Abstract
This original research study aimed to explore how material design mediates teaching strategies among teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL) when teaching collocations. The study was undertaken in Macau, China, with eight ESL teachers teaching verb + preposition collocations to intact classes of university students. Four teachers were given multimodal materials with text and contextualized still images while the other four had text-only materials. After the lessons, individual in-depth interviews were conducted with the teachers about how they had conducted the lessons, to gain an emic, retrospective narrative of the key factors perceived as affecting teaching decisions within specific classrooms.
The results showed that within the ecology of the classrooms, particular material designs influenced teaching strategies in consistent patterns. Teachers using multi-modal materials made use of both affordances and constraints the images provided to provide further examples and engage students in free production tasks. However, teachers using text-only materials focused on defining key words. Thus, contextualized images influence teachers to promote interactive engagement in understanding nuanced social and symbolic meanings embodied in the language items (van Lier, The handbook of educational linguistics. Blackwell Publishing, 2008) rather than treating them as static products.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anderson, J. (2017). A potted history of PPP with the help of ELT Journal. ELT Journal, 71(2), 218–227.
Bamberg, M. (2012). Narrative analysis. In H. Cooper, P. M. Camic, D. L. Long, A. T. Panter, D. Rindskopf, & K. Sher (Eds.), APA handbook of research methods in psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 85–102). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/13620-006
Criado, R. (2013). A critical review of the presentation-practice-production model (PPP) in foreign language teaching. In R. Monroy (Ed.), Homenaje a francisco gutiérrez díez (pp. 97–115). Editum.
Dörnyei, Z. (2014). Researching complex dynamic systems: ‘Retrodictive qualitative modeling’ in the language classroom. Language Teaching, 47(1), 80–91. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444811000516
Early, M., Kendrick, M., & Potts, D. (2015). Multimodality: Out from the margins of English language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 49(3), 447–460. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.246
Frenzel, A. C., Goetz, T., Lüdtke, O., Pekrun, R., & Sutton, R. E. (2009). Emotional transmission in the classroom: Exploring the relationship between teacher and student enjoyment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(3), 705–716. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014695
Godwin-Jones, R. (2018). Contextualized vocabulary learning. Language Learning & Technology, 22(3), 1–19. https://doi.org/10125/44651.
Guerrettaz, A. M., & Johnston, B. (2013). Materials in the classroom ecology. The Modern Language Journal, 97(3), 779–796. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2013.12027.x
Harwood, N. (2014). English language teaching textbooks: Content, consumption, and production. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137276285
Heibert, J., & Stigler, J. (2009). The teaching gap: Best ideas from the world’s teachers for improving education in the classroom. Simon and Schuster.
Jewitt, C. (2008). Multimodality and literacy in school classrooms. Review of Research in Education, 32(1), 241–267. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X07310586
Kaur, S., Ganapathy, M., & Sidhu, G. K. (2012). Designing learning elements using the multiliteracies approach in an ESL writing classroom. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature®, 18(3), 119–134.
Laufer, B. (2017). From word parts to full texts: Searching for effective methods of vocabulary learning. Language Teaching Research, 21(1), 5–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168816683118
Liu, Z. M. (2012). Digital reading: An overview. Chinese Journal of Library and Information Science, 5(1), 85–94.
Masuhara, H. (2011). What do teachers really want from coursebooks? In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials development in language teaching (2nd ed., pp. 236–266). Cambridge University Press.
Maxwell, J. A. (2013). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach (3rd ed.). Sage.
McDonough, J., & Shaw, C. (2012). Materials and methods in ELT. Wiley.
McGrath, I. (2014). Teaching materials and the roles of EFL/ESL teachers: Practice and theory. Bloomsbury.
Menkabu, A., & Harwood, N. (2014). Teachers’ conceptualization and use of the textbook on a medical English course. In N. Harwood (Ed.), English language teaching textbooks (pp. 145–177). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137276285_5
Mills, K. A. (2015). Literacy theories for the digital age: Social, critical, multimodal, spatial, material and sensory lenses. Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783094639
Morgan, B., & Martin, I. (2014). Toward a research agenda for classroom-as-ecosystem. The Modern Language Journal, 98(2), 667–670. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2013.12027.x
Murcia, K. (2014). Interactive and multimodal pedagogy: A case study of how teachers and students use interactive whiteboard technology in primary science. Australian Journal of Education, 58(1), 74–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004944113517834
Nezhad, G. R. H. P., & Shokrpour, N. (2012). The impact of task type and cognitive style on vocabulary learning. English Language Teaching, 5(9), 17–23. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v5n9p17
Norris, S. (2004). Analyzing multimodal interaction: A methodological framework. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203379493
Piribabadi, A., & Rahmany, R. (2014). Effect of the keyword method and word-list method instruction on ESP vocabulary learning. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 5(5), 1110–1115. https://doi.org/10.4304/jltr.5.5.1110-1115
Schmidt, R. (2010). Attention, awareness, and individual differences in language learning. In W. M. Chan, S. Chi, K. N. Cin, J. Istanto, M. Nagami, J. W. Sew, T. Suthiwan, & I. Walker (Eds.), Proceedings of CLaSIC 2010, Singapore, December 2–4 (pp. 721–737). National University of Singapore, Centre for Language Studies.
Seven, M. A., & Engin, A. O. (2007). The importance and effect of using aid materials in foreign language teaching. Retrieved from ERIC database. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED497456.
Tang, E. (2012). To teach more or more to teach: Vocabulary-based instruction in the Chinese EFL classroom. The Asian EFL Journal, 14(1), 254–297.
Tomlinson, B. (2011). Seeing what they mean: Helping L2 readers to visualise. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials development in language teaching (2nd ed., pp. 357–378). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444811000528
van Lier, L. (2004). The ecology and semiotics of language learning: A sociocultural perspective. Springer.
van Lier, L. (2008). Ecological-semiotic perspectives on educational linguistics. In B. Spolsky & F. M. Hult (Eds.), The handbook of educational linguistics (pp. 597–605). Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470694138.ch42
van Lier, L. (2010). The ecology of language learning: Practice to theory, theory to practice. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 3, 2–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.07.005
Yates, J. (2011). The ins and outs of prepositions (2nd ed.). Barron’s.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Eddy U, M.E. (2022). How Teaching Strategies Are Mediated by Contextualized Images in Teaching Materials. In: LaScotte, D.K., Mathieu, C.S., David, S.S. (eds) New Perspectives on Material Mediation in Language Learner Pedagogy. Educational Linguistics, vol 56. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98116-7_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98116-7_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-98115-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-98116-7
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)