analyze the intensity of the phenomena
with a view to establishing generalizations about the wider population to which the unit belongs
(Cohen and Manion, 1985, as cited in Nunan, 1992). Nunan (1992) states that the case study has
a great deal of potential as a research method in applied linguistics and highlights one of its
major strengths which is its suitability to small-scale investigations as those carried out by
graduate students and classroom practitioners.
I decided to choose this methodology because of the particular characteristics of the
population I worked with, which make of it a case worth studying. Such characteristics will be
described in the following section.
Context and participants
This research project was carried out at Universidad Santo Tomás in the distance education
undergraduate TEFL program (Licenciatura en Lengua Extranjera: Inglés). This program is part
of the Faculty of Education, which is in turn affiliated to VUAD (Vicerrectoría de Universidad
Abierta y a Distancia), a unit that groups the undergraduate and graduate distance education
programs that are offered by the university.
Being a distance education program, there are pre-service teachers (PSTs) from 12 regions
in Colombia. Namely, Barranquilla, Bogotá, Villavicencio, Manizales, Medellín, Bucaramanga,
Cúcuta, Tunja, Neiva, Pasto, Cali and Chinquinquirá. PSTs interact with the teacher educators
and classmates, and participate in learning activities through an online learning environment
(Moodle Learning Management System). Besides, PSTs are required to attend a number of
face-to-face tutoring sessions along the semester. PSTs who are in regions different from Bogotá have
This study was carried out in a writing course that students of the undergraduate TEFL
program take when they reach ninth semester. This course is part of the communicative skills
focusing area in the program’s curriculum. The participants of the study were 9 EFL pre-service
teachers who enrolled in the course during the first semester of 2014.8 of the 9 participants were
already working at schools or language institutions by the time they joined the course. The
participants belonged to socioeconomic strata 1,2 and 3, and their age average ranged between
22 and 40 years old. For the purposes of this study, pseudonyms were used to keep the identity of
the participants confidential. These pseudonyms are included in the data analysis section to
facilitate the presentation of results (see chapter V).
The participants were selected through purposeful sampling (Patton, 1990). Patton (1990)
claims that the value of purposeful sampling lies in selecting information-rich cases for study in
depth. Information-rich cases are those from which one can learn a great deal about issues of
central importance to the purpose of the research. With this idea in mind, I used intensity
sampling, which consists of information-rich cases that manifest the phenomenon of interest
intensely (but not extremely). By using the logic of intensity sampling, the researcher seeks
excellent or rich examples of the phenomenon of interest, but not unusual cases.
Role of the Researcher
My role in this research project was that of participant-observer. Since I was the teacher in
charge of the course, I was actively participating in the proposed activities, and was able to
collect fieldwork data.Participant observation enables researchers to learn about the activities of
the people under study in their natural setting through observing and participating in those
guidelines and interview guides.
Data gathering methods and procedures.
In accordance with the proposed type of study, qualitative data was gathered and analyzed.
Regarding this kind of data, Patton, as cited in Merriam (1988), claims that “qualitative data
consist of detailed descriptions of situations, events, people, interactions and observed behaviors,
experiences, attitudes, beliefs, thoughts and excerpts or entire passages from documents,
correspondence, records and case histories” (p.23).
Accordingly, the methods for data collection in this study were:
Pre-service Teachers’ Online Artifacts. For the purposes of this study, pre-service teachers’ multimodal compositions were the primary source of qualitative data. These artifacts
were the videos, audio files, posters, and comics that the PSTs created during the
implementation. Since the composition took place in online services, I was able to retrieve and
store the PSTs’ production for its analysis. Particularly, the data gathered with this instrument
aimed at addressing the first research objective: describing the literacy practices that the
participants engaged in during the intervention (see appendix A).
Semi-structured interviews. In a semi-structured interview, the interviewer has a general idea of where he or she wants the interview to go, and what should come out of it, but
does not enter the interview with a list of predetermined questions. Topics and issues rather than
questions determine the course of the interview (Nunan, 1992). The advantages of this technique
are that it gives the interviewee a degree of power and control and provides the interviewer with
a great flexibility. Besides, it gives privileged access to other people’s lives. I used interview
with this instrument aimed at addressing, principally, the second research objective: yield
insights about the participants’ own teaching practices after the intervention.
Questionnaire with open ended items. Questionnaires as data-gathering instruments are popular research instruments in many fields including communication, education, psychology,
and sociology. A questionnaire is an appropriate instrument for collecting data on what your
students think or believe about certain issues. For this reason, a questionnaire is a standard
data-gathering instrument for a needs analysis (Griffee, 2012). Another advantage of questionnaires is
that class members can respond anonymously, which might reduce the teacher influence that
would be present, for instance, in an interview, where the respondent would be known. Finally,
open-ended questions provide a fuller explanation than answers that are expressed in numbers or
true/false responses. I applied one questionnaire at the end of the intervention, which was
administered online (see appendix C).
The analysis of the data gathered with the instruments mentioned above drew on
grounded theory informed techniques. According to Strauss and Corbin (1990), grounded theory
is a general methodology for developing theory in which the researcher surfaces themes and
concepts from the data as they read them. In relation to this project, the aim of grounded theory
is to understand and explain the literacy practices that may emerge when pre-service teachers
compose technology-mediated multimodal texts.
Ethical considerations
Based on Patton’s (2002) Ethical issues checklist, as a researcher, I am responsible of
ensuring that:
they are asked to participate in (see appendix D – Consent form).
• They understand the risks they may face as a result of being part of the research.
• They understand the benefits they may get as a result of participating.
• Confidentiality is guaranteed.
• There is peer-checking, so that the participants are aware of the interpretations that
Chapter IV
Instructional Design
The present study aims to describe the literacy practices pre-service EFL teachers engage
in when composing multimodal texts, and to yield insights regarding their views on multimodal
literacy teaching from their experiences with multimodal texts in a distance education writing
course. As part of this research study, I designed and implemented a pedagogical intervention
with the purpose of creating opportunities for such literacy practices to take place. In the
following paragraphs, I present information on the teaching context, the stance and assumptions
regarding learning and technology the instructional units are built on, and a description of the
procedures and activities that constituted those units. I conclude the chapter with an account of
the learning outcomes that were derived from the pedagogical experience, regarding language
and learning skills development, writing skills, and the acquisition of writing strategies.
This research study took place in the distance education undergraduate TEFL program at
Universidad Santo Tomás, a Colombian private university. The program is part of the Faculty of
Education, which is in turn affiliated to VUAD (Vicerrectoría de Universidad Abierta y a
Distancia), a unit that groups the undergraduate and graduate distance education programs that
are offered by the university. In this program, there are pre-service teachers from twelve different
regions in Colombia, who interact with the tutors and classmates mainly through the university’s
virtual campus that is based on the Learning Management System (LMS) Moodle. Pre-service
teachers also have the opportunity to attend a number of complementary face-to-face tutoring
university branches located in different regions of the country. As it happens with the rest of
undergraduate and graduate programs, the TEFL program integrates the principles that support
the educational practices at Universidad Santo Tomás. This is an institution characterized by its
humanist approach, and its identity is strongly based on the principles of autonomy, ethics,
freedom, relevance, sense of belonging, universality, critical thinking, dialogue, democracy,
flexibilization, and inter and trans disciplinary articulation (USTA, 2004a).
Before going into the details of the pedagogical intervention, it is important to present my
own assumptions about learning, language, and technology, since they permeate the decisions
that I made as I planned and implemented the intervention. In regard to learning, my stance and
assumptions are based on my understandings of the theory of social constructivism (Vygotsky,
1978) in which the students’ prior knowledge, scaffolding, interaction and collaboration of
participants in the construction of knowledge are key elements. From this view, cognitive
functions originate in, and must therefore be explained as products of social interactions and
learning is a process by which learners are integrated into a knowledge community. The
teacher’s role is then to support that active process through exploration and dialogue (Duffy &
Cunningham, 1996). I believe this position towards learning is in agreement with the institutional
principles that support the educational model of Universidad Santo Tomás, since these principles
also argue for the importance of maintaining a dialogical relationship student-teacher (USTA,
2010). Besides, within the rationale for this research project is the assumption that the increasing
use of digital technologies requires learners to reshape their literacy practices. Thus, the students’
interaction with teacher and peers through ICT is an essential aspect that defines the way in
As a result of carrying out this study, my vision of learning is also informed by the
multimodal approach to language and communication that supports this study. I draw on the
following definition by Kress (2010) that illustrates a social-semiotic view of meaning and
learning:
Learning is the result of the transformative engagement with an aspect of the
world which is the focus of attention by an individual, on the basis of principles
brought by her or him to that engagement; leading to a transformation of the
individuals semiotic/conceptual resources. (p.182)
This view of learning emphasizes that meaning is made in a multiplicity of modes that are
rarely isolated from each other. On the contrary, meaning making takes place in ensembles of
modes in which each one of them contributes to the creation of new meanings.
As for my view of language, it is informed by the notion of language as culture (Tudor,
2001). From this perspective, language is understood not just as a linguistic system, but as a
means of expression and communication used by human beings. Thus, language embodies and
expresses aspects of the culture and world views of its speakers. This view of language is closely
related to one of the findings of this study, which will be addressed in chapter five.
In regard to the way I understand the role of technology in this implementation, it is
important to note again that not all multimodal texts are mediated by technology. A picture, a
magazine, a drawing or an illustrated book, are all examples of multimodal texts. Moreover,
multimodal texts have always existed, since meanings have always been conveyed by different
kinds of media. The point is that these modes had not had the potentials that now exist in many
aspects of everyday communication. I decided to integrate technology because, undoubtedly,
we may consider technology as a means. However, the role of technology goes beyond that,
because the growing use of ICT actually implies a reshaping of our literacy practices. Thus, the
role of technology for this project transcends to that of mediator as it plays an active part in the
processes of learning and meaning making.
Pedagogical Intervention
The pedagogical intervention that supports this study was incorporated into the syllabus
of a writing course in a distance education undergraduate TEFL program. Below, I will describe
the course structure and activities. Then, I will explain how the pedagogical intervention was
incorporated into the writing syllabus.
The syllabus of the writing course is organized around six theme-based units in which
reading and writing skills are interwoven in an integrated-skills approach (Oxford, 2001). The
pre-service teachers’ work is supported by a course book and an online platform that allows them
to complete language use and vocabulary exercises and integrated-skills tasks to complement
their work in each unit. Each one of the units is organized into three stages, as shown in the
Figure 2. Structure of a theme-based unit
The first stage aims to get the pre-service teachers (PSTs) thinking about the unit’s
theme, develop awareness, draw on prior knowledge and establish connections to the text, and
encourage discussion around the topic. This is usually done through discussion forums in the
online platform. The second stage, focus on reading, presents two readings in different genres
(e.g. an article and a diary log) and asks PSTs to read for main ideas, read for details and make
inferences. One of these readings usually serves as a model that the PSTs can follow in the
writing stage. The last stage, focus on writing, engage PSTs in a writing assignment. Within the
writing stage, PSTs are asked to use a pre-writing strategy such as free-writing, clustering,
brainstorming, listing, etc. PSTs are then asked to write a first draft of a text using a specific
structural or rhetorical pattern (e.g. cause and effect essay). After receiving feedback from the
teacher, PSTs are asked to revise their work and write a final draft. The completion of the three
stages of each unit takes about three weeks.
Within this syllabus, I incorporated the pedagogical implementation, which consisted of
• To provide a space for pre-service teachers to experience the composition of
multimodal texts as complementary to the composition of written papers.
• To develop language, learning and literacy skills in EFL.
• To promote the pre-service teachers’ reflection in regard to multimodal literacy.
The pedagogical intervention took nine weeks in total, distributed along the fifteen weeks
of the course. In total, the PSTs composed three multimodal texts. The first multimodal
composition activity took place during the fifth week of the semester. By that time, the PSTs had
already worked on a short written paper, and were already familiarized with the way the course
worked. The second multimodal composition activity happened during the tenth week of the
semester. The third and final multimodal composition activity was carried out during the
fifteenth, and last week of the course. The following figure shows the integration of the
As shown in the figure, during the second, fourth, and sixth units of the course, the PSTs
created a multimodal text (represented by red icons). In these units, the PSTs went through the
stages focus on the topic and focus on reading. However, during the third stage, focus on writing,
presented in each unit. In each one of the three multimodal composition activities, the PSTs were
assigned an integrated-skills task, and offered four options to create a multimodal text. They
could choose between:
• Creating a comic.
• Creating an audio recording.
• Creating a poster.
• Recording a video.
The chart below, presents the timetable for the three multimodal composition activities,
and describes with more detail, the sequence of activities that the PSTs had to carry out in each
one:
Table 1 Timetable of the pedagogical implementation
Weeks Theme Unit / Activities Description
First multimodal composition activity
Week 3
Unit 2: Success
Focus on the topic
The PSTs participate in a discussion forum, where they are asked to comment on a picture that is intended to represent the idea of the struggle for success.
Week 4 Focus on reading
The PSTs read two texts titled: “Gotta dance” and “Kids learn poise through dance”. They are asked to carry out a set of exercises where they have to read for main ideas, read for details and make inferences.
Week 5 Multimodal composition activity
The PSTs carry out an integrated skills task in which they have to read a passage and listen to an excerpt about the problem of shyness. Then, they prepare a composition through a pre-writing activity to organize their ideas, and they choose and compose one of the four optional multimodal texts. The PSTs share their compositions with the class and comment on each other’s work.
Second multimodal composition activity
Week 8 Business Unit 4: Focus on the topic
