Teaching Literacy Skills through Multimodal Texts

Document Type: Original Article doi: 10.22034/IEPA.2020.229693.1166 Iranian Journal of Learning and Memory 2020, 2 (8), 35-44 Teaching Literacy Skills through Multimodal Texts Marzieh Souzandehfar, Ph.D. Department of Translation Studies, Jahrom University, Jahrom, Fars, Iran Seyyed Mohammad Ali Soozandehfar, Ph.D. Department of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), University of Hormozgan, Bandar Abbas, Iran Abstract Multimodal Discourse is a theory of communication in multimedia. The notion of modes refers to semiotic resources which allow the simultaneous realization of discourses and types of (inter)action. Media are the material resources being used for the production such as music, language, and images. This study examined Iranian EFL learners’ perception of multimodal texts. The objective of the study was to examine how Iranian EFL learners utilized their general literacy practices and multimodal repertoires to develop their meaning-making process. The participants were 18 intermediate EFL learners attending Iran Language Institute (ILI), and were exposed to advertisement materials. They were asked to reconstruct their perceptions both visually and verbally. The participants’ responses were analyzed according to the social semiotics model suggested by Kress and van Leeuwen (2001). Results revealed that the participants made contextualized perceptions of the advertisement materials indicating their sociocultural framework. Moreover, applying multimodal knowledge, the students promoted their learning status via transformative self-affected strategies. Multimodal/multiliteracies pedagogy could promote EFL students' critical literacy practices to develop new worldviews and question the imposing discursive moments. Keywords: Literacy skills, multimodality, semiotics, socio-historical perspective Introduction In the process of evolution, life forms have received various detection channels, also called modes, such as vision, hearing, smell, taste and pain perception, etc. Mode is the form of information exchange between human brain and the environment. The theory of multimodal discourse analysis advocates that other sign systems than language are also sources of meaning. In interpersonal communication, when only one mode cannot specify the meaning of the speaker, other modes are necessary to improve and add more information to make the presentation of the speaker's meaning clearer and understandable (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001). The growing influence of multimedia technologies has changed what counts as texts and what it means to be literate (Bezemer, & Kress, 2015; Jewitt, 2005; Kao, Liao, & Lan, 2017; Kress & van Leeuwen, Corresponding Author Email: [email protected] Received: 04/03/2020 Accepted: 06/18/2020 2001). Likewise, the great variability of the English learners’ background has highlighted the significant contribution of multimodal/multilateralities (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2008). Students benefit from different educational capacities, different cultural conventions, different points of view and many learning techniques. While some are visually oriented, others prefer to learn through practical activities (Stein, 2004). Some students can perceive through visualizations, play music or posturing (Stein, 2004). In fact, due to the progress of multimedia, knowledge is not limited to reading and writing; rather, it is the potential to give meaning and to perceive various dispositions of the creation of meaning in different textual and contextual associations of disciplines or modes (Gee, 2003; Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996). In the same vein, the concept of text has now developed beyond textbooks involving various discursive modes manifested through diagrams, images, graphics, visualizations, the Internet, clips, games and other installations instigated by the Web. Therefore, while text technologies continue to offer more opportunities, 36 | P a g e teachers should challenge the use of textbooks as the only teaching materials for literacy and other school subjects (Ajayi, 2008). Kress (2001) made an entire criticism on the linguistic frameworks prevalent over the past decades. In line with Kress' (2001) viewpoint, a type of social semiotic method was applied in this study based on the multimodal issues concentrating on several styles of meaning-making. In the same vein, Bezemer and Kress (2008) studied a similar approach attempting to explore the premises of multimodal integration. Moreover, multimodality was a complicated subject for text evaluators in the past. Scholars have examined the link between diverse mediums, taking into account the evaluation of visualizations (Marchetti, & Valente, 2018; O’Halloran, 2004); perspectives (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006); and audio, rhythm, and tone (van Leeuwen, 1999). Accordingly, linguistic discourse is not the only or the major medium of negotiation of meaning. Today, it includes a broader scope of sign interpretation that affects visual negotiation in addition to reading and writing. Gee (2003) maintained that multiliteracies are beyond perceptive capabilities; i.e., being aware of a social moment entails the realization of some different performances, communications, evaluations, emotions, knowledge, materials, and technologies that build that social moment. In other words, knowledge rehearses are quite pertinent to the social networks elucidating the way a text should be studied, perceived, communicated, and put into practice in the authentic contexts. Accordingly, Gee (2003) asserted that knowledge and literacy is both context-bound and text-instigated. Kalantzis and Cope (2012) purported that the notion of multi-literacy stands for two significant facets of perceiving the intention. One deals with different social conventions, showing meaning in various culture-specific contexts. Indeed, texts differ contingent on the contextual features (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012). Next deals with a facet of interpretation of meaning with a focus on different modes of literacy (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012), i.e., interpretation can be dependent upon the alteration of textual modes germane to different types of intelligence. Similarly, the application of different textual modes within the class has prompted difficulties for EFL teachers in terms of the way to provide students with multiple intelligences with appropriate modes relevant to the particular educational moments. Dyson (2003) asserted that there is a significant divergence between the premises of multimodality and educational practices since knowledge promotion rarely pay much attention to such modal activities. In the similar vein, Jewitt's (2005) curriculum scrutiny indicated promotion just in Iranian Journal of Learning and Memory 2020, 2(8) the textual facet of knowledge (Jewitt, 2005). Also, Davies (2006) stated that the current curriculum cannot associate learners' knowledge with the modish multimodal text representation in the current educational trend. Therefore, one of the primary points for EFL teachers to consider might be the strategic way to insert different modes of texts, tasks, and practices that can corroborate the activation of EFL students' background knowledge, and link it to the new information (Ajayi, 2011; Bezemer & Kress, 2015). Research on the significant contribution of textual modes entailing multi-literacies in the EFL domain are restricted. Consequently, this investigation intends to illuminate the way an EFL context can be linked to and enhance the learners' meaning-making strategies via inducing the utilization of diverse representational modes of knowledge and practices. In other words, this study endeavors to see the way EFL learners negotiate meaning while facing an advertisement, as well as to elucidate their perception of it while engaging in multimodal texts. This study focused on the semiotics of advertisement. Advertisements are not simply informative texts about a product. Rather, they are social symbolic information that shape cultural tendencies within society. They inform people about what they must buy to become fashionable, successful and popular while persuading them to certain products to achieve these goals (Christelle, 2012). They are one aspect of multi-modal communication, which are influenced by culture. Mass – media and culture are closely related and are inseparable, culture provides mass media with sources for contents and all contents should be derived from culture; otherwise, they cannot be understood (Gowda, 2011). Informed by systemic functional linguistics, the theory of multimodal discourse analysis considers sign systems as sources of meaning. For Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), visual images, like language, fill the metafunctions of the representation of the experiential world (representational sense), the interaction between participants with a visual design and its viewers (interactive sense), and the compositional arrangements of visual resources (compositional sense). This model is illustrated below in Figure 1. Souzandehfar et al.  Teaching Literacy Skills … P a g e | 37 dependability and trustworthiness of the results (Hammersley, 1990). Unlike reliability in quantitative research which has to do with consistency of behavior or the extent to which data and findings would generate similar results if the study were replicated, qualitative studies expect variability, because the context of studies changes (Lodico, Spaulding, & Voegtle, 2010). Thus, consistency is looked at as the extent to which variation can be tracked or explained (Ary, et al., 2002). This is referred to as dependability. Thus, inter-coder comparison was used to ensure the dependability of the results in this study. Participants Figure 1. Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) Model This qualitative study was motivated by the fact that in most of the previous studies, the leaner perspectives used to be measured based on quantitative satisfaction surveys which are aimed at measuring generic pedagogical, curriculum, and assessment aspects of a course (Zander & Zander, 2000). There is scarcity of research which investigates students’ “lived experiences” of a course. Lived experiences refer to the life-centric moments in which students are at the peak of their performance, when the learning experiences are working (Yates, 2004). As a qualitative study, the present research investigated the following research questions: 1. How does the application of different textual modes contribute to rendering the meaning? 2. How does the text-mode developer's identity affect the selection of that particular mode of rendering? 3. How does the visualization of spoken texts affect knowledge formation and practice? 4. What significant strategies do EFL learners develop while applying different textual modes? Method This study is considered applied research in terms of function and qualitative research in terms of approach. The aim of qualitative research is to facilitate the deeper understanding of the phenomena (Gorard, & Taylor 2004). A very important concern in a qualitative piece of research is to enhance the The participants were 18 intermediate EFL learners from Iran Language Institute (ILI). For identification purposes, each student was assigned a number. They used English only when they were in class and they claimed that they often take advantage of TV materials, lyrics, and books as well. Instruments Cyrus Cylinder Pen Advertisement was used as a multimodal text to teach and practice the literacy skills. For a while, advertisements on mass media about a new brand of pen, known as Europen, attracted the attention of many Iranians. The advertisements with different styles integrating various modes of presentation, including language, animation, picture, color, space, and typography were broadcast on television, radio, the Internet, newspaper, etc. Europen products were available in varied designs, shapes, colors, and sizes. Furthermore, expensive materials such as gold and diamond were used in the production of those products. Figure 1 depicts one special design of this product known as Cyrus Cylinder pen. The golden parts of the pen are made up of genuine gold. Furthermore, a piece of genuine diamond was placed on top of the pen. The most special thing about this pen is the lid, which is designed after the Cyrus Cylinder with the words of Cyrus written on it. As it is shown in the advertisement, this special design is produced in limited edition. 38 | P a g e Iranian Journal of Learning and Memory 2020, 2(8) and grammar lessons, with marginal chances offered for speaking and conversation practice. In session five, the researcher/teacher employed a multimodal text for teaching. The whole experience lasted four weeks. At the end of the experiment, the language learners were asked to talk about the text in question and draw a picture to represent their understanding of the text. Data Collection Procedure Figure 2. Cyrus Cylinder Pen Advertisement The text in Figure 2 combines the visual and linguistic modes in an extremely delicate way to advertise this product. The image of the Cyrus Cylinder at the bottom of the figure and its reproduction on the golden lid of the pen connects the Iranian rich culture to the users of the pen. In fact, the advertisement implies that the users of the pen can identify themselves as those who follow the precious words of Cyrus about human rights. Furthermore, the gold and diamond used in the design of the pen restrict the users to a special class of the society, the rich. Thus, although the pen has been specifically designed by and for Iranian customers, 90% of the language used for the advertisement is English rather than Persian. In addition, the brand name, Europen, starts with €, the symbol used for the currency of the European countries. The fact is that the product is advertised in mass media by the same name written in Persian alphabet, "‫"یوروپن‬, which is so strange. Procedure At the outset, the participants in this study attended their usual English proficiency classes at Iran Language Institute, focusing mainly on reading and grammar. Each week, they had four hours of reading Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. Thus, the participants were asked to speak about particular experiences within the course about the multimodal text. A semi-structured oral interview was given to the participants. Participants’ verbal responses and elaborations were audiotaped and transcribed for analysis. During the class hour the learners were asked about their past experiences about TV or newspaper advertisements. Afterwards, they expressed their ideas about their pens and the brands they like as well as some justifications and reasons in this regard. Then, they were exposed to a copy of a Cyrus Cylinder pen advertisement. They were asked to collaborate with one another and interpret the text, the picture, and the visual design of the advertisement. Subsequently, they expressed their criticisms on the way advertisements persuade people to buy the products. Ultimately, they delineated and visualized their perceptions and wrote some respective explanations about their visualizations. Data Analysis According to Kress and van Leeuwen's (2001) analytical framework in terms of social semiotics, centered around the concept of multimodality, the scrutiny in this study was performed. The scrutiny involved the analysis of the visualizations and different modes of making the respective meaning based on the multimodal criteria in the framework including pictorial-interaction, writing-layout, metafunction, stimulated-symbol, and sign-creator's interest-background criteria. According to the principles of the framework, learners utilize various styles of rendering their ideas. They apply specific symbols to illustrate their manner and attitude regarding the respective advertisement. Their effort to perceive and interpret is context-bound. In fact, diverse styles of representation of interest create an optimal underpinning for making a link to their sociocultural backgrounds Souzandehfar et al.  Teaching Literacy Skills … Findings Cyrus Cylinder, yellow to show the golden color of that part. The student conveyed her message more through the facial expression of the girls and the colors she used in a particular way. For example, the two girls were smiling in the figure, showing that both of them were satisfied with the P a g e | 39 advertisement in her own experiences of life where prestige and money is important. Figure 4. Pens as Important Tools Figure 3. Pen as a Birthday Present The illustrator of Figure 3, through the integration of text, color, and visual image conveyed a compositional message which included a birthday party in which the self-portrait of the girl is giving the pen as a present to her friend. The student colored the upper part of the pen, which is the Cyrus Cylinder, yellow to show the golden color of that part. The student conveyed her message more through the facial expression of the girls and the colors she used in a particular way. For example, the two girls were smiling in the figure, showing that both of them were satisfied with the pen as a birthday present. This is more evident when one notices that the pen and the box in which the pen is placed are both shining which is shown through yellow rays around them. When the teacher asked the illustrator of figure 2 to explain the drawing to the class, she told her classmates that she thought “this pen with golden Cyrus Cylinder on it is the best gift for a friend’s birthday.” She also added “it is very prestigious because it is golden and also because it has Cyrus Cylinder on it.” This “prestigious” idea is confirmed when one notices that the illustrator has drawn herself wearing gold earrings, a gold necklace and bracelet. In this case, the student reflected and situated the meaning of the pen In Figure 4, the student represented her interpretation of the advertisement by using perspective to distinguish between the past and present time. In this drawing, the beginning of the road indicates the present time where a girl is writing something on a piece of paper with a pen. At the end of the road, the same girl who has become an old woman is again writing something on a piece of paper. However, this time the pen she is writing with is the Cyrus Cylinder pen. When the teacher asked the student to explain her drawing, she said “the pen is an important thing for learning and knowledge. As we have more and more knowledge and experience, we deserve to have a better and better pen to write with. Those who have the most knowledge should use the Cyrus Cylinder pen.” Furthermore, when she was asked about the sun at the end of the road, she replied that the sun was the symbol of wisdom and experience which had the same color as the golden Cyrus Cylinder on the pen the old woman is writing with. In fact, through this drawing the student tried to communicate her message – the important role of pen in gaining both knowledge and other qualifications - to the audience. The student, rather than relying only on language, used shape, color, and some drawing techniques, like perspective, to express her interpretation of the advertisement and also to produce new meanings. This suggests that these adolescents do not read multimodal texts uncritically; rather, they 40 | P a g e interpret meanings that match their interests and identities According to Ajayi (2008), advertisements can vigorously prompt a gradual shaping of the self since the textual exposures might influence the performances of adolescents in social semiosis. In particular, such texts can assist adolescents to gain personal values. Figures 4 and 5 reveal two students' identities types reflected in their interpretations of the Cyrus Cylinder pen advertisement. Figure 5. Student’s Interest in Simplicity In Figure 5, except for the Cyrus Cylinder which was colored yellow, other parts of the drawing had no color. When the student intended to elucidate her visualization, she explained, “Cyrus Cylinder and the words written on it are so important that even gold is not enough for that. Cyrus is a great man in history and his words are so valuable, but a pen should be simple.” In fact, this student appreciated simplicity in life. That’s why the pen had no color; i.e., lack of color was a symbol of simplicity for this student. But a simple pen can write valuable words, like Sa'di’s – the Iranian poet – famous verse written by this pen in the drawing, i.e., "human beings are similar to different organs of a body; they are created from the same nature; when one organ hurts, other organs hurt as well." She believed that Cyrus was also the manifestation of simplicity, thus his portrait in her drawing lacks color, too. The most significant message of her drawing was placed on the right side of the paper, as the new information to which viewers should pay attention. She believed “the money of the gold in the pen should be given to poor people and the Iranian Journal of Learning and Memory 2020, 2(8) disabled,” as is drawn in the figure. In fact, the Cyrus Cylinder pen advertisement caused the student to follow the features of Cyrus and illuminate it in a textual manner; i.e., the selection of particular symbols, encompassing the appearance of the text in addition to the written form can entail changes in the creator's personality features. This issue indicates that the application of different textual modes can be conducive to the facilitation of learners' imagination and development of novel worldviews and as a result transformation of self. Figure 6. Student’s Global Identity The illustrator of Figure 5 integrated both visual and verbal modes to produce a multimodal text. The illustrator drew a boy holding a big green pen with the name “World Pen” on it in his arms, while he is kicking the name “Europen” which is the brand name of the pen and by which the pen is advertised on Iranian channels on TVs and radios throughout the country. When the teacher curiously asked why the student had drawn such a picture, she answered, “Cyrus was Iranian and wrote human rights on the cylinder for all humans. So the name of this pen should be ‘World Pen’ and not Europen.” The upper part of the pen, the Cyrus Cylinder, is colored dark green and the rest light green. When the teacher asked the reason, the student answered, “The color green is the symbol of life and happiness. The cylinder is dark green which means it is full of life and happiness and it can spread this green color to other parts of the world (here, other parts of the pen) and make them green, too.” Taking a critical stand, the student shows both her patriotic identity and global identity. Souzandehfar et al.  Teaching Literacy Skills … The entanglement of various textual modes revealed that the producers had diverse viewpoints in their creation and imagination (Figures 6 & 7). The style of the visualizations elucidated different interpretations of the texts applying unique forms of imagination mediated by text, picture, and imaginary visualizations. The creator of Figure 6 utilized the paradoxical information to organize the connection between the text and its visualization. P a g e | 41 the prestige it brought for him and the social class with which he could identify himself. However, in practice, a completely different thing happens. But the case of the second man is totally different. He is holding a very simple pen, with no color, in his right hand but the words he had written with this pen were so valuable that they were shining like a piece of gold. The words read “Humans are the same.” Furthermore, unlike the first man, who was holding a sword, the second one was holding a flower in his left hand which was the symbol of humanity and observing human rights. Figure 7. Two Different Views on Pen The student stated that she utilized the textual information to develop a visual connection between the two depicted men. Moreover, Figure 7 reveals different techniques the students applied to develop the texts via the critical assistance of multimodality. In other words, the students selected some initial strategies, i.e., they used visualizations first and then produced written texts or vice versa. Also, they selected diverse strategies to integrate text, picture, and organizational issues for rendering the interpretation. Thus, the form of meaning negotiation might be basically divergent manifested in different modes of textual visualization. During the presentation, the teacher asked the illustrator of figure 6 why she drew the first man in new and neat clothes and with shoes but the other one in old clothes as the patches on his shirts and pants indicate and also he was wearing no shoes. She explained that the first man was rich and was able to buy the golden Cyrus Cylinder pen which was in his right hand, but as the sword in his left hand suggests, he did not follow Cyrus’s words on the pen and violated the human rights. He bought the pen just for Figure 8. New Ideas for Advertising a Pen The illustrator of figure 8 explained “it’s a very professional trading because this Cyrus Cylinder pen with these features satisfies everybody especially Iranian people. But I prefer to add the image of the Winged Man to this pen” The image of the Winged Man along with Zarathustra’s famous phrases, “Good Thoughts, Good Words, and Good Behaviors,” in Persian are depicted in figure 7. The student’s explanations were important for at least two reasons. First, the student appeared to perceive that the selection of efficient textual modes was a crucial element in developing particular influences on the appearance as well as the intention of the text. Second, the student’s choice of particular images - like the Winged Man in figure 7 - to render her understanding indicated a prevalent perception of the advertisement job in the wider social environment. Furthermore, through an intricate use of symbolic structures, the illustrators of the figures in this section applied their cultural knowledge to design visual 42 | P a g e symbols to convey messages. The illustrator of Figure 8 communicated a symbolic meaning (a meaning that goes beyond the material representation of the image) on her interpretation of the text. Through foregrounding, specific hairstyles, and types of clothing, the illustrators depicted the images in Figures 8 and 9 as salient. The images had cultural symbolic values-the individuals in the frames were fashionable, belonged to a distinctive social class, and had markers of personal identity. Iranian Journal of Learning and Memory 2020, 2(8) interpretations and negotiations connected with the utilization of different textual modes with regard to comprehension of the text. The students illustrated that the application of different modes entailed a promotion in the learning process leading to a kind of transformation of their selves. Figure 10. Guy Modeling for Advertisement Figure 9. Type of Pen and Social Class In her written explanation of the drawing, the illustrator of Figure 9 noted that the advertisement industry used "colorful and attractive images so that people could buy it .... So the people that are making the Cyrus Cylinder pens are getting a lot of money. Those people are getting rich...." After reading her sentences, I asked the illustrator to explain what she meant by these comments. She told the class that she knew that many products were not as good as their advertisements presented them to be to the public. She added, "it is about making more money and more money." The student's drawing and comments raised some important issues. The drawing indicated that the utilization of textual advertisement in the pedagogical context can function as a reasonable strategy to integrate the educational setting into wider social environment. Indeed, the student criticized the producers' intentions to impose their goods. Besides, several students mentioned their collaborative techniques (Gee, 2003) applied as critical for their perceptions of the advertisement. In other words, the students took into account the collective In figure 10, the illustrator has associated the Cyrus Cylinder pen with a particular social group as it is shown through the special hair style of the man in the picture. When the illustrator was asked to explain her drawing, she said “young people who have the same hair style are more encouraged to buy the Cyrus Cylinder pen when they see it in the hands of people like themselves.” This comment once again showed the transformative style of literacy learning. Discussion and Conclusion The findings of the study indicated that the students applied diverse symbols, texts, and visualization techniques to show their perceptions of the advertisement and also to develop novel understandings as well as to render their favors. This issue can be in line with Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2001) framework which takes into account each individual as a rich repertoire of verbal and nonverbal tools to express their thoughts and feelings towards a phenomenon. In fact, as Kalantzis and Cope (2012) argued, due to the exposition of individuals to novel ideas and interactions, understanding occurs in different mediums. Furthermore, the fact that the language learners created new worlds and form new personality features indicates that there is a reciprocal Souzandehfar et al.  Teaching Literacy Skills … connection between the students' interpretations and textual modes in such a way that multimodal texts both shape and are shaped by the learners. This verifies Ajayi’s (2008) claim that multimodal texts, and in particular advertisements, are powerful tools of identity formation, in line with Kress and van Leeuwen’s (1996, 2001) ideologies on entertaining context-bound meaning negotiation and rendering within sociocultural contexts. As Iranian learners of English, the students showed their Iranian identities in the understanding and production of the material. They applied various styles of rendering associated with sociocultural facets of their Iranian identities. This is exactly in line with the first aspect of meaningmaking of Kalantzis and Cope’s (2012) “multiliteracies”; that is, individuals’ materials alter contigent upon the topic, background, context, and the particular sociocultural information required. In addition, as Kress and van Leeuwen (1996, 2001) claimed, different modes provided affordances regarding the form of information and pedagogical activities in the classroom. In fact, taking multiple paths by the learners to compose their texts reveals the way different modes provoke learners’ creativity in placing new and old information on different parts of their texts. This is far away from the very limited and linguistic view of literacy and a sequential and linear view of reading and writing skills (Ajayi, 2011; Bezemer & Kress, 2015; Jewitt, 2005). Finally, various modes empowered the students to have critical literacy practices through taking part in class discussion over the topic and sharing their views with their classmates. That is, pedagogical processes were performed in a way that was dynamic and influenced their personalities. This is because, as Davies (2006) and Kalantzis and Cope (2012) asserted, multimodal texts are authentic texts with which the students deal in their everyday life. In fact, multimodal texts create a link between students' in-class and out-of-the-class literacy practices through a tangible way of understanding the surrounding events in their society. This result is a kind of literacy practice which according to Kalantzis and Cope (2012) is called “situated” literacy. That is, multimodal texts are mediating tools for situating classroom literacy practices in the social, cultural, and political contexts in which the students live. As a result of this authenticity of the multimodal texts, the learners are encouraged to take more active participation in the discussions and critical literacy practices in the classroom. This appropriately empowers the students to read the multimodal texts they encounter out of the class more critically and find the underlying ideologies of the texts through critical discourse analysis. P a g e | 43 Furthermore, they become more skillful in expressing their own ideologies through getting familiar with techniques and strategies of producing multimodal texts. In this way, “understanding” and “producing” multimodal texts can appropriately replace the traditional terms of “reading” and “writing” in classroom literacy practices. This study was intended to explore the semiotic elements that EFL students in Iran Language Institute (ILI) applied to perceive advertising material and the way they utilized visualizations to transfer their perceptions. The students recognized the intentions of the texts in particular settings indicating their sociocultural backgrounds. Also, they perceived the texts in novel ways and developed new imaginations showing their idiosyncratic favors as formed by their experiences. Besides, the students illustrated that the application of different modes entailed the power to improve educational abilities. Moreover, the utilization of multimodal education led the students to go through text interpretation from diverse critical stances. In other words, this study indicated that such an education could promote critical thinking via suggesting EFL students some techniques to develop new personality features and criticize dominant contextualized activities. According to the results of this study, which revealed the transformative potential of multimodal texts, the integration of such texts with English/literacy and content area materials is strongly recommended. This issue shows that the scope of such an education should be expanded beyond textual interaction. Also, multimodal pedagogy should be integrated into conventional forms, especially through computer-assisted and web-based technologies (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012). Also, as Kalantzis and Cope (2012) purported, it is critical that the current pedagogy not merely concentrate on the principles of one form of text. According to Ajayi (2008), as text technologies proceed to provide more spaces, teachers should criticize the utilization of mere textbooks as the only pedagogical tool. All teachers need to think in a multimodal way as they tend to select materials for their students. In addition, textual modes are excellent facilities for inducing critical thinking. For instance, teachers can stimulate learners to scrutinize, perceive, and criticize commercials to diagnose the intentions behind their generation. This issue will prompt students to put simple understandings of the texts under question and instead analyze them according to the network of their experiences and viewpoints. Finally, as New London Group (1996) stated, EFL/ESL teachers might require supplementary training in using different modes of teaching. 44 | P a g e Researchers should also consider developing an analytical "tool kit" or metalanguage for multimodal pedagogy. The outcomes of this study may be noteworthy for providers of teacher training programs. However, due to time and practical limitations, the volume of the studied corpus was limited. So, further research should be done with a bigger and more diverse corpus to enhance the findings of the study. References Ajayi, L. (2008). Meaning-making, multimodal representation, and transformative pedagogy: An exploration of meaning construction instructional practices in an ESL high school classroom. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 7(3&4), 206-229. Ajayi, L. (2011). A multiliteracies pedagogy: Exploring semiotic possibilities of a Disney video in a third grade diverse classroom. 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