Analysing Students' Comprehension of Multitexts

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  • Title: Analysing Students' Comprehension of Multitexts: The Mobilization of Images (Visual Mode) in the Language Classroom
  • Author(s): Jean-Francois Boutin, Nathalie Lacelle, Monique Lebrun, Nathalie Lemieux
  • Publisher: Common Ground Research Networks
  • Collection: Common Ground Research Networks
  • Series: The Image
  • Journal Title: The International Journal of the Image
  • Keywords: Image Comprehension, Multitext, Multimodal Message, Teaching, Learning, Visual Mode, Semiotics, Focus Group, Multimodality, Multimodal Literacy, Visual Literacy
  • Volume: 3
  • Issue: 4
  • Date: December 24, 2013
  • ISSN: 2154-8560 (Print)
  • ISSN: 2154-8579 (Online)
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.18848/2154-8560/CGP/v03i04/44100
  • Citation: Boutin, Jean-Francois, Nathalie Lacelle, Monique Lebrun, and Nathalie Lemieux. 2013. "Analysing Students' Comprehension of Multitexts: The Mobilization of Images (Visual Mode) in the Language Classroom." The International Journal of the Image 3 (4): 69-78. doi:10.18848/2154-8560/CGP/v03i04/44100.
  • Extent: 10 pages

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Abstract

Contemporary education can no longer afford to bypass the actual (r)evolution of communication which strongly involves multimodality. Messages produced on a daily basis are becoming more and more multimodal, but language classes, at least in the French world, continue to rely on traditional conceptions and forms of literacy. At the core of this much-needed change of practices are images (visual modes) and their semiotic value that weight a lot more than learners and their teachers usually think into the global comprehension of multimodal messages. In our classroom-based study, subjects were asked to define and compare the different ways they use to create meaning while they read traditional (monomodal) texts VS multimodal texts such as coloured or black & white bandes dessinées (graphic novels / still images) and coloured or black & white movies (mobile images). Preliminary findings from individual inquiries and focus groups revealed that young learners seem to be able to spontaneously decrypt explicit visual representations. However, they also requested explicit instruction of image analysis in order to deepen their understanding of implicit visual meanings and enhance their mobilization of inference and mental imagery, for instance. In the end a fundamental question arises: how our understanding of students’ global comprehension of multitexts should help us to champion formal teaching of visual expression and communication in the language classroom?