Describe an important site of multimodal communication in your life, or your students' lives. How might a multimodal analysis of meaning prove useful? How does this compare with traditional notions of literacy?

I teach and learn by various communication means. How often the multimodal modes are useful and more effective in making students understand the concept. But verbal classroom face to face interaction always proved 100% perfect.

During the on-going Covid 19 crisis, we are experimenting with various methods of options in communication for effective learning.

Here are a few links from my own experience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv350aBNUHk

https://www.facebook.com/BUFilmStudies/

A multimodal text conveys meaning th​​rough a combination of two or more modes, for example, a poster conveys meaning through a combination of written language, still image, and spatial design. Each mode has its own specific task and function (Kress, 2010, p. 28) in the meaning making process, and usually carries only a part of the message in a multimodal text. In a picture book, the print and the image both contribute to the overall telling of the story but do so in different ways.

Images may simply illustrate or expand on the written story, or can be used to tell different aspects of the story, even contradicting the written words (Guijarro and Sanz, 2009, p. 107).

Effective multimodal authors creatively integrate modes in various configurations to coherently convey the meaning required, ‘moving the emphasis backwards and forwards between the various modes' (Cope and Kalantzis, 2009. p. 423) throughout the text.

The complexity of the relationships between the various meaning or semiotic systems in a text increases proportionately with the number of modes involved. For example, a film text is a more complex multimodal text ​​than a poster as it dynamically combines the semiotic systems of moving image, audio, spoken language, written language, space, and gesture (acting) to convey meaning.

Reference:

Anstey, M., & B​​ull, G. (2009). Using multimodal texts and digital resources in a multiliterate classroom. In e:lit (Vol. 004, pp. 1-8). Sydney: Primary English Teaching Association.

Callow, J. (20​​​13). The Shape of Text to Come: How Image and Text Work. Sydney: Primary English Teaching Association of Australia.

Cloonan, A. (2011). Creating multimodal metalanguage with teachers. English Teaching, 10(4), 23.

Cope​​, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2009). A grammar of multimodality. The International Journal of Learning, 16(2), 361-423.

Guijarro, J​​. M., & Sanz, M.J. (2009) On interaction of image and verbal text in a picture book. A Multimodal and Systemic Functional Study. In E. Ventola & J. M Guijarro (Eds), The World Told and the World Shown: Multisemiotic Issues (pp. 107-123). Palgrave Macmillan.

Jewitt, C. (ed.) (2009) The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis, London: Routledge.

Kala​​ntzis, M., Cope, B., Chan, E., & Dalley-Trim, L. (2016). Literacies (2nd ed.). Port Melbourne, VIC, Austalia: Cambridge University Press.

Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. London; New York: Routl​​edge.

Painter, C., Martin, J. R., & Unsworth, L. (2013). Reading Visual Narratives: image analysis of children​​​'s picture books: Equinox Publishing Limited

The New London G​​roup. (2000). A pedagogy of Multiliteracies designing social futures. In B. Cope & M. Kalantzis (Eds.), Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures (pp. 9-38). South Yarra: MacMillan.

Walsh, M., Durrant, C., & Simpson, A. (2015). Moving in a Multimodal Landscape: Examining 21st Century Pedagogy for Multicultural and Multilingual Students. English in Australia, 50(1), 67-76.