Development of metalanguage for multimodal composing: A case study of an L2 writer’s design of multimedia texts

Abstract

This study investigates a sixth-grade L2 writer’s composition of digital multimodal texts, and his development of the metalanguage of modal and intermodal resources of language and image. Based on a systemic functional approach to multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA) and principles of sociosemiotic ethnography, it examines both the student’s composing processes and his composed texts. In the writing center of an inclusive sixth-grade classroom in a U.S. elementary school, the student created multimodal PowerPoint slides explaining the greenhouse effect, and Glogster-based multimedia texts arguing for banning guns. The collected data include the student’s texts, interview responses, and observation notes. Grounded in SF-MDA, the analytical framework draws on codes such as employed modes, modal resources, intermodal relations, and constructed meanings (i.e., ideational, interpersonal, and textual). The findings suggest that a) the student employed linguistic and visual modes in the mediums drawing on concurrence and complementarity intermodal relations; b) the student used non-linguistic resources for the ideational meanings of texts as a primary semiotic mode; and c) the student developed awareness of intermodal relations and metafunctions of sign systems in a non-linear way. The findings contribute valuable insights into understanding L2 learners’ development of metalanguage for multimodal composing.