Multimodality Of Cultural Content In English Coursebooks For Primary Education

Abstract

Young learners (YLs) learn languages and experience multimodality, being exposed to various resources of meaning from the early age. They are challenged by modes while learning from English language teaching (ELT) materials. The materials are the important semiotic resources as well as cultural and social artefacts that influence children’s perception and holistic development. They serve both as a mirror and window reflecting the current educational policy, linguistic and didactic approaches, culture and social behaviours. The aim of the paper is to identify the multimodal aspects of cultural content offered in ELT coursebooks in primary schools. There are two major questions of the research project. What are the characteristic features of multimodality in English coursebooks for older YLs? What are the image-language relations in cultural content of English coursebooks for older YLs? The project involves multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) and follows Stȍckl’s framework. There are two approaches and two stages involved. The quantitative approach depicts the amount of image, language, sound and music modes in ELT coursebooks for older children. The qualitative approach relates to the descriptions of image-language relations in the cultural content. The image-language relations bring the data on the inner construction of the visual and verbal input in ELT materials including cultural sections. The amount, intensity and character of the visual and verbal content changes in ELT materials respectively with the age of learners. The role of image seems to decrease with the years of learning and abdicate in favour of the written messages. It is hoped that the project will bring supportive implications for those interested in materials development and visual teaching.