Using multimodal resources to design EFL classroom lead-ins—A multimodal pedagogical stylistics perspective

Abstract

The study explores the ways EFL teachers use multimodal resources to design classroom lead-ins on the basis of multimodal stylistic analyses of the lead-ins in six award-winning classroom demonstrations. Results show that verbal mode and image mode are mainly used in the lead-ins to establish cognitive framework for the new teaching topics, and body language, such as eye movements, facial expressions, and gestures, is particularly important in attracting students’ attention and motivate their participation. The foregrounded complementary reinforcement relationships within the multimodal ensembles in the lead-ins play significant roles in designing students’ learning experiences. Discussions on the multimodal stylistic features and their teaching effects also indicate that topic relevance, closeness to life, mode conciseness, proper use of body language, complementary reinforcement within mode ensembles, and dynamicity of mode choices are general guidelines for the design of effective multimodal classroom lead-ins. The study not only verifies the effectiveness of the multimodal pedagogical stylistic theory but also provides feasible implications for the design and implementation of multimodal classroom lead-ins in EFL teaching.