什么是多模态（Multimodality）?

Over the past two decades, the concept of multimodality has garnered considerable attention from language teachers and researchers both in ELT contexts and beyond. The term multimodality refers to an individual’s use of different modes (i.e. channels of communication) for the purpose of conveying meaning. Such modes can consist of those that are linguistic, visual, aural, gestural, or spatial in nature (Kress 2003). In the second language (L2) learning literature, Tardy (2005) was one of the first to note that many academic-related tasks were growing increasingly multimodal. For instance, both teachers and their students are now frequently required to construct slide-show presentations using various digital tools and software (e.g. Google Slides, Microsoft PowerPoint). Importantly, such tasks require individuals to employ multiple modes in order to convey meaning, including written text (linguistic), images (visual), sound clips (aural), hand gestures and facial expressions (gestural), and physical elements arranged in a manner that facilitates comprehension (spatial).

     Since Tardy’s observation, multimodality is increasingly regarded as an essential component of ELT training, pedagogy, and education policy (Grapin and Llosa 2020). In particular, due to the ubiquitous nature of digital technologies, multimodality now permeates numerous facets of teachers’ everyday practices. Many teachers may be unaware of the extent to which they rely upon and leverage different modes as a part of their pedagogic toolkit, using storyboard activities, picture description tasks, flashcards, audio- and video-based files, multimedia projects, and other multimodal materials.

在过去的二十年里，多模态的概念在 ELT 环境内外引起了语言教师和研究人员的极大关注。多模态一词是指个人为了表达意思而使用不同的模式（即沟通渠道）。这种模式可以由语言、视觉、听觉、手势或空间性质的模式组成（克雷斯2003）。在第二语言（L2）学习文献中，Tardy（2005）是最早注意到许多学术相关任务变得越来越多模态的人之一。例如，教师和学生现在经常被要求使用各种数字工具和软件（如Google Slides，微软PowerPoint）构建幻灯片演示文稿。重要的是，这类任务要求个人采用多种模式来传达意义，包括书面文本（语言）、图像（视觉）、声音片段（听觉）、手势和面部表情（手势），以及以促进理解的方式排列的物理元素（空间）。自从塔迪的观察以来，多模式越来越被视为ELT培训、教育学和教育政策的重要组成部分（Grapin 和 Llosa 2020）。特别是，由于数字技术的无处不在，多模式现在渗透到教师日常实践的许多方面。许多教师可能没有意识到他们在多大程度上依赖和利用不同的模式作为教学工具包的一部分，使用故事板活动、图片描述任务、闪卡、基于音频和视频的文件、多媒体项目和其他多模态材料。