Multimodal plays a significant role in our everyday interactions, especially among students who rely heavily on digital platforms. Instead of communicating only through traditional media such as letters, people now express ideas and emotions using a combination of text, images, sounds and symbols. One common example of this is the Messenger application, where users send messages, emojis, stickers, images, videos, and even files (but there's a limit on 25 mb size) to interact with others. It shows how digital extends beyond traditional reading and writing.

A multimodal analysis of meaning is convenient because it helps us to understand that communication nowadays goes beyond grammar and vocabulary. Moreover, learners express their emotions,attitudes and intentions through images, memes, voice and visual symbols. For instance a sticker or meme can communicate sarcasm, humor, or frustration more effectively than a sentence because it emphasizes more emotions rather than a word that needs to be understood one by another. Teachers can better interpret students' participation, engagement, and understanding through analyzing these modes. Whereas it also helps students become critical users of media, allowing them to realize how digital messages can influence emotions, opinions, and social relationships.

Unlike traditional literacy, multimodal literacy has features that can keep up in the 21st century such as the advancement of technology particularly in recognizing meaning through visuals, sound, and digital interaction. Whereas, traditional literacy mainly focuses on reading and writing printed text such as books and essays that have topics of nouns, verbs, and "great writing" without pictures according to the lecture “Synesthesia or Mode Switching”. In addition, traditional literacy assumes that meaning comes only from written language. Therefore, literacy today is not only the ability to read and write but also to interpret and create meaning across multiple media platforms.

Thus, multimodal communication highlights that literacy in the digital age is no longer limited to reading and writing printed text but involves understanding and creating meaning through images, sounds and symbols. Platforms like messenger show how students naturally communicate through combined modes that express emotions and intentions more efficiently than words alone. Therefore understanding multimodal assists both educators and learners adapt to 21st century communication where meaning is constructed multimedia not just through language.

REFERENCES:

“Multimodal Communication: Advantages & Strategies.” StudySmarter UK, 2019,

www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english/tesol-english/multimodal-communication/?

Nelson, Mark. “MODE, MEANING, and SYNAESTHESIA in MULTIMEDIA L2 WRITING.” Language Learning & Technology, vol. 10, no. 2, 2006, pp. 56–76, scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/16624a37-ed39-486a-86fe-b97778e92220/content .

Messenger as a Site of Multimodal Communication: Rethinking Literacy in the 21st Century