The integration of multimodality in English teaching in Indonesian junior high schools

Abstract

This study elaborates the integration of multimodality in English teaching in Indonesian junior high schools as recommended in the School Literacy Movement (SLM) policy. The policy expects the teachers to expand the concept of literacy from language-based literacy into multimodal-based literacy in their classroom instruction to facilitate the students to adjust to literacy practices in the digital-multimedia communication environment (Ditjendikdasmen, 2018). Hence, the focus of the study is to investigate the extent to which the integration of multimodality is enacted in classroom-level practices of the English teaching and learning process, particularly in representing multimodality in English classroom materials, developing the students’ multimodal literacy, and encouraging the students to engage with multimodality as the alternative meaning resources in addition to the language.

This study uses a multiple-case study involving three English teachers from three schools in two cities in Banten province, Indonesia, with classroom observations, interviews, teaching documents, and learning journals as data sources. The study employs two analytical approaches of multimodal social semiotics, guided by the grammar of visual design (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006, 1996), and content analysis, driven by the multiliteracies pedagogy framework (Cope and Kalantzis, 2015).

The results indicate that all English teachers across three school contexts have brought different multimodal resources in their English teaching materials, represented mainly by pictorial and visual resources. Despite that, these resources are primarily used to support the achievement of the language-based (English) instructional goals, and are not yet used to facilitate the students’ multimodal literacy development as well as their engagement with multimodality as the meaning-making resources. Therefore, the integration of multimodality in the classroom instruction as enshrined in the SLM policy has not worked in the classroom-level practices of the English teaching and learning process. The multimodality is already brought into the classroom as represented in the instructional materials, but it is not yet integrated into the pedagogical process (curriculum) as the focus of instruction remains on English-based instruction.

Date of Award	Jul 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Sponsors	Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan/LPDP) Scholarship
Supervisor	Aisling O'Boyle (Supervisor) & Sheila McConnellogue (Supervisor)