Literature Review 范例

A Literature Review of An Empirical Study of

Multimodal Teaching Model in

Middle School English Listening Teaching in a Multimedia Context

In

recent

years,

the

theories

of

multimodal

discourse

and

multimodality

have

gained

many

scholars

’

attention.

Many

researchers

study

them

and

try

to

apply

multimodal

teaching

to

middle

school

s’

teaching.

And

nowadays,

many

famous

language

scholars

are

trying

their

best

to

do

the

empirical

study

on

the

multimodal

teaching.

As

a

matter

of

fact,

many

noted

researchers

have

made

a

brief

definition

of

multimodality.

“M

ultimodality

means

the

combination

of

different

semiotic

modes---for

example,

language

and

music---in

a

communicative

artifact

or

event

”

(Kress & Leeuwen 1996: 281).

“M

ultimodality refers to the diverse ways in which a

number

of

distinct

semiotic

resource

system

are

both

codeployed

and

cocontextualized in the making of a text-specific meaning

”

(Baldry & Thibault 2006:

21).

Since the 1990s of last century, the multimodal teaching approach has drawn the

researchers

’

and

the

teachers

’

attention

in

abroad.

As

a

matter

of

fact,

the

term

“

multimodal

”

was put forward by the New London Group in 1990, and it was the first

time

for

people

to

hear

this

term.

Then

a

book

called

Reading

Image

which

systematically established the analysis model of social semiotic multimode (Kress &

Leeuwen 1996: 68). In this book, it is first time to explain the grammar designed by

vision systematically and survey the way that the pictures transmit the meaning. The

author also quoted many examples to explain, such as child drawing, text-cut, camera

pictures, and so on. This book supplies a very valuable theoretical instrument.

The development of the research of the multimodal discourse and text gives a

strong

supporting

for

the

evolution

of

multimodal

teaching.

Unsworth

posed

the

foundational

theoretical

knowledge

of

important

textbook.

He

believed

the

teacher

should

have

the

knowledge

of

vision

and

discourse

grammar

and

the

ability

of

the

computer

assisted

learning

which

can

meet

the

requirements

of

teaching

with

the

newly-minted

electronic

texts

and

images

(Unsworth

2001).

The

book

Perspectives

on Multimodality

which published in 2004 gave a guide to the multimodal research

and the construction of the multimodal theory (Ventola & Charles 2004). In this book,

the

author

carefully

explained

the

multimodal

discourse

theory

and

the

methodological

problem,

such

as

the

levels

of

the

modes,

the

source

of

the

mode

symbols, and the annotation of the database of six multimodal discourses. In another

book,

The

Multimodal

Discourse

Analysis

which

was

mainly

edited

by

Halloran

in

2004,

the

author

collected

the

leading-edge

research

that

is

the

production

of

multimodal

text

and

discourse

through

two

or

even

more

models

of

symbolic

communication

and

connection,

such

as

the

language,

dynamic

and

static

visual

images, architecture and three- dimensional bodies (Halloran 2004). They are a series

of case studies which use the framework of systemic-functional grammar to research

how the meaning produces.

From what have been mentioned above, the research on multimodality indicates

a

great

increasing

in

abroad.

There

are

many

well-known

researchers

study

multimodality and multimodal teaching. Moreover, the attempts to the application of

multimodality

to

education

have

been

carried

out

more

systematically

and

scientifically.

Scholars in China also did many experiments and researches in recent years. The

introducer of domestic multimodality theory, Professor Gu Yueguo, has constructed a

multimodal language database in 1993. In his point of view,

“

multi modality

”

is based

on 20 sense organs that human owns.

In the face to

face communication, the facial

expression, expression in eyes, gesture, posture, body language and clothes are likely

revealed the message. During the teaching, the teachers try their best to mobilize all of

the students

’

sense organs to experience the teaching activities, and interact with the

teachers (

顾曰国

2007: 3-12). Professor Hu Zhuanglin in Peking University pointed