Affordances and Constraints of Multimodal Writing Tasks

Abstract

The increasing prominence of digital technologies has promoted a shift in focus away from traditional writing practices towards more innovative practices in second language writing classrooms. As an innovative writing practice, multimodal writing refers to composing texts in different modes of communication that go beyond merely using alphabetic written words such as image, audio, and video by utilizing digital tools. Only over the last decade has the zeitgeist for explaining the use of multimodal writing tasks such as digital video production, academic posters, presentations, and digital comics in language classrooms grown rapidly in the literature. This book chapter therefore attempts to imbue in-service and pre-service English language teachers with the use of multimodal writing tasks by (i) providing an insight into their affordances and constraints, and (ii) teasing out recent attempts in the literature to assuage these constraints to promote further integration of multimodality into writing classrooms. More specifically, multimodal writing tasks provide such affordances as shaping learner identity, heightening motivation, fostering autonomy, providing a means for expressing emotions, developing metalanguage, and increasing self-revision behaviors. On the contrary, there are some concerns germane to their impact on language development, determining assessment criteria for these tasks, and teachers’ negative attitudes such as feeling resistant. At the end of the chapter, suggestions for pedagogical implications have been provided for language teachers as well as recommendations for digital tools.