During a recent dinner with friends, I could not help but notice how our communication had changed. We had all become friends back in university, and even though our various academic subjects had led to differences in gestures, tones, body language, and other communication cues, these disparities seemed even more pronounced now as we have been navigating our respective careers. As I observed one friend’s precise and formal gestures contrasting with another’s loving gaze, it became apparent how much of our communication goes beyond just linguistic features.
These communication habits exhibited by my friends were shaped by their learning system and daily experiences, although not all. Considering this phenomenon further, the concept of multimodality comes into focus. Multimodality, as understood through the work of Bateman et al. (2017), involves combining various presentation media or modes to convey information. Communication has a variety of modes including speech, writing, gesture, gaze, body posture, movement, and beyond. This highlights that both teaching and learning are inherently multimodal (Jewitt, 2010). Therefore, all classroom activities within school settings could be viewed through a multimodal lens.
While all teaching and learning inherently involve multiple modes of communication, the use of computers in classrooms amplifies the multimodal nature of pedagogy (Jewitt, 2010). Students have had to adjust and adapt their communication approaches to account for this change. This shift calls for a broader focus on literacy and social behaviours in a digital and multimodal world (Jewitt, 2010). Additionally, global educational policies have increasingly emphasised digital literacy as crucial for 21st-century social and civic engagement (Lamb et al., 2017), especially in light of the rapid shift toward online education due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Consequently, there is an urgency to adjust curriculum and assessment methods in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) education. These changes should better align with the demands that English language learners will encounter within their academic disciplines and future workplaces (Hellwig, 2021). Moreover, the Council of Europe's recent revisions to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) have prompted educators to reimagine the learner as a "social agent" (Council of Europe, 2020), focusing on new competencies related to mediation and plurilingualism.
Multimodal assessment tasks can help students understand complex ideas better, express themselves more subtly in the language they are learning, and become more socially aware and active individuals. Using multimodal assessments in TESOL education can lead to a more comprehensive way of measuring language skills. These assessments can build upon students' existing proficiencies and offer them transferable skills that extend beyond their studies.
Interested in participating in the discussion about holistic language testing? Join us at New Directions, 27-29 October 2023.