APLING678 Week 6 - Multimodal Literacies

Guiding Questions:

• What is the definition of multimodal literacies?
• How are multimodal literacies different from traditional literacies?
• What is the role of visuals in language learning?
• What principles of SLA support the need to incorporate these literacies in the language classroom?
• How does the creative commons fit in with these multimodal literacies?

Readings:

• Walker & White (2013) Chapter 6
• Callow, J. (2005). Literacy and the Visual: Broadening our Vision. English Teaching: Practice and Critique. 4(1):6-19. Retrieve from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ847239.pdf

Substantive Post:

Week 6 Discussion Post

Kate, you asked if we think our students interpret images in a structuralist understanding or a hermeneutic understanding. I agree with you and Melissa that it is both. I was particularly interested in the spectrum or continuum of the two understandings.

A full structuralist understanding of a visual text requires some background or contextual information. In Callow’s (2005) article, he discusses the ways a photograph of the Chrysler building might be understood. To someone unfamiliar with this American icon, it might be impossible to understand the possible symbolic meanings of the photograph (prosperity, the American Dream, history of New York City, …) without more contextual materials. Such a student might have an easier time forming a hermeneutic understanding of the photo. It’s not an either/or delineation, though. Callow (2005) cites Barnard (2001), who suggests that these various approaches for understanding visuals “can be viewed as falling on a continuum” (p. 34). Therefore, a student without the cultural background knowledge to understand the “varied iconic interpretations” of the Chrysler building might fall more towards the hermeneutic end of the understanding continuum, but he would still probably have some structural understanding of the photo (what the angle of the shot indicates, for example) (Callow, 2005, p. 10). To answer your question, Kate, I think our students will individually fall at different points along the continuum, depending on their background knowledge.

With that in mind, how do we deal with these differences in the point of understanding from which our students are coming? That question in combination with your question about our personally chosen images perhaps being misleading to our students made me think back to week 4 and Judith Rance-Roney’s article about digital jumpstarts. She points out that English Language Learners often don’t perform well on reading comprehension due to a lack of background information or to poor visual literacy. Exposure to visual schema plus integration of voice and word within meaningful contexts is necessary to help improve these lacking areas (2010, p. 389). So it is our job to expose them to these visuals, and at the same time to integrate more traditional “texts” (words) to help them achieve a fuller understanding.

I liked Callow’s model of the affective, compositional, and critical dimensions of images. The “affective” aspect of the photo at the top of Gail’s Syrian blog really struck me because of the “sensual and immediate response” I had to it (p. 13). As a photographer, the “compositional” aspect of images has always been important to me. So much meaning can be infused into the framing and position of the subject. I would like to learn more about his “critical” dimension (p. 13). Is Callow saying that all images have deeper meaning? That we can analyze a photo based on what the photographer included or highlighted in the shot and what she downplayed or left out? In the Flickr “Cloud” story, I added a picture of a girl playing in a puddle. It’s a closely cropped shot. You can’t see much of what is around her. Whoever continues the story after me might choose to critically analyze that photo and continue the story based on what is not seen. Is there a car coming down the road towards her?!? If our students are at a high enough level (beyond a beginning level), we could combine this conversation about affective/compositional/critical dimensions of images into the round robin story telling assignment, so that the students are not just putting words down and finding a picture to match, but rather finding an image and then exploring it (reading it) on several levels to discover a deeper meaning before writing about it.

Kate, you asked if text should be in place before searching for images. In the example I mentioned above, I think the opposite is true. Walker and White (2013) emphasize that “we are now surrounded at every turn in our daily lives by digital texts which combine images, words, and sounds” (p. 83). If we are to teach literacy, we need to teach students how to read these combo texts. So looking at stand-alone photographs and teaching students how to interpret or “read” them is a part of the complete literacy lesson.