Multi—modality Methodology in English Literary Teaching For English Major Undergraduate Students

Xing Wei-wei Cong Tian-luo

【Abstract】 The application of multi-modality approach in the area of education has been widely discussed and analyzed in recent years. This paper intends to discover the possibility and future of applying multi-modality research in English literary courses.

【Key Words】multi-modality; English literary course; teaching methodology

【基金项目】The paper is funded by projects supported by Scientific Research Fund of Zhejiang Provincial Education Department ， China， project Y201328553  and project Y201432129.

【中圖分类号】G42 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】2095-3089（2014）10-0034-02

1.Introduction

Since the 1990s when modality was originally brought into Michael Hallidays study of functional grammar and when Gunther Kress and Theo Leeuwen incorporated the concept of multi？鄄modality into their discourse and social communication study， multi？鄄modality has been gaining great vitality in different fields of research. Its broad spread and use in various contrasting areas is partly due to its structural and systematic methodology， and partly to its nature of easy integration. Multi？鄄modality research is to take into consideration the combination of approaches in modes， such as sound， pictures， motions， taste， feelings and so on in the process of linguistic analysis.

English literature course is majorly compulsory for English major undergraduate students in Chinese universities. The importance  of literary reading and study to language learners is not to be discussed in this paper， but the emergent focus and concern for English college teachers should be their academic excellence as well as their teaching methodology， especially from the sense of attaining students interest and inviting their active involvement in better understanding of literary  works. In the past decades， college class lectures have been striving to follow technological innovations and take advantage of the facility of internet platforms. For English literary teaching， the over？鄄dependence on Powerpoint slides may lessen the real emphasis and significance of the content of lecture and thus takes counter effect; and on the other side， a natural integration of the technology within the essence of teaching will actually benefit class teaching and enhance interactive efficiency and effect.

2.Multi？鄄modality and research in teaching design

Multi？鄄modality research in linguistics is not introduced into Chinese academic reproach until the end of 20th century. It is an approach to study discourse and communication from various perspective of modality， i.e. sound， graphics， motion， taste and so on. To study multi？鄄modality in a rather narrower domain， people depend on myriads of codes in different discourse and communication contexts. Multi？鄄modality contexts may contain various systems of codes and different variants of codes， thus casting a rather promising future in modern linguistics and literature research. The earliest research in the area was led by top experts in linguistics in China， such as Hu Zhuanglin， zhu Yongsheng， Wang Lifei， Yang Xinzhang and etc.  To practice Kresss design of teaching by integrating multi？鄄modalities and modes teachers should focus more on exploring how teaching could be carried on in the future rather than retrospecting the past experiences. Design is to achieve the goal of discourse in a certain context by using multi modalities and combinations of modalities（Kress & van Leeuven：2001：5 ）.

The contextual theory of functional linguistics  contains three major elements. Firstly， the element of field refers to what is about， including contents and materials. Secondly， the element of tenor stands for the relationships between the participants. Fourthly， the element of mode represents the role of language in context. Thus in teaching context， the three elements may turn to be teaching contents， teacher？鄄student relationships and teaching conditions. Since two parts， i.e. the teacher and the student， are involved in the second element， a question pops out as who should play the leading role and to whom a greater part of importance should be attached. In the case Lewis put forward a series of fundamental principles. As to the teacher？鄄student relationship， twelve principles have been raised. For example， learning is more important than teaching， students should be put on priority rather than textbooks， and students should be encouraged to practice more. Lewis also put forward 14 principles in sense of language and language learning relationship. For example， language teaching is to teach language instead of knowledge， language learning should be cyclic and therefore teaching contents should be recurrent， and dynamic skills could only be pragmatic through practice. Professor Zhong Yong has developed his own teaching plan and has been carried it on for a long time in his Chinese learning class for Australian students in New South Wilson University. Professor Zhong based his student？鄄centered class upon Web 2.0 technology. In order to better manage his class toward the course objectives， he set some proactive teaching strategies， i.e. what the students are required， supposed， encouraged and awarded to do. Then the students should try to do their own part of work practicing and delivering their homework. For example， one team has made a clip of movie reading aloud their composition in Chinese while drawing a picture to present the theme and ideas in their writing. That should be a very good proof of multi？鄄modality teaching. To read aloud， is to arouse sense of hearing， to draw line by line is to arouse sense of sighting， and to make it into a movie and record every brushing ， is to arouse awareness of motion.

Space， facilities and tools， media and other teaching conveniences constitute teaching conditions， i.e. the third element. The physical conditions constrain directly to the choice of a certain or several modalities in class. The layout of the seats， for example， should comply with the characters of the teaching. Oval and round layout will allow closer contact and lessened distance in interact activities and in discussion among students and teachers. Projections， access to the Internet， video recorders， interpretation booths， microphone sets and etc will determine the options of multi modalities.

3.English literary teaching situations and problems

For a long time English literary course are positioned as an ambiguous role for English Major undergraduates. The first thing to make clear has been ignored in order to cater to prevalent pressure of various English ability tests. For undergraduate students， the author holds that the primary purpose of English literary course is to invite students independent thinking， imagination in combination of close text reading but not to teach knowledge about literary history or literary theories. The latter should not be totally neglected instead. There have been controversies in English literary teaching for undergraduate students， i.e. whether to incorporate literary theory into the course. Some hold the idea that only with literary theories can the literary analysis be carried on with depth and significance.

Teacher？鄄student relationship， as the second element， plays a very important role both in class and before the class. The teachers prepared knowledge of their students and their characters may help to produce a manageable and harmonious relationship. English as a language can be taught， but literature as a form of art cant ， which means that lectures should avoid didactic teaching and tries to inspire students active imagination and understanding.

4.Multi？鄄modality teaching design in literary course

The main constraint element in teaching design is the teaching contents or the objectives， which should contain not only the targeted knowledge and theories that the teacher intend to cover in class but also the targeted skills， abilities and qualities that the students are supposed to obtain in the course. In the rhetorical framing theory raised by Kress and Leeuven （2001：51）， there are three attitudes in deciding the role of teaching contents in the teaching design. The first is presentation？鄄centered and the teacher is  to show by various means to the students how to do with the teaching contents; the second is textbook？鄄centered and the textbook is put into an authoritative position and the teacher is just to follow the design of the textbook and explain contents involved step by step; the third is practice？鄄centered in which case the student is given much more important role to play in class and are supposed to gain abilities and skills through experiences and practices. As to the design of literary course， the first thing to determine is certainly the teaching contents.

In traditional literary class， the teacher would just select an anthology as the textbook and then follow the books chapters. In that case， the teaching contents are mainly a chronological understanding of the literary development in America and Britain which is actually making the class dull and lack of imagination. Since the teaching contents are a decisive constraint element in teaching design， the first thing on priority should be the determination of the teaching contents. In the authors opinion， English literary course shouldnt fall into the fallacy of language skills training.To guarantee that， in the process of deciding the reading list， the teacher shall be cautious to resist with the temptation of great works with rather difficult expressions. For most of the undergraduate Chinese students in English major， literary course shall be a window and an access to lead them into the bigger world of western culture and history.

Thus， in literary course， the barrier of English as a foreign language should be minimized with great efforts. However， it doesnt mean that students English skills will benefit nothing in literary course. On the one hand， a better understand of foreign cultures will indirectly enhance students improvement of English abilities.

The process of teaching design basically include four steps. Firstly， to determine the teaching contents and objectives; secondly， to choose a certain design attitude out of three set by Kress and Leeuven; thirdly， to subdivide the teaching span into several phases with respective specific tasks， objectives and schedules; finally， to design characteristic and particular teaching methods for the whole teaching process  as well as the individual subdivided parts of phases. The last step is pivotal in pragmatic teaching when the teacher may apply multi？鄄modalities， such as oral， writing， Powerpoint language， blackboard presentation， graphics， charts， animation， action and etc. The application of multi？鄄modalities shall involve multi？鄄parts， i.e. the teacher and all of the students， with emphasis on one or several certain modalities that may fit into the specific teaching contents in class. The following are some optional modality applications in English literary courses that the author has tried in teaching experiences.

As to actual and virtual interactive platform after class， traditionally， there was the office hour when the students may have a face？鄄to？鄄face contact with the teacher after class. Now with virtual space built up universities in China are encouraging teachers and students to communicate on line through various virtual teaching platforms， such as Black Board platform. For English literary teachers， it allows a huge space to upload reading works， reference texts; for students， they may discuss freely about their reflections of their reading before class and after class. Brainstorming serves to be an effective way to inspire students ideas of their reading. The virtual platform provides access to communications at any time. The teacher may assign this job to a particular student or team， or drop  some open questions related with the reading to invoice response， for example， “How do you think of the characters in Tess of the Durbervilles？”， “Is Tess destined to death？ Which images imply that？ ”. The virtual platform will also function as the place for students to hand in their homeworks and for teachers to evaluate them.

As to the actual and virtual teaching space in class， i.e. the new space modes in todays education and technology， most universities have equipped their classrooms with computers， projectors， access to the Internet and etc. Especially for literary courses， as many canon works have been adapted and made into movies， teachers may play clips of relative movies for a better understanding of the works in the part of the students. Besides， teachers may also clip up parts of students discussion in the Black Board platform and encourage students further thoughts and explanations of their response to the questions. This is the combination between the first category and the second one.To transfer between the actual and virtual teaching space may create a fantasy atmosphere about the discussed literary works and invite students active imagination and involvement.

The teacher？鄄student relationship and the student？鄄student relationship are rather subtle. In traditional class， the teacher plays the leading role. By delicately and skillfully reverse the relationship， in modern classroom， students are being given more active power and thus more motivation to be the leading role. Its especially true with literary courses， where open interpretation is always encouraged. Students may make comments on each others ideas. And some teachers even let students play a role in evaluating each others performance. To manage to take advantage of peer pressure among students， teachers may find wonderful performances by students.

As to the specific method in teaching design， in traditional class， teachers and students mainly rely on reading between lines. Nowadays， they may choose to compare words with paintings， or with motion movies. For example， in a literary class about Imagism， students are encouraged to compare E.E.Cummings Imagist poem “A leaf falls loneliness” with minimalist paintings. Actually， by present ing paintings may arouse students imagination and emotions relevant with the designated readings. In literary class， students are also encouraged to play the stories in form of drama. The interplay provides the teacher with a good footnote to his or her comments. To apply cross？鄄cultural approach in this category may bring into class much fresh ideas and inspiration. For example， the teacher may advise students to read British poet， Wordsworths poetry along with Chines poet， Wang Weis poetry. The comparison does not require students to strictly follow comparative literature study methodology. Rather， the students are encouraged to learn the defamiliarized English Romanticist poetry， with the awareness of some similar traits with their familiar Chinese poetry. Students are also encouraged to resort to other channels of expression to present their understanding of the literary works， such as creative writing， painting， calligraphy etc. Multi？鄄modality approach is not constrained to arouse certain modes of senses or feelings， but also can be expanded into cross？鄄modality experiments.

5.Conclusion

Multi？鄄modality approach research now mostly focuses on courses of practical skills and abilities which rely on multi media classrooms. However， without high technology devices， multi？鄄modality approach is also feasible. Multi？鄄modality doesnt equal multi media. Multi？鄄modality can be broadly applied in sense of different modes of sense，  through different forms of arts and by different channels of expression.

References：

[1]Halliday， M.A.K. Language as Social Semiotic： The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning[M]. London： Edward Arnold， 1978.

[2]Kress， G.&T. van Leeuwen. Multimodal Discourse： The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication [M].London： Arnold， 2001.

[3]Lewis， M. Practical Techniques for Language Teaching[M]. Hove： Jimmie Hill， 1985.

作者簡介：

Xing Weiwei， Ph.D. student in Shanghai International Studies University， research on American and British literature.

Cong Tianluo， co？鄄corresponding author，  Lecturer，of College of International Studies， Zhejiang Gongshang University， research on education and technology， and education executive management.