‘I am not omniscient’: an autoethnography inquiry into a novice L2 teacher’s implementation of digital multimodal composing

Abstract

While much research has been conducted on the benefits of digital multimodal composing (DMC) projects from the perspective of second language (L2) students, little attention has been paid to L2 teachers, whose implementation of DMC projects in L2 writing contexts may be fraught with challenges. To address the niche, autoethnographic research was undertaken to uncover a novice L2 teacher’s experiences and struggles in DMC implementation, drawing on data from my memories and journals of lived experiences, Wechat messages with students, my PowerPoint (PPT) slides in instructing DMC projects, and student DMC samples. The results revealed that I, as a novice L2 teacher, faced challenges in implementing DMC in the Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing context, and the challenges included students’ misinterpretation of the DMC task; some students’ dislike and unpreparedness for collaborative learning tasks; the conflicts between DMC projects and the final exam and the standardized test; and my fear of showing incompetence in video making and editing. To address the challenges, I explored research articles, communicated with the researchers and students, and reflected on the hidden factors that contribute to the problem. This study draws attention to the reform of the exam-, print-, and language-oriented education system in the Chinese EFL writing context, and the incorporation of DMC and multiliteracies/multimodality pedagogy into writing teacher training programs.