Multisemiotic resources in student assessment : a case study of one module at Stellenbosch University

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates multimodal assessment in the South African higher educationcontext. The communication landscape of students is becoming increasinglymultimodal, resulting in a shift away from higher education institutions' preferredmode (that is, the written mode). This is partly as a result of the digital era in whichwe live, as the verbal, visual and audio modes co-exist to make meaning, therebycreating new forms of text (Iedema 2003: 33). Although there is a commonacceptance that the communication landscape has changed, higher educationinstitutions still seem to consider the written text and written communication as themost dominant form of meaning-making (Lea 2004: 743). Thus, there is a disparitybetween the types of literacies with which students arrive at university, and the typesof literacies that they are expected to use in university. I argue that this disparity isproblematic for education, and maintain that pedagogies be transformed in order toresolve this issue. In this way, students will be able to 'benefit from learning in waysthat allow them to participate fully in public, community, and economic life (Cazdenet al. 1996: 60).Data for this research includes assignments that were produced by second-yearstudents of Applied English Language Studies, a subject offered by the Departmentof General Linguistics at Stellenbosch University. These assignments include amultimodal component as well as a formal, written component. Analysis of theirassignments revealed that students show great dexterity in their creations ofmultimodal texts. Apart from their design skills, it was revealed that students haveknowledge of a wide variety of social discourses, which is currently mostly ignored inthe education context. Thus, I propose that this knowledge, along with the digital andvisual design skills with which students arrive at university, be valorised and utilisedas an entry point for the teaching of linguistic literacy. This proposal is partlysupported by schema theory, a cognitive theory of learning, which entails thatexisting knowledge is used as a platform on which to build new knowledge.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University