Designing Listening Material Based on Visual Multimodality Compositions

• Main Author: Jepri Ali Saiful
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Romanian Association of Teachers of English 2015-06-01
• Series: RATE Issues
• Subjects: Multimodality; Listening; Material Design; L2 acquisition; ELT teachers
• Online Access: http://rate.org.ro/blog2.php/ri/designing-listening-material-based-on

In recent decades, multimodality has eventually augmented into the realm of language teaching and learning known as Applied Multimodality. This interdisciplinary approach draws on a multiplicity of communication or representation modes, all of which contribute to meaning. Accordingly, images, colors, and sounds within a text are catalysts to increase an audience’s reception of an idea or concept of the text, that is, a message. Thus, the present article intends to make a contribution to the field of material development in English language teaching. The aim of this article is therefore to provide guidelines for ELT teachers on how to design listening materials based on visual multimodal compositions of image and text. The result is that the compositions of image and text in designing listening materials rests upon three main principles: information value, salience and framing. These principles enable students’ L2 acquisition through listening as proved by recent research.