A Multimodal Approach to Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) in the Digital World

Introduction

The call to engage student language learning through a multimodal approach is not new (New London Group, 1996; Wess-Powell et al., 2016; Yi, 2014). The call to implement digital technologies to engage students in language learning is not new either (Rance-Roney, 2010; Smythe & Neufeld, 2010; Yi & Angay-Crowder, 2016). However, during the intervening years, it has been argued that the term “digital technology” and associated terms like “multimedia” have attached themselves interchangeably with multimodal and multimodality as Early et al. (2015, p. 454) alerted, “With emerging media and technologies, multimodality is often considered as digital, but ‘multimodality is not synonymous with the digital.’”

This argument appears to have continued post-COVID 19, which saw the critical importance of digital technologies in the education of Australian children during lockdowns. In some cases, this tendency to blur the boundaries between digital technology, multimedia, and multimodality has created contention around “what is” multimodality and the forms of its practical realities in classrooms.

While second language education hinged on implementing digital technologies is receiving traction in the current literature (Jiang & Ren, 2021; Xu et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2021), re-establishing the essence of multimodalities and multimodal pedagogy should be kept in sight. In defining what constitutes a mode, Lee et al. (2021) contend that:

The points of reference are that multimodality refers to meaning accessed through these modes, whereas multimedia is the technology or digital platform (channel) that enables the multimodal “text” to be presented in an interesting, engaging, or interactive format. The multimodal phenomena exist (in terms of lesson planning and preparation) and have existed (across time) before digital technology and modern multimedia was created and enacted as the presentation method. The research reported in this article is situated within this premise. Multimodality is clearly distinguished from digital technologies, multimedia, and associated presentation formats, platforms, and terms.

In reviewing second language education literature containing the key terms “multimodal” or “multimodal approaches,” the studies revealed two major trends – investigating teaching and learning strategies that involved a predominantly digital approach and a prevailing research methodology based on collecting data related to the participants’ opinions. In Chinese as a second language (CSL) and English as a second language (ESL) research with a title or key focus on “multimodal,” a literature search resulted in publications predominantly related to digital technology. Similarly, the term “multimodality” appears to be synonymous with digital technology and digital literacy. There appears to be a paucity of research focused on Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) practice and/or interventions implementing a multimodal approach in contrast to the trending of those with a focus on digital technologies.