Empowering Adolescent Emergent Readers in Government Schools: An Exploration of Multimodal Texts as Pathways to Comprehension

Abstract

ABSTRACT This exploratory study, which was part of a larger investigation into multimodality, looked at the comprehension levels of 62 Grade 8 students from two government schools who were identified as emerging readers out of a group of 118 students. Through observations and interactions with teachers and students, the potential for multimodal texts to enhance comprehension was highlighted. The study specifically compared the effectiveness of a digital comic (Text A) and an audio-visual text (Text B) in enabling comprehension among these emergent readers. Participants were instructed to narrate the content and share their interpretations of these texts, with their responses recorded and analyzed. Feedback revealed a marked preference for Text B among 45 of the 62 emergent readers assessed. Employing theoretical frameworks related to comprehension, language production, multimodality, and task structure, this research concentrated on the subset of 45 students who favored Text B. The findings underscore the importance of aligning instructional materials with students’ preferred learning modalities, suggesting that such alignment enhances comprehension. The study proposes a refined approach to literacy education policy, advocating for the inclusion of diverse modalities to better meet the varied learning needs of students.