YOUTUBE videos to develop multimodal literacy

Abstract

Teaching and learning in English have been growing recently (Mitchell, 2016), and the general trend  towards internationalisation in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) contexts in Higher Education (HE) has led to an increased emphasis on English language
instruction (Dafouz & Smit, 2020). Several studies in applied linguistics have focused on the analysis of digital genres (i.e., Internet and videos) in the ESP classroom (Bernad-Mechó & Girón-García, 2023; Girón-García & Fortanet-Gómez, 2023). Recently, the digitisation of materials, resources, and teaching activities has grown exponentially. Previous studies have examined how digital genres (Shepherd & Watters, 1998; Luzón, et al., 2010) develop and take
advantage of the potential of the Internet in the digital era (Kress, 2010). They have proved that a stronger digital presence and more diversity of semiotic resources and communication channels are
increasingly in demand by 21st-century learners to address their learning needs. The aim of this study is to analyse the multimodal nature of YouTube videos in a Legal English classroom by (1) raising students’ level of awareness of the multimodal characteristics present in YouTube videos, and (2) carrying out a multimodal discourse analysis of an extract of one video used in an ESP Law course at HE to unveil the features students must be made aware of. A multi-layered annotation tool (Multimodal Analysis – Video (MAV)) (O’Halloran et al., 2012) was used to attain the second aim. The results derived from this study may broaden students’ comprehension of how multimodal communication occurs (i.e., how to acquire multimodal awareness) to become multimodally literate (i.e., to acquire multimodal literacy).