Multimodality of Cultural Content in ELT Materials for Young Learners

Abstract

Cultural content is incorporated into EL materials to enrich linguistic content. The paper focuses on English materials as cultural artefacts analyzed in terms of multimodality. The aim is to identify the most important multimodal aspects of cultural content offered in English course books for early language education. Following the multimodal discourse analysis, the image–language relations presented in the culture sections are examined. The paper seeks to address two following questions: What is the multimodality of cultural content in English course books for young learners? What are the image-language relations involved in the construction of cultural content? The project involves an analysis of nine course books currently used in teaching English to young learners in Polish primary schools. The data will be collected during the evaluation studies, which here are both quantitative and qualitative in nature. The study is based on a set of universal, content-specific, multimodal, and intermodal criteria. It is hoped that the results from the research project will enrich the process of ELT materials design in terms of multimodality. They will support the need for developing multimodal (visual) literacy through multicultural education in early language education.