Developing university students' academic literacies through systematic planning and implementation of translanguaging and multimodality in genre-based EAP practices

Abstract

With the global spread of English as the medium of communication in many academic and professional fields, English for academic purposes (EAP) has become popular in tertiary education across the globe. Traditionally, EAP practitioners and researchers focus mainly on the target language aspects. In recent years, it is increasingly recognized that multiple linguistic and semiotic resources play importance roles in developing academic literacies. However, these resources are often used intuitively without being informed by theories. Drawing on the theories of genre-based pedagogies, translanguaging and multimodality, this study explores how multiple linguistic and semiotic resources are systematically planned and implemented in an EAP course and how that influences the teaching and learning of academic literacies.

The study adopted design-based research (DBR) and case study as methodological approaches. Participants included the teacher and students of an EAP course at a university in China. The study lasted for a year and consisted of four phases (situational analysis, co-design of lesson materials and pedagogical strategies, iterative cycles of implementation and refinement of design, and evaluation of design), throughout which the researcher and the teacher had a collaborative partnership. The design drew on the Multimodalities-Entextualization Cycle (MEC) as pedagogical framework to systematically incorporate translanguaging and multimodality in its three pedagogical stages, and was carried out in seven iterative cycles of practices. Data were collected from multiple sources: classroom observation, multimodal artifacts, and dialogic data involving the teacher and the students. Data analysis was interpretive in nature, and involved (multimodal) discourse analysis of classroom practices and artifacts, qualitative content analysis of dialogic data, and triangulation of the above steps.

Several important findings are reported and discussed. First, with the systematic planning, translanguaging and multimodality were deployed for a range of functions in the EAP lessons, which facilitated the de-construction, co-construction, and independent construction of academic genres (research article and literature review). Second, the teacher and students gradually shifted from a more discrete and monolingual view of language practices to a more fluid and holistic translanguaging stance, which also influenced their translanguaging practices, though the process was nonlinear. Third, the teacher and students developed some awareness of intersemiotic interaction and trans-semiotizing strategies, which had positive impacts on the students’ development of academic literacies. Particularly, students’ trans-semiotizing practices (to varying degrees) influenced their development of the literature review, in the aspects of organizing structure, paragraph development, coherence and cohesion, and writer’s voice.

The study makes several meaningful contributions. Most significantly, it contributes to the conceptualization of an integration of translanguaging, multimodality, and genre-based pedagogies in EAP. Moreover, it provides empirical support to the theoretical proposal of a holistic view of learners’ multiple linguistic and semiotic resources in developing academic literacies. Furthermore, it extends our understanding of the advantages and challenges of systematic use of translanguaging and multimodality in teaching and learning EAP, and provides important implications for developing translanguaging and multimodal pedagogies for EAP.