HARNESSING MULTIMODALITY IN FIRST-YEAR COMPOSITION CLASSROOM IN SECOND LANGUAGE (L2) SETTINGS TO ENHANCE EFFECTIVE WRITING

Stephen Ohene-Larbi

A Dissertation

Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

December 2019

Committee:

Daniel Vincent Bommarito, Committee Co-Chair

Sue Carter Wood, Committee Co-Chair

Farida A Selim Graduate Faculty Representative

Kimberly Kaye Spallinger © 2019

Stephen Ohene-Larbi

All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT

Daniel Vincent Bommarito and Sue Carter Wood, Committee Co-Chairs

Digital space in the 21st century has given a new meaning to how second language (L2) learners can effectively use visual imagery to make meaning during writing in the composition classroom. The active participation of students to engage text during writing has drawn the attention of scholars to talk about the use of multimodal text in L2 settings. Shin & Cimasko assert research has noted that multimodal writing allows for better communication of knowledge and expression of personal identities through various modes of representation (2008). Jason Palmeri (2012) suggests that multimodal composing can enhance student invention and revision of alphabetic text (p. 32). Flower & Hayes on the other hand assert that if students are writing about a familiar place, the writer might perceive sensory (auditory, visual, olfactory) images of the place (p. 33). Drawing on these concepts, my research will explore how ESOL 1010 Academic first year composition students in second language settings at BGSU used multimodal tools in the composition classroom to participate in a General Writing Studies (GSW) showcase event, a regular writing program which gives opportunities to composition students to exhibit their writings. The study will also adopt a narrative approach to tell student’s stories about their multimodal experience before, during, and after using such tools in writing terms papers for the class. I will analyze survey data and personal interviews to assess the impact and usefulness of the multimodal approach in guiding students to develop text and making meaning, and how such learning skills can be applied in and outside the composition classroom to enhance student writing. iv

To, Grandma, the stories you told made the difference,

and Mom, you are the reason I am here. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I first and foremost thank the Almighty Lord for sustaining and guiding me throughout the writing process. I wish to acknowledge the contributions of the following individuals, each of whom contributed immensely to my research project and the writing of my dissertation:

First, I wish to recognize the efforts of the research participants―my students who gave their time and attention to take the survey, interviews, and answered all questions. This project would not exist without them, and I very much appreciate their contributions.

To my family, words alone cannot express the motivation, prayer support, love, commitment to stand with me through thick and thin, I am very grateful.

This dissertation I would say was a journey and a symbol of your desire and inspiration to push me towards the finishing line; I could not have completed this without you.

To Dr. Sue Carter Wood, you taught me about archival research, grammar in the context of writing and these were exactly the tools I needed to conduct my study, you gave me hope, and the encouragement to thank you

To Dr. Daniel Vincent Bommarito, the whole idea of writing this dissertation started on the whiteboard in your office. The discussions we had that fateful day helped me to understand the power of multimodality in the writing classroom. I thank you for guiding me throughout the process.

To Kimberly Kaye Spallinger, you offered me the opportunity to work with you at the

ESOL office of the department of English. You gave me the opportunity to teach ESOL classes and that experience shaped my understanding to know who I am. You nurtured and shared with me valuable materials that brought meaning to my writing, thank you. vi To Dr. Farida A Selim, thank you for serving on my committee. You gave me your time; you encouraged me, and above all, you responded anytime I needed your assistance, I thank you.

Finally, to Amy Cook, for mentoring, and taking part in the study with your rich experience in the class we both taught, I thank you. vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

CHAPTER ONE: EXPLORING WRITING IN SECOND LANGUAGE SETTINGS ...... 1

Abstract ...... 1

Introduction ...... 2

Goals ...... 2

Terminology ...... 3

Inspiration ...... 3

Literature Review ...... 10

The Daily Routine of Writing in a Second Language Classroom ...... 10

Exit Exams in L2 ...... 13

Emphasis on Grammar ...... 16

Shift Towards Multimodal Composing ...... 16

L2 Writing Scholars on L2 Writing ...... 22

Challenges That Students Face ...... 25

Effective Strategies for Assessing Multimodal Texts ...... 28

Integration of Multimodal Composing to Enhance Student Writing ...... 28

Research on Multimodal Composing in L2 Settings ...... 36

Conclusion ...... 41

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH ...... 42

Introduction ...... 42

Methodological Approach ...... 45

Storytelling/Narrative ...... 45 viii

Methods ...... 56

Research Questions ...... 56

Participants ...... 58

Data Collection ...... 59

Survey ...... 59

Interview ...... 59

Recording Device ...... 60

Recruitment ...... 60

Coding ...... 61

Conclusion ...... 61

CHAPTER THREE: SURVEY ANALYSIS-PERCEPTION OF STUDENT USE OF

MULTIMODAL COMPOSING ...... 62

Results ...... 62

Survey Questions ...... 62

Discussion ...... 71

Conclusion ...... 82

CHAPTER FOUR: INTERVIEW ANALYSIS-PERCEPTION OF STUDENT USE OF

MULTIMODAL COMPOSING ...... 83

Results/Discussion ...... 83

Behind the Scene Incident Leading to the Study ...... 83

Follow-Up Conversation and Student Participation in GSW Showcase

Event ...... 84 ix

Results ...... 85

Discussion ...... 92

Conclusion ...... 106

CHAPTER FIVE: PERSONAL BIASES, IMPLICATION FOR SCHOLARSHIP AND

FUTURE RESEARCH ...... 109

Introduction ...... 109

Initial Reaction ...... 115

Needs ...... 117

Implications for the Scholarship ...... 121

Future Research ...... 128

Final Take Away ...... 130

My Final Thoughts ...... 131

REFERENCES ...... 132

APPENDIX A: CONSENT FORMS ...... 136

APPENDIX B: SURVEY QUESTIONS ...... 145

APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ...... 148

APPENDIX D: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT ...... 154

APPENDIX E: RECRUITMENT EMAILS ...... 169 x

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

1 Screenshot of Marginal Comment ...... 12

2 Brainstorming ...... 25

3 Source of Student Acquisition of Skills ...... 67

4 Student Use of Visual Imagery ...... 70

5 Student Work 1 ...... 73

6 Student Work 2 ...... 74

7 Student Work 3 ...... 75

8 Students Reaction to Multimodal Text ...... 86

9 Types of Student Projects ...... 88

10 Students Overcoming Challenges ...... 89

11 Benefit of Students Using Visual Imagery ...... 90

12 Assessment of ESOL Director ...... 91 xi

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

1 Gender ...... 62

2 School Year ...... 63

3 Years Studied English ...... 64

4 Area of English Studied ...... 64

5 Use of Visual Imagery ...... 65

6 Source of Acquisition of Skills ...... 66

7 Results of Multimodal Text ...... 67

8 Assessing Multimodal Text ...... 68

9 Students Use of Visual Imagery ...... 69

10 Student Preference in Writing ...... 71 1

CHAPTER ONE: EXPLORING WRITING IN SECOND LANGUAGE SETTINGS

Abstract

Digital space in the 21st century has given a new meaning to how second language (L2) learners can effectively use visual imagery to make meaning during writing in the composition classroom. The active participation of students to engage text during writing has drawn the attention of scholars to talk about the use of multimodal text in L2 settings.

Shin & Cimasko assert research has noted that multimodal writing allows for better communication of knowledge and expression of personal identities through various modes of representation (2008). Jason Palmeri (2012) suggests that multimodal composing can enhance student invention and revision of alphabetic text (p. 32). Flower & Hayes on the other hand assert that if students are writing about a familiar place, the writer might perceive sensory

(auditory, visual, olfactory) images of the place (p. 33).

Drawing on these concepts, my research will explore how ESOL 1010 Academic

Composition II first- year composition students in second language settings at BGSU used multimodal tools in the composition classroom to participate in a General Writing Studies

(GSW) showcase event, a biannual writing program which gives opportunities to composition students to exhibit their writings. The study will also adopt a narrative approach to tell student’s stories about their multimodal experience before, during, and after using such tools in writing terms papers for the class. I will analyze survey data and personal interviews to assess the impact and usefulness of the multimodal approach in guiding students to develop text and making meaning, and how such learning skills can be applied in and outside the composition classroom to enhance student writing. 2

Introduction

Goals

“Multimodal writing practice enables L2 students to develop multiliteracy skills, negotiate their identities, and become more motivated independent learners” (Yi & Angay-Crowder,

2016). This quote summarizes the importance of this study, which will seek to explore students’ use of images, audio, and other visual design elements in writing in second language (L2) classroom settings, and how it might influence student writing. The study will also afford teachers, and administrators the opportunities to learn more about how students can use this writing framework to achieve their objectives. Jeffery Moore (2018), in his dissertation, notes that “although a substantial body of research exists with respect to the digital literacy practices of the “traditional” American college student, research relevant to the English Language

Learner(ELL) population in America has not developed as extensive a corpus” (p. 1).

However, available limited research by Daniel Ruefman (2015), Christoph A. Hafner

(2013), and others suggest the need to encourage second language learners to use multimodal composing text in the composition classroom, to enhance effective interactions, collaborations, and creativity. To do this, I will focus on my encounter with student’s use of multimodal composing text in my teaching class―ESOL 1010. This class is an advanced second language writing class that prepares students to be enrolled in the General Writing Studies (GSW) first- year composition classes at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), and student’s participation in a biannual writing context ―Showcase. This event gives students enrolled in GSW classes the opportunity to share their writing experiences with faculty, students, and the BGSU community. 3

Terminology

Multimodal composing is defined by Cynthia Selfe (2007) as the use of still images, animation, video, and sound to compose text (p. XI). John Branscum & Aaron Toscano (2007) also defines it as a writing strategy that offers students to think in creative and intellectual ways about meaning and communication. (p. 83). Susan Miller-Cochran defines it as means of writing that does not always mean digital but also includes a research poster that incorporates images and text.

Native language (L1) refers to native speakers of a particular language, and second language (L2) refers to second language learners whose native language is not English but are studying English as a second language. ESOL refers to English of speakers of other languages.

Another term used for this dissertation is English as a Second Language (ESL).

Inspiration

As a graduate assistant in English, it has always been an honor to teach and interact with students of diverse background because I once sat in the same seat looking up to my instructors to guide and help me through my writing career. My background as a student learning to read and write in English helps me to make connections with students who come to my class from the onset. I usually start teaching my class with an in-class activity to know each other. The prompt for the assignment was for the students to write a paragraph describing their expectations for the class. One of my students raised his hand and said “Teacher I cannot write because I have never written an essay before.” Everyone in the class broke into laughter, and amid the fanfare, I was able to use the occasion as a teachable moment to reiterate the course goals and objectives. I made it clear to the students that it is a writing class and also a shared responsibility on my part as an instructor to guide them through the academic writing process, and also to recognize their 4 role as students to work together to achieve their course objectives. The class might have broken into laughter, but the issue at stake was beyond the mere saying that “Teacher I cannot write because I have never written an essay before.” I thought about the bravery of the student to express his opinion and doubt about writing in front of the whole class. This was unusual, but as stated earlier, the classroom environment and culture I create for dialogue enables student’s to interact with each other easily. This suggestion by the student became a defining moment for me to reorganize my approach to teaching students whose native language is not English. It was fun but at the end of the semester, this student emerged as one of the best writing student in the class.

Even though, the class ended on a good note, I was still not satisfied with my response to student writing, and I began to think about the silent majority who could not speak out to express their frustrations, disappointment, and above all, their concerns about writing. These amongst others aroused my curiosity to intensify my research and possibly, to consider the issue for my dissertation. In this regard, I was optimistic that the proposed study will help me as an instructor to understand deeply about second language student writing and also to serve as a reflection for me to think about my own writing experience as child growing up in Ghana. The acquisition of a second language coupled with speaking different dialects does not only bring out the bilingual persona of an individual, but the power and the ability to communicate effectively with fellow

Ghanaians.

English, apart from being the mode of instructions in schools, serves as the official and administrative language of the Judiciary, Legislative, and the Executive branches of government, and also serves as a lingua franca. Hence the ability to speak and write in the “White man’s language”―English is a prestige and a profession well respected. However, the notion of the acquisition of English as a second language did not erase the noble idea of mastery of one’s local 5 dialect, hence, the emphasis of learning different Ghanaian dialects a precursor for grade and high school and the tertiary institutions. It must also be noted that apart from the dominating role of English in the Ghanaian way of life, local dialects still play an integral role in the socio- cultural life of the people during occasions such as festivals, engagements, marriages, and the performance of funeral rites. These practices define our society as a multicultural and bilingual society.

The power of resilience to preserve culture and language is reiterated by Gloria Anzaldua asserting, “I write to record what others erase, when I speak, to rewrite the stories others have miswritten about me, about you.” She sees writing as intimate of self to discover, to preserve, to make, and to achieve self-autonomy. She also sees writing as a way to help her to dispel the myths that she is a mad prophet or a poor suffering soul (p. 168). Taking a cue from Anzaldua, I see writing as a means to express myself, my identity, and above all, my way of life. This quote helped me to understand the rationale for the student’s question ―“Teacher I cannot write because I have never written an essay before” and why he defied all odds to express himself in class. Writing does not take place in a vacuum, but in context that brings and shape ideas about the past, present, and the future. I also see writing as a way of storytelling, and this reminds me of my personal writing story with my grandmother and its relevance to me and this study.

Down the memory lane, I recall my grandmother calling out and asking me to write a letter to her son who was in college at the time. She would speak in our native language (L1) and

I was expected to translate in English (L2). She would then ask me to read back to her in L1 what I wrote down. In the course of the reading, she would repeatedly interrupt by telling me it does not sound right and she will go over again and again until I get things right. I was in high school and sometimes I got frustrated because I knew the literal translations from L1 to L2 6 depend on rules and writing the way she expected me to write would not bring out the intent and real meaning in L2. For example my grand mom will say “Meka kyer3 wo s3 tw3n me na merek) aba, nanso woantw3n.” Literally meaning “I said I am going to come but you did not wait for me.” This is what she wants to hear. The correct translation is “I told you to wait for me but you did not.” To translate my version to her in L1 will sound like this “Meka kyer3 wo s3 tw3n nanso woantw3nkwen.” The missing words in L1 are “me na merek) aba.” I omitted these words because it will be grammatically incorrect to include such words in the English translation.

Linguistically she is not wrong but when two languages come into contact, it is important to negotiate meaning to ensure fluidity. However, translation more often than not eliminates parts of speech which express emotions and true feelings of the speaker. Omitting such words from the original statement from my grandma takes away the important elements of her message- “Tw3n me na merek) aba.” These words meant a lot to her and my inability to incorporate such words takes away the real motives and emotions behind the message. Our later conversations revealed that she had to go on errands to raise the money to be given to her son, hence, the emphasis on

“tw3n me na merek) aba.”

The encounter with my grandma reechoes the quote from Anzaldua that “I write to record what others erase. When I speak, to rewrite the stories others have miswritten about me, about you.” Indeed, my grandma at the time was communicating something valuable, and as a matter of fact, a cherish memories for me to think about in my future writing. As a high school student,

I had no idea about what she was communicating to me about how translations takes away emotional and real meaning of words when two languages come into contact. In effect, I was erasing her sweet memories about her struggles and determination to raise the needed money to assist her son through college. Revisiting this conversation at this time brings a sigh of relief to 7 me because I am not only able to give firsthand information to tell a story about my own writing experience, but also to tell the students stories using their work about writing in my everyday classroom.

Communicating with grandma on academic issues was tough for me to understand the complexity of language at the time, and engaging her in such scholarly discussions did not help me as her scribe. Her choice of words was dictated by culture and I had to translate such cultural references into English. My inability to do this resulted into conflict because I could not find the exact words in English to address her concerns. Unfortunately, this same problem of translation from one culture/language to the other has become the dilemma second language learners go through in the composition classroom during writing.

Atkinson, (2004) argues “a better conceptualization of contrastive rhetoric needs to include a better conceptualization of culture” (p. 277). Second language learners come to the writing class with rich cultural experience to exhibit such qualities during writing but are compelled and introduced to different writing approaches which take away their sentiments/emotions to construct text to fulfill the requirement of institutions and colleges. In my composition classroom, I was taught that the format for writing a good essay should include an introduction, thesis statement, body, and other elements of writing such as topic sentence, transitional phrases and so on. Anything short of these will indicate that students have not acquired the requisite writing strategies that will enable them to move on to take higher writing classes. This approach of writing has been discussed extensively in the scholarship and

Bartholomae (2011) in discussing the problem of first-year composition (FYC) writing asserts that “any time a student sits down to write for us, he has to invent the university for the occasion” (p. 523). 8

Teachers’ approach to writing makes it harder for students to express themselves through writing due to rules and guidelines, a requirement by the scholarship to the neglect of the cultural and rich experience students bring into the classroom. To address the gap, teachers should take a second look at alternative ways to guide students to use images/symbols to achieve their learning outcome. To illustrate my point, I will use an example from Dwight Atkinson’s “Contrasting rhetorics/contrasting cultures: why contrastive rhetoric needs a better conceptualization of culture” (2004) in making the case as to why L2 writers find it difficult to incorporate cultural expertise during writing to express their voice, he cites what Geertz refer to as “significant symbols—words for the most part but also gestures, drawings, musical, sounds, mechanical devices like clocks, or natural objects like jewels—anything, in fact, that is disengaged from its mere actuality and used to impose meaning upon experience (p. 284). Symbols have meanings and according to Atkinson, are given as a societal norm. In effect, the proper use of such tools by students during writing will not only help students to achieve their learning outcome but to help students to retain their voice in the writing classroom. I failed my grandma as her official scribe because I was unable to translate the cultural symbols into meaning. In the digital space, students have enormous advantage if they are given the opportunity to use these symbols in the writing classroom to engage text.

The example above demonstrates the cultural context and mindset of a typical second language writer whose writing is often assessed without reference to culture and consequently, ignoring the role of symbols and other visual imagery. Some students and writers alike find it difficult or struggle with how to effectively transfer such skills during writing and as a result, students are reprimanded for not following the rules of engagement in the writing classroom. On the other hand, teachers often tell students to be creative in their writing. I am not sure whether 9 teachers can have both ways—to encourage creativity and at the same time to deny students the opportunity to try using variety of ideas to retain their voices when writing.

Social media and the use of different apps have become a living reality with student writers playing active roles in the new digital space to share and distribute messages to friends, families and others around the world. As teachers, the challenge is to find ways to harness student engagement of the digital space to improve writing. Downs and Waddle (2007) addresses challenges facing FYC writing with the call that the institution have still not figured out moving from “teaching how to write in college to teaching about writing”, asserting that teachers are behaving as if “writing is basic, universal skill to acting as if writing studies is a discipline with content knowledge to which students should be introduced, thereby changing their understandings about writing and thus changing the way they write” (p. 553).

This issue is not only applicable to native language speakers (L1) but also second language learners (L2) as well. In the second language writing context, the idea of restricting writing only to alphabetic text is gradually giving way to the integration of multimodal text to help students to transfer knowledge into the writing classroom. The idea of contrastive rhetoric by Atkinson (2004) will help students to incorporate visuals during writing. In this way, student writers who are already well vested in culture will be able to use background knowledge and expertise to tell stories and produce content required for writing. Unfortunately, the concept of inventing the university takes away student's power and the ability to write with emotions. I was confronted with the same dilemma to adhere to my grandma by making grammatical errors, or to avoid making mistakes by ignoring her cultural concerns, restricting myself to the rules of L2 writing such as subject-verb agreement, the use of articles, punctuations, just to mention a few.

With time even though she understood and entrusted me as her official transcriber because I 10 managed to explain the writing process by referring to the L1 standards and rules to ensure effective writing.

In a similar way, the student who stated in my introduction that “teacher I cannot write because I have never written an essay before” felt disappointed not because he could not write an essay, but because he could not write and express himself in English in a way that will help him to control the discourse in using his cultural experience to tell his story during writing. The said student over the years has been memorizing vocabulary words, and spending a great amount of time learning tenses, subject-verb agreement, and others, but has not been exposed to grammar in the contest of writing. In the literature review section, I will make the effort to discuss expert opinions about the gaps and challenges L2 of writing, research framework, my practical approach to put forward experiences and how students were able to adapt multimodal text in writing.

Literature Review

In this section, I use cultural rhetoric methodology to talk about stories of second language learners in the composition writing classroom and link such stories with research and scholarly writing that aligns with the study. Practical and personal examples and issues discussed in class will be the main thrust of this section. The rationale is to use the literature review to discuss in-depth strategies, framework and related research that supports the integration of multimodality in the L2 settings.

The Daily Routine of Writing in a Second Language Classroom

My personal story about translating text for my grandma from my native language (L1) into English (L2) and how second language writers use meaning as a result of translation during writing, coupled with the ordeal students go through every day in the composition classroom to 11 write three/four paragraph essays resulting into the student’s response―“teacher I cannot write because I have never written an essay before”― is an on-going conversation in second language writing classroom which calls for a concerted effort to equip students with the necessary tools needed to succeed in the composition classroom. Many students in the US composition classroom face the same issue of translation of text from L1 into L2 during writing, similar to my experience with my grandma. Scholars such as Diane Larsen-Freeman argues in favor of conventional views of grammar noting that analyzing grammatical form should include grammatical meaning and use as well (p. 251). Constance Weaver and Sun-Young & Lidster have proposed different learning strategies such as focusing on teaching grammar, remedial classes, and placement text just to mention a few to determine the levels students can be placed in the composition writing classroom. In her illustration on teaching grammar, Constance

Weaver (2007) asserts that “we haven’t created a nation of writers, and the traditional focus on

“errors” is one of the major reasons (p. 19).” Weaver’s point is relevant to second language learners in the sense that students have concluded that no matter how good they write, teachers will always find errors in their writing.

Of course, seeing red lines and marginal comments throughout an essay is an indication of frustrations some advance students go through during the revision process. I must say that some students welcome such comments and sees it as a challenge to improve their writing, others also see such comments as distractions and makes it extremely difficult for them to stay focus during writing Personally, these comments make me reassess my style, and approach to writing, and sometimes make it harder for me to find out what is wrong. The screenshot below explains 12 some of the frustrations students go through during translation from one language to the other.

Figure 1. Screenshot of Marginal Comment.

This is one of the comments I received in the margins at the early stage of writing the dissertation. The original wording that resulted in this comment by one of my dissertation advisors was “The shift towards multimodal composing” I used the definite article in the text to stress emphasis on the urgent need of multimodality, however, as indicated by the comment above, the caption suggests otherwise. This is a typical example of how minor issues such as this can cause second language learners to lose focus during writing. On a similar issue, I was working with a student who participated in the study to proofread an essay for a different class, and when I began to explain why the teacher made those comments, the response was, “I always find it difficult to find the right words to express myself in a way that will make sense to everybody. I could see the student’s frustrations, and the desire to write well even during the challenges.

In making the case for grammar, Weaver (207) cites scholars such as Huntsman (1983) stating that “grammar was taught to discipline the mind and the soul at the same time (p. 18).”

To buttress her point, she reiterates Schuster (2003) stating that early grammar scholars like

Lowth views on grammar was “obsessed with rooting out errors similar to Puritan minister with rooting out sin” (p.18). The argument Weaver is making is that when grammar “is taught in 13 isolation, neither traditional nor other kinds of grammar were effective in improving writing.”

Her take on grammar is supported by Diane Larsen-Freeman arguing that “teachers who focus students' attention on linguistic form during communicative interactions are more effective than those who never focus on form or who only do so in decontextualized grammar lessons” (p.

251). Her take on the communicative aspect of grammar is supported by the authors of the York study suggesting that “teaching any kind of grammar in isolation with the intent to improve the quality and/or accuracy of students’ writing is not worth our instructional time” (p. 14). The results of this study and research by Larsen-Freeman and others, suggest the need for a new approach to teaching, and I will propose multimodal composing text for consideration and implementation.

Exit Exams in L2

Placement test and exit exams have become one of the issues that hinders the students’ ability to progress in composition classes is the idea of a placement test during exit exams. Many colleges and university across the United States adopts this concept to place students in the right writing classes. Shin & Lidster (2017) assert that in language programs settings it important to place incoming students in the right classes “to ensure that course curriculum and materials are well-targeted to their learning needs.” They argue that the idea to determine “how and where to set cut scores on placement tests is thus of central importance to programs”, the authors also acknowledges that disagreement on the issue by previous studies “as to which standard-setting method (or methods) should be employed in different contexts” (p.357). It is important to note that whilst some schools are successful, others are still struggling to get things right. In my previous institution as a graduate assistant, I witnessed and also participated in the process of reading student essays for placement into advance first-year composition class. Among the 14 criteria for evaluation are the usual elements of effective writing—clear thesis, topic sentence, transitions, clear articulations of ideas in paragraphs, and of course huge on the lists is grammar.

Before taking this test, students are placed in lower classes that prepare students to take the exit exams. These classes focus on student writing and does prepares students to write the exit exams.

My concern about this approach is that students are enrolled in these classes for one semester and within this period, teachers are supposed to prepare them for the exit exams. I taught one of these classes and I must admit that it is not easy to cover all the required materials within such a limited time. Even though the lower classes teach writing, I will suggest the need to intensify the teaching of grammar in the context of writing to ensure a smooth transition to first-year composition writing.

My quest to learn more about what goes on in such classes, enabled me to teach another lower class and instead of teaching only grammar and vocabulary, I adapted Weaver’s idea of teaching grammar in the context of writing and it paid off. I believe if much attention is given to lower levels to prepare students for college writing, most of the issues associated with grammar, and translations would be addressed as students move on in the writing process. L2 scholars Shin

& Lidster (2017) in contributing to the issue on placement testing conducted a study for an intensive English program at a large Midwestern university in the USA, to compare and evaluate three different standard-setting procedures–the Bookmark method (a test-centered approach), the

Borderline group method (an examinee-centered approach), and cluster analysis (a statistical approach” and the results suggest “they do not provide valid and reliable information regarding placement cut-offs.” (p. 357). According to Shin & Lidster “If placement procedures are unreliable, two types of misclassification errors may increase: (1) “false positive” errors occur when students are placed into courses above their actual levels; and (2) “false negative” errors 15 occur when students are placed into inappropriately low levels (Bachman, 2004). In their opinion

“misplacement errors can lead to negative consequences such as inefficiency of teaching and learning and dissatisfaction among both teachers and students”. They suggest that to curb this practice, a “considerable effort is needed to minimize the likelihood that placement procedures result in these errors” (357-358).

In analyzing the issue, the authors further assert that placement testing can be done using different forms such as “interviews, essays, multiple-choice placement tests, or a combination of methods” and that the procedure for “evaluating and ensuring the reliability and validity will depend on test-takers “individual characteristics (p. 358).” Sun-Young & Lidster further states that “to determine the levels into which students are placed, raters compare test-takers’ performances to descriptions of performance standards–sets of characteristics that distinguish between categories of performance”. To buttress their argument, the authors cite Cizek, (1996) arguing that, for assessments that yield scores on their scale such as multiple-choice placement tests, however, test scores must first be linked to performance standards by determining which scores correspond to category boundaries called cut scores: a process called standard setting (p.

358).

In reality, the use of placement testing as the deciding factor to place students at different levels has its ups and downs and this call for program administrators and instructors to reassess their approach to teaching lower level/prep classes for first-year college composition classes. The good news is that second language learners continue to flood in our composition classroom to learn and develop their literacy skills, and to serve their needs, it will be useful to teach grammar and vocabulary in the context of writing to prepare students for college writing. Many writing instructors like me in my earlier role as a translator for my grandma, concentrate on grammatical 16 errors students make without taking into account the content of materials L2 students produce in the composition classrooms.

Emphasis on Grammar

My choice to cite Constance Weaver and Atkinson in my study is due to their role as

English scholar and leading voice on literacy topics such as reading process to grammar instruction with writing and others, arguing that teachers of grammar have failed to recognize different grammatical constructions that can help the writer add descriptive details and create different styles, voice, and rhetorical effects (p. 9-10). The authors note that teaching grammar in isolation produces little if any improvement. I see a lot of potential in second language writing classroom and I will suggest additional emphasis should be placed on context-based teaching to incorporate grammar and vocabulary to harness student writing. As an instructor, I am deeply concerned and committed to helping to address this increasing phenomenon. I have personally experienced students struggling in the composition classroom and I am convinced that incorporating the use of multimodal composing text in the second language settings will achieve results.

Shift Towards Multimodal Composing

Digital space in the 21st century has become an important partner in writing and encouraging students to use digital tools to enhance writing will be useful. Shin & Cimasko

(2008) assert research has noted that multimodal writing allows for better communication of knowledge and expression of personal identities through various modes of representation. Jason

Palmeri (2012) reiterates the need for multimodal composing suggesting that it can enhance student invention and revision of alphabetic text (p. 32). Flower & Hayes (2012), on the other hand, assert that if students are writing about a familiar place, the writer might perceive sensory 17

(auditory, visual, olfactory) images of the place (p. 33). In my quest to finding a better way to enhance students’ writing, I do agree with the various positions expressed by these scholars and others and the adaption of this approach has yielded positive results in my classroom. During the spring, and fall of 2017, I had the opportunity to teach English for Speakers of Other Language

(ESOL) 1010 course in my current institution and this class helped me to appreciate the urgent need for integration of multimodal composing in the second language settings. The textbook I used for the class was Inside Writing 3 by Jane Adams. The book was based on research by

Nigel Caplan on what he refers to as “genre-based writing pedagogy.” The book uses pictures, charts, graphs, and also focuses on collaborative writing in the form of in-class activities. The visual imagery from these activities provided the foundation for effective student participation and the determination to construct text mimicking examples from the book such as report writing, making of brochure, and designing logos to tell student stories. These assignments helped me to make a connection to a previous doctoral class—computer-mediated writing. I introduced the concept of multimodality and in working collaboration with my mentor, who had previously taught the class, I introduced students to using visual imagery in writing narratives.

This approach is similar to Atkinson (2004) referencing Geertz talking about “significant symbols—words for the most part but also gestures, drawings, musical, sounds, mechanical devices like clocks, or natural objects like jewels—anything, (p. 284).

The immediate impact and improvement of student writing was an indication that given students the opportunity to explore writing has the potential of helping students to be creative and also to generate their voice to tell stories during writing. Exposing students to other means of writing will not only offer them an alternative approach to writing but also to allow them to express their voice in writing. Suresh Canagarajah in his article “In Search of a New Paradigm 18 for Teaching English as an International Language” Canagarajah argues that “to address changes in pedagogical practice, language teachers have to focus more on developing procedural knowledge (i.e., a knowledge of how, or negotiation strategies), he went further to say that instead of “propositional knowledge (i.e., a knowledge of what, or norms and conventions of a language) in their classrooms”. In effect, he is suggesting that teachers have the opportunity to help students to develop “procedural knowledge by developing language awareness, rhetorical sensitivity, and negotiation strategies among their students” (p. 767). Issues discussed by these scholars to bring into the forefront research and joining the conversation in discussing the use of multimodality in the writing classroom gives me hope to pursue this study. My encounter seeing students write better, and reading reflective essays talking about the advantages and disadvantages of multimodality is an experience worth exploring. Giving students the voice to express themselves through the use of multimodality is precisely the intent of the proposed study

―harnessing multimodalities in second language settings.

Harnessing multimodality in second language settings does not come with ease; it has its challenges and the best way to achieve results is to create the right learning environment for students to adapt and to put into practice things learned in class. Regular student interactions through conferences, revisions, and finding the space for students to use and learn different applications is a starting point to assure students of the learning collaborative support to harness student writing. As part of the activities to guide students throughout the process, I scheduled a training session with the new and well-established state of art collaborative lab to organize workshops and training sessions to help students to use different applications during the design process. I must admit that by exposing students to such applications gives students the choice to choose applications that are useful and helpful to their course. In making the argument for 19 multimodal composing, I will cite scholars from both rhetoric and second language to support my argument. I see the work of these scholars important to the study, hence the back and forth with different ideas.

Multimodal composing in L2 setting is attracting attention and the shift to integrate this writing concept is gaining grounds in the classroom. Scholars like Susan Miller-Cochran in her article, Understanding multimodal composing in an L2 writing context, argues, “writing instructors need to work with students in multimodal spaces and embrace a variety of communication strategies” She noted that exposing students to this approach , “will encounter a range of composing spaces and contexts in their personal and professional lives (p. 1). Miller-

Cochran further states that the need to “incorporate multimodal composing into writing classes are generally calls to expand students’ range of communicative options through new genres to new audiences” asserting that the shift from “text to a digital space does not always change the function, purpose, or audience of the writing; therefore, it does not necessarily form a new genre” (p.1). These elements are indeed the core values of effective academic writing and if students can adapt multimodal composing text to achieve these qualities, the question to ask is what is stopping teachers from encouraging students to use multimodal text? Miller-Cochran cites Tardy (2016) explaining in her study of genre innovation that the purpose a text serves is central to its categorization as a genre; she clarifies that genres are texts that “[carry] out a function in a socially preferred way (p. 1). This assertion supports the notion that multimodal composing text is not new, in effect; it provides the process for students to use the knowledge about technology to compose text in the writing classroom.

Rosa M. Manchón contributing to the discussion states in her article “The potential impact of multimodal composition on language learning” states that “multimodal composing 20 promotes interaction and collaboration” (p. 95). In support of her argument, Manchón cites

Storch, (2016), suggesting that interaction creates the right environs that benefit language learning in the sense that “collaborative writing conditions do promote a focus on and deliberations about language via “language-related episodes” (p. 96). These among others are all qualities of good writing and my personal experience of engaging students in collaborative writing has proved to be a useful means to get students active engagement in the writing classroom.

Multimodality is hands-on, a way to get student's hands dirty to ensure effective participation. The use of visual/symbols in the words of Atkinson (2004) “such symbols are largely given” (p. 284). He notes that the skills to use such symbols are part of the people growing in the culture as active member in the community (p. 284). To encourage students to navigate and properly use visual imagery, I rely mostly on collaborative writing to engage students in class to focus on prompts and assignments. In one instance, when my students returned from spring break, I asked them to tell the class about their stories and experiences during the break. Before the break, I knew where each student was going because they talked about their plans and so on in class. Instead of telling the students to talk about the places they visited during the break, I asked them to talk about places they did not visit. It was strange, and the look on their faces was an indication of dealing with an unexpected prompt in class. The first ten minutes was not fun because students struggled to talk about unusual territories. I then asked the students to talk about the actual places they visited, and I had to stop them because they kept going on and on. After a brief moment, I explained the rationale for the exercise indicating that they all gave a vivid account of the places they visited because the visual imagery connecting them to places visited. 21

In essence, the quest to improve L2 student writer involves sustainable effort to harness already exiting genre as discussed by Atkinson in his take on contrastive rhetoric. He calls for the “need to refocus our vision on the processes that produce the products, rather than looking solely at the products themselves” (p. 282). Teachers have to go beyond recognizing culture as part of culture to helping students to use such skills to enhance their writing. In support of this approach Constance Weaver notes that “Rhetoric involves not only persuading an audience to do or believe in something but also engaging them deeply through the use of language and a distinctive style or voice” (Weaver 2008). Exposing students and giving them the support systems needed to excel in the academic writing classroom is crucial to student writing. Students need confidence, and reassurance before, during, and after writing, and this can be possible if teachers learn, and interact effectively with students. To buttress her point, Weaver cites Francis

Christensen arguing that “we need a rhetoric that will not merely express ideas but also generate them” (p. 3). Students generating ideas for writing is one, and navigating throughout the writing process is another. Most of my students tell me that even though they always have ideas about what to write, starting the essay becomes very difficult. I have been there before; I know exactly what students go through to start writing their essays. Working with students from the get-go when they present ideas about writing helps a lot knowing very well that someone has their back and that they are not alone. The above quote from Weaver discussing practical and real experiences to guide students in the composition classroom, gives me confidence to align myself with the work of Jason Palmeri, Shin & Cimasko, Flower and Hayes, and others on multimodal composing as a useful learning tool which has the potential of helping students to not only improve their writing but also to take a complete ownership of their writing. The use of 22 multimodal composing text will empower students with creativity to write and not shy away from engaging text using visual imagery.

L2 Writing Scholars on L2 Writing

In discussing L2 writing in the composition hallway, I came across instructors without

TESOL background asserting that ESL (L2) writers speak and write with accent and for that reason the issue of grammatical correctness has become a regular feature in our composition and writing classrooms and others who believe that the approach to writing should be reconsidered to incorporate student’s background and experience. Others also see L2 writing as a way to work with students to achieve their writing needs. Irrespective of which group one belongs to language differences exist and every language has its own set of rules that makes the language unique.

Any attempt to undermine such a reality will result in language oppression and the best way to approach this issue is to negotiate meaning to promote language.

All writers, irrespective of the language use, appreciate the need for trade-off and the question to ask is how well pedagogical approach, placement test, and practices can allow for tradeoffs? At least these questions will offer second language writers some glimpse of hope to tell their stories with the expectation that ears are listening, eyes looking, and mind to digest student writing which sometimes requires expert background, time, and patients to work with students whose native language is not English. I know as teachers, we have all at certain points in our career offered suggestions to students about their writing that did not go well or seem to throw students off their intended ideas and approach to satisfy their writing needs. Such occurrences often take place when two cultures come into contact in the composition writing classroom. Teachers without second language training or not familiar with the style and approach to student writing would be very critical to reject student essays based on grammatical errors and 23 lack of context. Even though this might be true, there are also instances where lack of understanding of the cultural context, and language barrier might contribute to the inability of students to fully articulate views on the subject. This problem can sometimes be resolved through interactions, listening to students, and engaging students on a one-on-one basis to hear them speak about the topic. I have been wrong on numerous occasions in an attempt to help

ESOL students to revise essays and choice of words which seem to undermine their experience and interpretations. To understand student’s translations of text requires patience and a clear understanding of the context before meaningful changes or revisions could be done.

In the era of digital space, writing has become an indispensable communication tool writers use to reach out to the intended audience, and second language writers are no exception.

In his article “Toward a Writing Pedagogy of Shuttling between Languages: Learning from

Multilingual Writers Canagarajah (2006) asserts “we must keep in mind that not all textual or linguistic difference is an error” he notes that “many presumed errors can be choices consciously made by authors from a range of different options in order to achieve their communicative purposes” and as such there is the need for teachers to motivate students by orienting them with the requisite writing strategies to communicate and to deemphasize a strict adherence to rules and conventions (p. 602). Canagarajah further argues that writing is rhetorical negotiation for achieving social meanings and functions implying that writing is not just constructive, but also performative. Negotiating meaning during student-teacher conferences will give teachers the opportunities to probe further about student writing and through this encounter, teachers will be in a better position to make the right recommendations to enable students to write and do well in the composition writing classroom. According to Canagarajah “we write and to fulfill diverse needs” noting we also write to understand that texts are not objective and transparent, but written 24 to reveal certain viewpoints or information, and noting that texts are also representational (p.

602-603).

He further states that as writers there is no way we can avoid showcasing our identities, values, and interests in the texts we compose. He, however, cautions the need for text engagement to accomplish preferred interests instead of allowing the dominant conventions to represent their values (p. 603). He calls for a writing pedagogy that “encourages students to reflect on their interests in writing, the values motivating their rhetoric, and the identities constructed by their texts.” In effect, acknowledging and working with students during the revision process is critical to successful student writing. I had similar discussions with one of my advisors during the preliminary discussions about my ideas for writing this dissertation. I made clear my intentions and the way I wanted to approach the writing. However, during the discussions, it became obvious that certain crucial piece of evidence was missing and after brainstorming on the issue, I was able to put the pieces together to refocus my direction for the study. The screenshot below explains the process I went through to define the way forward in setting the parameters for this dissertation. 25

Figure 2. Brainstorming.

L2 learners alike during writing present different ideas which can successfully be negotiated between teachers and students to help students to engage in writing in a way that aligns with their experience and interest. Sometimes students are unable to articulate clearly the approach, ideas, and thoughts, but by engaging students similar to what I did during the preparatory stage of my dissertation, will serve as a source of motivation to enhance student writing.

Challenges That Students Face

Second language learners go through a lot and spend a lot of hours during writing due to several reasons. Notably amongst them are thinking in L1 before translating into L2, or finding words and terminologies to meet the required standard for academic writing. One of my students once told me “teacher if I think in Japanese before writing, it makes it difficult for me to express myself, but if I think in English it makes my writing easy for me.” The student further explained that the challenge to write in English is spending more hours during writing. 26

In discussing the issue of L2 writing, Ferris & Hedgcock (2005) assert that Second

Language (L2) learners are exposed to the challenges of linguistic, ethnic, and cultural background, it is also important to note that proficiency, literacy, and cognitive development are issues student’s struggles with (p.21). Teachers understanding of these issues will help teachers better strategize their approach to teaching L2 population. Another important aspect of teaching students L2 learners is to acknowledge that L2 learners come to the classroom with the ability to speak, and write one or more languages other than English. These multilingual and multicultural skills give L2 students a unique status as learners that require a set of linguistic and cognitive skills. Although novice L2 learners have the challenge of comprehending text, analyze, and responding to the text they read, affects the level of literacy in the classroom to construct original text that fulfills the expectations of target language readers. According to Ferris & Hedgcock

(2005) one of the ways to maximize the potential of L2 learners, teachers must take into consideration the reading they select, the tasks they assign, the modes of instruction they deploy, the assessments and feedback teachers offer their students (p. 22). Faced with these numerous challenges the question is why L2 learners prefer to study English in the US and other English speaking countries? Is it that there are no English teachers? I do not think I am in the position to answer this question, but rather I would refer this to individual learners.

The in flood of foreign students to study English abroad in part is due to the emergence of English as a lingua franca for communication as well as trade and commerce. Matsuda (2012), gives a historical background of second language (L2) writers in U.S. He asserts that composition program in the U.S. is not the same as it used to be, arguing that composition studies has evolved over the years in response to series of literacy crises (p. 36) and notes that the implication of this shift is still relevant today. In his account, during the last century and half, 27 higher education grew from parochial institutions for a select few from privileged socioeconomic, religious, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds to providing equal access to education to diverse groups of people. In effect, issues raised by Matsuda in part are among the reasons for the upsurge of L2 learners in the United States. Globalization and popularity of the

English language, has also contributed to the flood of foreign students to study in the States. The increase in this diverse group requires attention and adaption of learning strategies that will help the target group to achieve their learning goals.

In an attempt to address L2 writing, Lu & Horner (2011) note that there has been an upsurge of English speakers around the world including those living in the United States, know other languages, and, through interaction, the Englishes they use vary and multiply (p. 303). The authors proposed a translingual paradigm approach which “explores the difference in language as a resource and not a hindrance to ensure creating meaning in writing, speaking, reading and listening” (p. 303). The question is, can the paradigm help answer questions such as “what might this difference do? How might it function, under what condition? Which communicative approach, for who, and under what conditions, and how”? (p. 303.). To answer these questions, it will be necessary to acknowledge the inherent problems associated with learning a second language. Students bring into the learning classroom with multilingual background and the motivation to learn a new language. As indicated from the above, all the scholars recognize the problem of L2 writing, and the need to find a pedagogical framework to address the issue, but what is missing from their dialogue is a specific writing pedagogy to address the issue. I envisage the concept of multimodal composing in the writing classroom as a useful practice to help students to improve their writing. 28

Effective Strategies for Assessing Multimodal Texts

The question which usually accompanies multimodal composing is what are effective strategies for assessing text that is different from the traditional composition classroom? In my

ESOL 1010 classroom, emphasis is placed on the rubric giving students a clear idea, and direction about the expectations, creativity, the use of visual imagery, and connecting such images with text. Students were able to give a vivid account of their experiences, knowledge on the various topics, and also making effective connections with the audience. Borton & Huot

(2007) discuss instructive evaluation and instructive assessment as the basis to help students to learn and assess rhetorical texts (p. 100). According to the authors, the former requires involving students during the assessment process and teachers must help students to set rhetorical and linguistic/ multimodal targets during learning (p. 100). The later also involve collaborative efforts between students and teachers to create motive and to revise difficult areas of the assignment. The authors also discussed formative and summative assessments which are commonly used in educational context (p. 100). According to them, formative assessment provides feedback to students while they are still working on the assignment and summative assessment is the final grades that teachers give to students. These two forms of assessment become critical to guide students and to give them the tools to create rhetorically effective compositions in any medium (p. 100).

Integration of Multimodal Composing to Enhance Student Writing

The study of English Language in the 21st century as noted earlier has become necessary due to globalization and how English is used as a lingua franca. Many countries including Ghana speak multiple languages/dialects and to enhance effective communication, it is common to find people from different parts of the country speak English for communication purposes. This trend 29 is not different from other non-English speaking countries and therefore the study of English has become an important aspect of their daily life. In Ghana, the medium of instructions in schools is in English and the judiciary, legislative, and executive branch of the government conducts its business in English. A well-trained citizenry in English does not only facilitate better communication but also bring people of diverse background together. This contact and the need to study a second language have brought into the fore the complexities in the learning and acquisition of a foreign language. To bring this into perspective, Cynthia Selfe (2007) notes that

“Over the last 150 years, our writing has known words on the page, arranged into paragraphs with occasional changes like titles, headings, diagrams, or footnotes. Today, new media requires students to compose by using multiple modalities such as moving and still images, sounds, music, color, words, and animations to convey meaning to the audience via digital media”. The emergence of multimodal composing into the composition classroom brings it with challenges, prospects, and dissenting views emanating from scholars in the discipline. How do we approach this concept? Yancey (1999), referencing Burke states that in pursuit of a new approach, it is necessary to look at other lenses; it allows us to see other views “particularly when brought together, they will allow us to understand differently and more fully.” Meaningfully, these lenses don’t just frame the past; they help us to locate the future of digital space through the lens of multimodal composing (p. 484). Composition writing has gone a long way, and the choice to make it better lies in the hands of participants who are prepared to explore the efficacy of multimodal composing in the future.

The digital space offers students and writers the opportunity to explore different writing strategies to ensure effective communication across the globe. Palmeri (2012) in responding to how multimodal composing can enhance student invention and revision of alphabetic text, and to 30 overcome the fear of introducing a new technology into the composing writing classrooms, argues that multimodal concept is not new and that it has been used by different scholars over the years. To buttress his argument, he elaborates on his study of theories of the process of movement in the 1970s and 1980s (Berthoff; Emig; Flower and Hayes; Perl; Sommers 2012). In his research, he found a rich tradition of compositionists studying and teaching writing profoundly using multimodal approach (p. 24). In effect, Palmeri believes that the conversation about multimodality in the composition classroom was, and still is, recognized in the scholarship.

He also assesses Flower and Hayes’s interdisciplinary investigation of writing and visual arts as a related creative problem-solving process taking into account how Haye's research findings can inform contemporary digital multimodal composition pedagogy.

He notes that writer’s problem “is never merely a given: it is an elaborate construction which the writer creates in the act of composing” Indicating that teachers assign work to students; they create and solve the problem by themselves. In the cause of doing this, he suggests that research on writers’ problem can contribute to the development of a generalizable theory of creativity (p. 29). He cites Flower and Hayes (2012) asserting that if students are writing about a familiar place, the writer might perceive sensory (auditory, visual, olfactory) images of the place.

He argues that instead of the writer setting rhetorical goals in word, the writer might picture audience members and imagine how he or she would react to the writing (p. 32-33). In effect, the

“writer’s organizational work in terms of visual shape rather than in terms of verbal outline” will enhance student writing. Palmeri in explaining this process focuses on Flower and Haye's definition of writing as an act of translation from multimodal mind to alphabetic page. In his view, the adaption of this method will incite writing instructors to consider including multimodal invention activities in writing classes. He also believes that if teachers restrict students to word- 31 based planning activities to generate ideas, for defining rhetorical purpose, for analyzing audience, we may unduly limiting their ability to think deeply about their rhetorical tasks (p. 34).

Obviously, my story about translation from L1 into L2, and the student who shouted in class expressing doubt about writing an essay in class saying “teacher I cannot write because I have never written an essay before”, will not be meaningful if teachers and scholars in the field keep recycling and transforming the same problem without finding solutions to incorporate new ideas to help students to compose text in the composition classroom.

The increasing awareness of multimodal composing to enhance student writing will depend on how students are able to use such tools effectively to achieve learning outcomes.

Shipka (2011) in her article “Toward a Composition Made Whole” talks about the need to inculcate different genres in our composition writing class to take advantage of the emerging technology. Her quest to expose participants through works on different writing styles in music, dance, economics, and history, brings to the fore the issue of composition writing cutting across curriculum (p. 1). In recent years, many departments encourage their students to take writing classes to improve their writing; others also compel students to take writing classes as the basis for acceptance into a particular program, whilst many use writing to place students into different composition writing classes. Irrespective of the approach, writing has become a regular feature in our college institutions.

However, in the 21st century, the dominance of technology is gradually shaping and dictating the way composition writing should be organized to facilitate student learning. Shipka observes, the communicative landscape is changing and has fueled discussion about student’s involvement in academic discourse (p. 5). She acknowledges that these technologies come with access to give students the chance to examine the use of technology to compose texts through 32 images, words, sounds, still photos and argues that this offers numerous learning opportunities for students to meet their learning needs (p. 5). She calls for the need to introduce a curriculum that will facilitate student learning to bridge the gap between numerous and varied communicative practices in which students constantly engage outside the school (p. 5).

The good news is that the digital age provides useful opportunities for students to apply skills learned on social media into the composition classroom. This semester, after enrolling my class to participate in the common read, I designed an assignment for students to track their use of social media and to make connection to Adam Alter’s book “Irresistible” (2017), I was amazed by how students were able to analyze and use different apps to discuss their findings.

Helping students properly use digital media to tell their own stories about writing should be a top priority if we want to create a nation of writers to paraphrase Constance Weaver (2007). Sidler,

Morris, & Smith (2008), outline a new approach to create entirely a pedagogical dynamics through the creation of a written social context, an online discourse community which presents new opportunities for effective instruction in writing (p. 37). In their opinion, the use of rhetoric and technology and electronic conferences create a common network for students to collaborate and to solve problems, and at the same time communicating with real people. In support of the use of new technology in the composing classroom, Stuart argues for the need to integrate technology in the writing classroom, and that computer initiated literacy learning can harness student learning. He posits that in the digital world, student’s need to be exposed to a variety of perspectives in the educational settings to prepare students to be useful and responsible to use writing to communicate in the digital age noting that “literacy alone is no longer our business,

Literacy, and technology are (p. 14). As teachers in the 21st century, the increasing use of technology and easy accessibility to students opens a can of worm for us to integrate the use of 33 different applications to help student to transform student ways to compose, analyze, and to tell their stories using technology.

Discussions on multimodal text so far have indicated that incorporating this concept will enhance effective writing in the classroom. However, not all teachers are comfortable using this approach. To allay the fear of integrating this concept in the composition classrooms, Palmeri emphasized on his research to draw attention to how process researchers conceptualized alphabetic writings as a deeply multimodal thinking process that shares affinities with other forms of composition such as visual, spatial, and gestural (p. 24). Palmeri is optimistic that the adaption of the radical approach envisaged by Emig composing across modalities (alphabetic, aural, visual, or spatial) will go a long way to help teachers understanding of invention

(planning) and revision (reformulating) as complex recursive process, moving beyond teaching of formulaic, product-centered models such as five-paragraph theme (p. 28). This idea is very encouraging because moving away from the status quo and incorporating new ideas will not only change the dynamics of the classroom but also bring the creative instinct in our students.

Multimodality so far is proving to be an indispensable tool and a guide to student writing.

Cynthia Selfe in support of integrating multimodal composing asserts that even though our institutions and composition classrooms are beginning to compose in multiple modes and media and at the same time encouraging students to do so as well, there is still a gap between theories of multimodal communication and effective classroom practices (IX). She finds this process as exciting because the communicative tools that used to be the prerogative of only a small group of people is now available to individuals such as our students with time and creativity (X). In her view, the digital era is about “how to connect our classroom practices with the thoughtful voices that have begun to theorize how all of these ways of communicating fit together”. She cites 34

Barton & Hamilton arguing that acquisition of literacy skills cannot be done alone; it can serve a useful purpose if meaning is made to be understood in a broader context.

This experience according to Selfe opens the avenue for flexibility in the classroom to enable teachers to confront how students’ reading and interpretation of electronic texts outside the classroom connects or conflict with their work in the classroom (p. XI). Multimodal composition according to Selfe is becoming commonplace and that digital composing environment is challenging writing in the sense that the process can be disruptive for many teachers of English composition. She is optimistic about the future of multimodality but at the same time cautioned that “If our profession continues to focus on solely the teaching of alphabetic composition either online or in print we run the risk of making composition studies increasingly irrelevant to students engaging in contemporary practices of communicating.” (p. 2)

The 21st century technological world requires our student’s not experienced and skilled only in reading (consuming) texts employing multiple modalities, but also in composing in multiple modalities, we want them to communicate effectively with the digital communication networks that characterized workplace, schools, civic life, and span traditional cultural, national, and geopolitical borders. For composition to be relevant, Selfe indicates that “the composition and text needs to grow and change to reflect peoples’ literacy practices in new digital communication environment (p. 3). Selfe’s assertion to identify “teaching of multimodality as a

“pathway to accomplishing long-valued pedagogical goals” is worth noting in the sense that recognizing the expertise students brings to the writing classroom “plays a significant role in defining the purpose of the educational enterprise (p. 5).

In the course of adapting the use of multimodal composing text, I have observed students transfer such skills from other classes to improve their writing skills. Failure to recognize and 35 encourage students to apply such skills will hinder student’s creativity and quest to succeed in the writing classroom. To support this argument, Selfe recommends that, teachers understand their rationale for writing to use multimodal texts in the classroom, and that there is the need for teachers to make their rhetorical base and instructive assessment a key component of the writing classroom by reminding themselves about the importance of assessing their own decisions and practices connected within every composing class. She reiterates that multimodal text can offer useful sites for students to learn the rhetorically based composing process and a rhetorical understanding of the design values inherent in all effective communications. (p. 110)

The issue of multimodality raises concerns and scholars such as Warschauer (2017) have cautioned that “if introduced prematurely, can divert language learners, from the foundational kinds of target language interaction needed for successful second language acquisition” (p. 86).

To guide against the concerns raised by Warschauer, I find Cynthia Selfe’s multimodal composing outline as useful strategies that can be replicated by instructors as a guide in the composing classrooms. She urges teachers to provide an adequate context for learning, tell students what application is intended to do and what it can do. Tell them what the application is for―that is why you are asking them to use it for this composing task. Second, provide adequate motivation to learn. Make sure there is enough room in multimodal composition assignments for creativity and personal investment. Third, provide adequate time for both learning and doing a project well, one of which students can be proud of. Forth, provide adequate assistance for learning. Make yourself available for teaching. Fifth, provide students with opportunities to learn and solve problems collaboratively, with the help of peers (p. 184-185).

I see these strategies among others as the way forward in adapting multimodal composing in our composition classroom. Whereas adaption of such strategies may work for some teachers, 36 others might not find it feasible. In whatever situation, I envisage this approach as a learning process for teachers who may adapt the concept of multimodality in teaching composition.

Research on Multimodal Composing in L2 Settings

Having given the exposé on the challenges second language learners go through in the composition classroom, and having also discussed the emphasis on teaching of grammar without recourse to writing, the use of placement test which hinders students ability to progress in taking credit hours in composition rather than spending a great amount of time moving from one developmental class to the other, and lastly, the necessity for L2 learners to receive quality instructional time with teachers who are prepared to go extra mile to know the student needs and to adopt the right strategies to help students to achieve their learning objectives. The review of such issues calls for the need to take a look at research on multimodality in L2 settings and how the inculcation of this writing strategy will help to address if not all, but to improve student writing.

The 21st century is blessed with technology and its usage cuts across all barrier thereby giving equal opportunities to users irrespective of race, gender, religion, or creed. Technology has become the face of the 21st century and making use of technology in the composition classroom will be a laudable idea. Technology simply has become a student companion, spending an enormous amount of time on social media and other applications. Student’s addiction and usage of technology makes it easier for teachers to help, and guide students to use this medium of communication to improve their writing. The majority of students already use different software applications to create personal videos, blog posts, podcasts, and many more.

There is the wise saying that we learn from the known to the unknown, and facilitating a learning process to help students to use their acquired skills on technology in writing, will be a 37 huge asset and a source of great relief to both teachers and students. I want teachers and students to share their stories about using technology to improve writing similar to my experience with a student who found the integration of pictures, videos, and others a using way to improve and to develop his literacy skills during writing. I followed with much interest the success story of one of my students who was initially struggling with his previous essays which were all centered on the use of alphabetic text. I was worried and concerned about the student writing and I was thinking about what to do to help the student. The immediate thought was to refer him to the writing center, but when I saw his second assignment which was based on multimodal text, I had a sigh of relief because the student had taken control and full responsibility of his writing. I saw the student’s progress to use pictures, videos, graphs, and charts to tell his personal story. This student’s ability to take full responsibility of his writing by adapting a new writing strategy convinced me to learn more about multimodal composing text. As an instructor, I was happy to see my student taking complete ownership of his writing and applying outside knowledge to achieve success in the composition classroom is a story worthy of sharing.

Multimodality encourages integration of culture and the use of symbols as alluded by

Atkinson (2004). Daniel Ruefman (2015) in contributing towards the multimodal discussions conducted a pilot study to examine the viability of multimodal theme-sets as a means of bridging the literacy and cultural divides that often subjugate international students within the mainstream composition classroom. The quasi-experimental study examines 2 linguistically diverse, mainstream writing classrooms with significant L2 international student enrollment to identify how multimodal theme-sets can more effectively engage students across existing cultural and literacy barriers. The study revealed that incorporating multimodal theme-sets in the test group bridged literacy and linguistic gaps that existed between native and nonnative students, and with 38 assigned readings. The results from the study indicated that students were more easily able to identify core concepts introduced in the assigned reading, while observations demonstrated more in-depth conversations between students than those of the control group (p. 101).

Moreover, the final assessment according to the author indicated that more students in the test group (both native and nonnative speakers) scored “exceptional” during the end-of-term assessment, suggesting that students who accessed course content through theme-sets were better positioned to apply that information in their writing (p. 100). The overwhelming improvement in my student’s writing as a result of the use of multimodal composing made me to probe further to tell students stories about their experiences, challenges, and lessons learned from this writing strategy. To reecho, the words of Constance Weaver teachers need to help students not to only generate rhetorical ideas but to work with them throughout the writing process. A student shared with me that “As an Architecture student, I use different applications in my drawing, and I understand the importance of visual imagery.” The said student was able to transfer skills and knowledge from a different class into the composition classroom to write his stories using visual imagery to his essay with confidence because the student remembers every detail about his previous encounters.

In a study, “Digital Composition in a Second or Foreign Language” by Christoph A

Hafner (2013) the author notes that in the 50 years since the invention of the microchip, we have witnessed dramatic changes in technologies for writing. These changes according to Hafner challenge our very conception of what writing is, as well as how it should be taught to speakers of a second or foreign language. The approach of the study concentrated on the work on digital literacies to provide a useful starting point in thinking about the way of looking at digital literacies as a sets of skills and abilities that are necessary to accomplish socially situated reading 39 and writing tasks, drawing on a range of digital tools—in other words, reading and writing with digital media. In anticipation of the challenges, the study revealed a higher level of conceptual mastery in understanding how to engage in digital practices which often involves using language in combination with other semiotic resources for communication, entering into relationships with new kinds of audiences, constructing new kinds of identities, and participating in new kinds of online spaces. Hafner underlined the following as useful components in considering multimodal concept in the writing classroom: (1) new forms of representation such as hypertext and multimedia; (2) emerging collaborative practices and remix; and (3) access to authentic online audiences (p. 831). This study spurs the need for teachers to take a critical look at multimodality as a framework that will harness student writing.

In discussing the results of the study, Hafner indicated that for digital composition projects like this one to succeed, they must be designed in such a way as to take into account the technological affordances of digital media and their associated digital literacy practices: multimedia, collaboration and remix, and authentic online audiences. Such projects he argues have the potential to engage the expressive power of second or foreign language learners, giving them access to multimodal semiotic resources for meaning-making, collaborative composition processes, and authentic audiences on a potentially global scale. At the same time, they also challenge us, as researchers and practitioners to develop our emerging understanding of digital composition practices and to develop writing pedagogies that go beyond the written word to embed digital literacies in the language curriculum. At BGSU, the well-furnished collaborative lab with both full time and part professionals provides 24/7 technical and logistic support to students working with digital media. The state of art equipment and staff has proofed to be effective and student-centered to work with both teachers and students at no extra costs. I have 40 used the facility several times and I believe if institutions and universities can support student writing through this means, the composition classroom will in the long-run serve as a motivating factor for students to pursue careers in English or other subjects relating to writing. These studies and others give me the motivation to explore how multimodalities can be adapted in first-year second language writing classroom to help learners to create their voice through exposure and equal access of multimodality as a writing tool in the composing process (p. 833). I must admit that having given multimodal prompts to the students as part of a term paper and research, and having also read student’s final projects and reflections on such assignments, I am highly convinced that multimodal composing is rapidly gaining grounds in the composition writing classroom.

In discussing the issue of assessment, the editors cite the work of Charles Moran & Anne

Herrington (2007) to explain further the need to respond to assessing multimodal texts. The authors note that instructive evaluation in composition classrooms does not only reflect on media with which students work and the semiotic modalities such as words, images, sound, color that students adapt in making meaning, but also forms part of the course objective and contextual understanding of other rhetorical constraints and possibilities which takes into account purpose, audience, content, genre, circulation, and organization (p. 103). This in effect means that teachers should identify criteria that have to do with student’s success in identifying appropriate sound levels for specific audiences or the author’s ability to relate multiple modalities in a way that communicates more than the sum of their parts within a particular rhetorical context. Moran

& Herrington recognize the challenges students face as authors of multimodal texts and are also mindful not to suggest that every composition teacher will want or need to develop extensive expertise in creating multimodal texts. In their view, they “feel strongly that teachers who assign 41 and evaluate multimodal texts need to develop some understanding of the challenges involved in composing such texts” (p. 103). The different positions and strategies expressed by scholars in the field, opens the way for additional research and real hands-on class activities to pave the way for the introduction of multimodality in second language composition classroom, but the question then is how, where and when to start?

Conclusion

In this chapter, I talked about in the introduction the goals for embarking on the study as well as the inspirations that made it possible for me to undertake the study. I also defined terms and terminologies to help readers to understand where I am coming from and the contest in which some terms were used. In the Literature review section, I used different subheadings to talk about expert opinions on the issues under discussions. In chapter two, I talk about the methods and methodology used for the study. 42

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

Introduction

I grew up in a culture where story telling plays an integral part of our society. I recall sitting close to my grandmother telling “Anansi” stories. Anansi stories according to Michael

Auld (1993) “are part of an ancient mythology that is rooted in West African folklore and concerns the interaction between divine and semi-divine beings, royalty, humans, animals, plants and seemingly inanimate objects” (Prologue). In his view, “these stories continue to provide a moral foundation for the community” elders use the imagery of Anansi to tell stories that promotes social wellbeing of the people. As a child, siting by the fire side in the evening listening to elderly women and men telling stories about the past, present, and giving assurances of a bright future creates a welcoming environment for children to not only learn from the aged, but to preserve society for posterity. I always long to hear my grand ma speak and telling more stories but the more I get into the story, the less I will hear because my grandma will not continue the story beyond my bed time. It was always the intriguing part, but I had no choice but to go to bed and continue another day. These stories always had both sad and happy endings with the social and moral lessons to learn.

Stories in the Ghanaian culture discuss traditional stories as “methodology which brings beauty to the ways of man, giving him dignity, and expressing joy in life. Folklore prepares man for adult life” Gerald McDermott asserts that stories place individuals “within his culture with oral traditions retold through generations, the social group maintains its community, handing down its culture” (Gerald McDermott). I see the relevance of storytelling in the composing classroom as a way to harness student writing. Students in this study come from a diverse background and I often times refer to my class as “the United Nations” considering the 43 background of foreign students who come to my class. These students have different cultural background with rich experiences and knowledge to share with each other but the unfortunate situation is that these students more often than not, are limited in sharing their ideals, values, and expertise during writing. Students face numerous challenges in the writing classrooms which makes it extremely difficult for them to write, to have a voice, and to express their thoughts in a way that will reflect their values. I see the usefulness of storytelling and narrative as a perfect fit for my methodological approach in the proposed study. In pursuit of my goal for the project, I am inspired by the work of Debra Journet (2012). The chapter on narrative helped me to understand the effectiveness of personal narratives, and how I can use it to tell student’s stories in the classroom. It is interesting to note that using cultural rhetoric concept to write for a second language audience was not an easy task.

The student population I selected for the study, most often than not struggle with the issue of using language either than their own during writing. As an instructor and a student of language, it behooves me to find available tools that have the capability of improving student writing. Shin & Cimasko (2008) in their article on “Multimodal composition in a college ESL class: New tools, traditional norms” advocate for the use of “powerful tools for sharing knowledge and for self-expression” (p.377). In their view, students “understanding specific ways of using non-verbal elements in texts is an essential part of developing certain kinds of disciplinary knowledge for mainstream and ESL learners alike” (p. 377). Indeed, personal observation of student use of multimodal composing in the classroom has been recognized as a useful tool to enhance student writing, hence the need for the study to use storytelling method to bring into the discussions the need to incorporate this concept in the writing classroom. 44

In an attempt to address this need, I adapted the multimodal composing concept to guide students in writing essays and to participate in General Writing Studies (GSW) showcase event.

This exposure gave students in the study the opportunity to use visual imageries to tell their stories about writing. The success stories and quality of students writing convinced me to undertake this study as a way of telling students stories about their experiences in using multimodal composing to write term papers and also to participate in other events in and outside the classroom. This is one of the main reasons why I find the theoretical framework about writing narrative appropriate for this study.

Journet (2012) defines a story as what happened, and a narrative as the way what happened is recounted in words. Even though, both are subject of academic debate gives me the motivation to explore how students in the study are able to use this approach to tell their stories/narratives to achieve their writing needs. In discussing the results of the study, I will elaborate and use student sample work on how students in the study used pictures, images, and others to recount their experiences and representing such ideas in words through writing. In addition, I want to use my knowledge and understanding of storytelling/narrative to bring into the fore front how students were able to incorporate multimodal composing text to enhance writing in L2 settings. I will also use narrative as methodology to analyze the data to tell students stories about their encounter with multimodal text. As part of the study, I intend to focus on using story/narrative to give an account about how students in my proposed study used the concept of multimodal text to construct their narrative in the composing classroom, and to share their stories, their experiences and their knowledge about the process and how it helped them to achieve their learning/writing objectives. 45

Methodological Approach

Storytelling/Narrative

The first theoretical framework that has influenced my research is the work of Debra

Journet. She defines narrative as a powerful word and concept in composition studies. She asserts that the discipline uses narrative as a mode of student writing-literacy narrative or personal narrative which allows students to construct stories of events or actions that are important to them. She further notes that narrative gives value as a way of paying attention to the local and specific characteristics of experience, particularly as they are situated within social and cultural contexts (p. 13). Journet argues further that the conflation of narrative and personal is a product of how narrative research genres have been constructed and employed in the discipline.

Journet also admits that claims are often made that narratives of personal experience are inherently more authentic accounts; she is of the view that such narratives are conventionalized ways of representing disciplinary knowledge. Journet further reiterates that composition narrative deals with unique sets of events or individuals and are constructed with the goal of convincing readers that they represent true accounts of what happened and what it meant (p. 13-

14).

In effect, there are different views about the use of narrative but my interest here is how to use narrative as a tool to help students to tell their own stories. In recounting her experience of narrative writing in the discipline, the author indicates that composition research started in the

80s to emphasize the social contexts and personal histories out of which writing arises and concomitantly to incorporate narrative more explicitly into research genres. In effect, by pursuing this approach, composition participates in what she refer to as “narrative turn” in human sciences: a deepening understanding that narrative is fundamental to how people organize 46 and make sense of their lives (p. 15). I also intend to analyze the data to assess the effectiveness of multimodal text of whether or not it helped students in their writing process.

This mind set and understanding made it possible for me to incorporate a multimodal assignment in my class with the aim of helping students to design, use images that speaks directly to their experiences, knowledge, and interest. One particular moment that stood out to me during the exposé was when a particular student who was struggling to revise an assignment, suddenly, the student took a complete ownership of his multimodal writing component with a sense of urgency and identity to excel in that particular assignment to my amusement. Initially, as an instructor, I was concerned and thinking about what to do to help this struggling student.

My immediate reaction was to refer the student to the writing center, or to schedule a conference to have one-on-one interaction with the student to address the problem. Suddenly, my email beeped just at the time I was about to head to class, the said student’s multimodal draft assignment came in and I decided to skim through quickly before going to class. To my surprise, the student’s writing has changed, the logical sequence of the essay, and argument was simply unbelievable. I decided to find out more about the sudden transformation in the student’s writing.

He told me “teacher, this assignment is about me, and the story I am telling gives me the freedom, motivation, and the passion to write according my own terms”. Really! Where did this come from? I shared the story with one of my dissertation advisors at the time I was not even sure about what to do for my writing. Our conversation gave me the needed insight to see beyond the simple story the student was telling me about his writing. I began to think about how our writing classroom is filled with rules and restrictions making students to freak-out any time a new prompt is to be introduced. I thought about flexibility, student centered approach, 47 storytelling, and above all, motivation as key components needed to address the numerous problems students go through in the composition writing classrooms.

Journet suggests that “one of the main task of studying narrative in every day texts is to document and analyze tacit narrative―narratives that legitimate, direct, and constraint discourse and practices in institutional and professional settings”, asserting that “the study of narrative is the study of culture” (p. 36). I find this very interesting applicable in my classroom settings because my students come from diverse background, they write their essays with different cultural values and norms. The storytelling approach adapted for the students to write narratives in this particular assignment clearly demonstrates students’ ability and passion to use multimodal text to tell their own story to achieve their writing goals. In discussing “Narrative: Applied

Analysis and Methods” Debra Journet talks about how she analyze stories told by Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. She argues that “any narrative analysis needs to be prefaced by an explanation of the practical and theoretical approach” in addition, Journet suggest that such an approach should seek to explain the process in which the data was examined, and “what lenses are being employed for viewing the data (p. 36-37). In the proposed study, my major concern is how I can encourage student to use different writing approaches to reach their writing goals. It is also important to understand the motivating factors such as memory, personal experience, and practical understanding of surrounding issues are key components students adapts to compose relevant text using multimodal approach. To exemplify this strategy as a methodological approach, Journet, cites Roger Schank, arguing that “memory is not just partially structured by narrative but is fundamentally narrative in nature. The author further suggests that “memory functions through the telling of stories that are formed in the social act of rehearsing stories of our experience” (p. 36). I believe if students are able to vividly recall events, memories, and 48 experiences in life during writing, will ensure fluidity using their own voice to put ideas on paper through writing. It is also interesting to note that almost all the topics students selected for this assignment were all centered on topics relating to childhood knowledge, nurtured memories, and day-to-day activities requiring recounting of memories.

The second theoretical framework is the concept of data collection by Shawn Wilson. I found data collection, personal interactions, and observation (p. 128) strategy adapted by Wilson as an important research method that fits into my mode of writing. In his book Research Is

Ceremony, Indigenous Research Methods, Wilson discusses a number of data collection strategies that made me to think deeply about my approach to research in the future. Wilson asserts that knowledge was brought into context by conducting more formalized participant observation at different locations. I believe the core of research is to seek knowledge using the right source, approach, and methods. He observed first hand oral presentations of real people with complete understanding of indigenous research and had the opportunity to discuss and to obtain reliable information pertaining to his research of the indigenous people (p.128). This approach is vital to the establishment of relationship and a source of learning to obtain information from reliable sources.

My methodological approach in this study in part, is influenced by my interaction and engagement with students in the proposed study. I want to use my personal encounter with the students during and after their exposure to multimodal composing to tell their story. In addition, data collection and collaborative analysis is another area I find interesting and rewarding in pursuing this study. Wilson suggests that collaborative analysis of data will ensure accuracy, and effective feedback (p. 131). Unlike Wilson who advocates for the use of intermediaries playing a crucial role acting as gate keepers and also serving as a source of rich experience to provide 49 researchers with the needed knowledge and expertise that are needed to tell their story, I decided to use direct interactions with students to obtain credible, and reliable information. Working with this student population requires trust and the willingness to work closely with students. I made it a top priority to maintain constant working relations with the students during the entire process.

Wilson believes in authenticity as well as checks and balances in data collection. He proposes obtaining credible information including reviewing videos, recordings and listening to people on related issues. I will am guided by this value during the data collection process to tell my students stories from their own perspectives.

Apart from data collections, Wilson’s article also raises other issues which have the potential of contributing to a successful research process. Prominent amongst them is the issue of exclusivity where local inhabitants and community members are excluded from research according to him this can lead to resentfulness of the people towards research (p. 15). He is of the opinion that indigenous research should embrace interactions with the people by engaging them to tell their story and not researchers telling their stories for them. Wilson acknowledges that in recent years there has been a shift in research and that more is being done to bring indigenous communities into the research, and the usefulness of the research is becoming more visible and beneficial to the communities, an arguing that it is a precursor for this change has been the growing number of indigenous people who have excelled in academia and who focus their study on their own people. (p.15)

In this study, I want to hear the voices of my students; I want the students to control the narrative by telling their own stories from their own account, in essence, “the research methodology needs to incorporate their cosmology, worldview, epistemology and ethical beliefs”

(Wilson, p. 15). I see this approach as a way to avoid the “inherent biases and the focus of 50 negative aspects of the people being researched (p. 16). Wilson further draws researchers’ attention to the type of comparison made between the culture been studied and that of the outsider, the language, tone and focus of research and the tendency to rate one culture over the other has become a common feature in the research process (p. 17). It is important for me to be mindful of such set back during the research process. One of the guiding principles of this study is the acknowledgement of student’s perception and views on the topic and this gives me the inspiration to approach the research purely from student’s perspective. Their views, opinions, and understanding of multimodality are the bane for this research and facilitating the process for students to tell their own stories is crucial to the study.

Another inspiration I draw from Wilson’s approach to data collection is the need to establish relationships with the subject and not treating them as the end to a means but as partners in the research process. He uses the term “pre-existing relationships or intermediaries” to establish effective working relationships. I see this aspect as the gate way into the research and to solidify my relationship with students, and this helped me to maintain a constant relationship with students by sending them regular emails discussing their progress in school at the beginning and ending of each semester. This relationship created a teacher-student relationship and this made it easy for me when I needed them for the survey and interview. Students responded in a prompt manner and we were able to schedule time and venue for the data collection. It is interesting to note that students dictated the pace and attended the meeting at their own request.

The positive response from students became the motivating factor during the data collection.

Furthermore, Wilson talks about the dominant role of research to use western values to undermine indigenous research, the habit of researchers to use worldviews, their cultures, and experiences, and knowledge through western eyes and ears presents a challenge to research (p. 51

50). Above all, the issue of indigenous scholars to mimic western scholars also presents a challenge to the research process. As a young researcher, these setbacks in research have given me the motivation to critically analyze available literature reviews, methodology of western and intellectual approach to research of diverse groups. I intend to use this knowledge to situate myself in the research process to avoid similar mistakes in the past. However, the current dynamic of indigenous research presents a shift to present their own perspective to introduce their indigenous beliefs, values, and customs into research.

Wilson notes that this approach has helped research to become more culturally sensitive to indigenous people (p. 15). The article also acknowledges the new focus of research as evolving and the need to go beyond the tendency to compare to mainstream research. Indigenous research should be about the process of developing an indigenous research that allows for theory and methods of practice (p. 19). The process he noted should also celebrate the uniqueness and glory of indigenous cultures, and at the same time allowing for critical examination of shortcomings. Students in the study present practical illustrations of issues raised by Wilson, and

I believe creating and facilitating a healthy learning environment to harness student’s use of acquired knowledge and skills in class with indigenous background to create content in the composing classroom will be a worthy experience. I always find a connection to my indigenous root anytime I am writing or composing an assignment. Making such connections makes me to understand and relate with text, taking into account my own experiences and practices. Similarly, students in the study have a story to tell, a story about how they make meaning, a story about how translation makes it inherently difficult to compose, and above all, a story about using multimodal composing to achieve the writing needs. 52

The final theoretical framework is a chapter from the feminist approach to research by

Royster et. al., (2012). The authors address four critical rhetorical assaying ―terms of engagement as critical imagination, strategic contemplation, social circulation, and globalization.

I will delve into the first two concepts. The main goal here is to talk about why the shift to incorporate visual imagery, design, and other digital means presents will promote effective student writing even though this approach presents its own challenge, the challenge to use technology effectively, the challenge to critically assess student work, the challenge to engage collaboratively with students, and finally, the challenge of teacher’s own understanding of the process. The transition from purely alphabetic text to the use of multimodal composing requires thorough research and this study will seek to provide the basis to incorporate the concept in the writing classroom. I find the feminist framework compelling to my study and I will delve into the concept by making connections to my study.

The term critical imagination according to the authors is used in reference to making connections and seeing possibility in questioning a viewpoint, an experience, and an event, in remaking interpretative framework. It also bring into the fore the “concept of critical imagination as an inquiry tool, a mechanism for seeing the noticed and unnoticed, rethinking what is there, and not there, and speculating about what could be there instead” (p. 19-20). These methodological approaches speak to me and offer me the opportunity to bring into the discussion the effectiveness of students using multimodal text to tell their stories in the composing classroom. I structured the interview using the non-conventional method of soliciting information from participants where the interviewer asks the questions and the interviewee responds to the questions. I wanted this segment to be conversational taking into the account of the respondents as second language learners. This approach enabled me to repeat responses for 53 clarity to make sure we were all on the same page. Detailed analysis will be given in the discussions session where I will talk into details the rationale and the need for me to adapt this method during the data collection.

The study attempts to fill in the gaps of taking for granted student needs in the composition classroom especially when it comes to instructors without the requisite background in teaching second language learners. There are a lot of neglected issues such as the style, approach, and cultural connotations second language learners adapts in the composition classroom that are not noticed by instructors during the composing and revision stages of writing. As a second language learner, finding the right words and terms to express ideas, especially when it involves translation of text from one language to the other, how to incorporate cultural norms and values in student writing to address current issues, how to bring into the composing writing classroom diversity of ideas and purpose needed to shape our classroom?

These are all issues that need to be addressed and finding the right framework to guide students in the writing is the way to go.

The idea of feminist theory to use critical imagination for rescue, recovery, and inscription to address the challenge of expanding knowledge is important to the study. The quest for using questions to know about the past, present, and the future is satisfying to me in the sense that students in the study effectively used their past experience, knowledge, and traditions to compose text in the composing classroom to represent the present and the future. The choice to endow students with the opportunity to engage text relying on the effectiveness of visual imagery serves as a bridge of using only alphabetic text to compose and write essays which fulfils academic writing. One of such students categorically told me that the use of visual imagery made it easier for him to write a narrative about his past, making connections to the present and also 54 finding the right voice to explore the future. To re-live the past is important, and one of the best way to accomplish this is to quote Royster (2012) “listening deeply and reflexively” (p. 19).

Paying attention to such words in second language settings can change the trajectory of the class.

It sometimes pays off by giving students the extra time and attention they need to explain the hidden meaning of their text, and through reflection, the real meaning of the text will come up for review and revisions.

In designing the study, one of the key components that aligns me with the feminist approach is the ability to “think critically, innovatively and to pursue a robust intellectual agenda” (p. 21), in effect, the pursuit to empower students with the skill set to transfer knowledge from cultural, and traditional background into the writing classroom to achieve student success means a lot to me. Prior to the student’s introduction to multimodal composing in the writing classroom, the only writing strategy that the students were familiar with was the use of alphabetic text even though, majority of them unknowingly had been exposed to multimodal composing in different settings had no idea they could transfer such writing skills to enhance their writing. The engagement of students in the study to use multimodal composing writing strategy was to provide an alternative writing approach to help students in the study to tell their stories from their own perspective. To reecho the strategic contemplation framework ― seek to facilitate a process for participants to engage in dialogue, in an exchange with rhetorical groups with the aim of understanding participant’s words, visions, and priorities irrespective of the groups backgrounds (p. 21).

Similarly, students in the study were given the option of using different writing strategies to engage in dialogue, exchange ideas with one another regardless of their background with the aim of giving them the voice to express their personal identities during the various stages of their 55 writing. Another key component of the strategic contemplation is the need to encourage participants to nurture lived experiences (p. 22). The notion of this concept is to provide the basis for researchers and subjects to learn from each other. In recognition to this, students in the study were encouraged to highlight their experiences, knowledge, and expertise during writing by recalling events in their lives that are relevant to their writing. This approach will not only enable students to narrate their stories, but also serve as a learning process for teachers to learn about different cultures and norms.

Whiles I was reading through the strategic contemplation concept, the following questions pose by the authors caught my attention. I believe finding answers to these questions will help teachers and students to understand each other better to share, and to create the right learning space needed for students to achieve their writing needs. “As teachers “what do we notice when we stand back and observe”? I do this very often in the classroom and I use every occasion as a teachable moment to engage students during writing. I talk about their research interest, and share ideas with them to indicate someone is listening and following their work with interest. “What emerges most prominently”? Constant student engagement draws me closer to maintain a healthy working relationship with students. It helps me to know and understand them better and also enables me to give them effective feedback to improve their writing. “How do we imagine, connect with, and open up a space for participants in the study”? This question is critical to student success in the writing classroom. Students in the study were given the opportunity to share space and to collaborate with each other for revisions, and offering useful feedback to engage each other. This connection helps me as an instructor to create a healthy working condition to facilitate student work in the classroom. “How does their work, rhetorical prowess, activism speak to us, inspire us, and understand the past as well as the present”? 56

Obviously, the study presented me with the opportunity to learn from my students to engage in this study with the aim of telling their stories. “How does their work speak to our minds, our hearts, and ethos? Reading students work and having the opportunity to provide the feedback and engaging students one-on-one has helped me to undertake this study to improve student writing.

What lingers in the margins that might not see immediately”? Working with students in the study has thought me the best approach to understand work/writing is to discuss the unseen and hidden issues that have the potential of helping students to improve their writing. Evidently, students in the study have individual story to tell, experience to share, and above all, a life to reflect.

Methods

Research Questions

My quest to see student’s improvement in academic writing in the composition classroom resulted into the need for this study to explore the effectiveness of multimodality in second language classroom settings. After closely monitoring and observing student’s interaction with text using multimodality in and outside the writing classroom, it became apparent to probe further into finding out what is really going on with this writing strategy/framework? To answer this question, I came up with the following questions in an attempt to find out the efficacy of multimodal composing and how it will affect students writing:

What are student’s perceptions of multimodal assignments?

What are students writing needs?

Does multimodal composing help students to achieve their writing needs?

How can students use multimodal composing outside the classroom to participate in

GSW showcase event? 57

These questions helped me to design and adapt the process for data collection that will enable me to obtain the necessary information needed for my research. My approach to the data collection was characterized by two methods―qualitative and quantitative methods. It was not easy deciding the research method to obtain the required information for the research, but after discussions with my dissertation committee, I was convinced that the use of qualitative method to solicit students views, opinions, perceptions, and approach to using multimodal composing writing strategy in writing term papers in and outside the classroom will help me to achieve the goal of the research. Consequently, I designed the study using student surveys and interviews to collect the data.

My choice of qualitative method in part is based on Yilmaz definition asserting that

“qualitative research produces findings not arrived at by statistical procedures or other means of quantification” (p.311). The author acknowledges the simplicity in the definition but what really stands out to me is the focus “on procedures and techniques used to collect and analyze data” (p.

311). According to Yilmaz, “qualitative research is based on the epistemological assumption that social phenomena are so complex and interwoven that they cannot be reduced to isolated variables” (p.311), collecting data from ESOL 1010 class here at BGSU helps me to understand the dynamism and complexity of dealing with the target population hence, my choice of using qualitative method to analyze the data. After going through the IRB procedure and approval, I designed the survey and interview questions and ultimately administered to students in the study.

The email letters for recruiting, survey and interview questions is attached in the appendix. 58

Participants

Participants of the study are ESOL 1010 Academic Composition II students.

The class is designed for upper-intermediate level non-native speakers of English, students in this class review and practice grammar concepts in the context of writing short essays. With the goal of becoming independent writers, students learn rhetorical concepts, self-editing strategies, and academic vocabulary. The course prepares students for GSW 1100.

The study identified three sets of participants―students who took part in the face-to-face survey and interview and the ESOL director to collect the data. In using this approach, I did not impose my authority as the teacher on students who choose to take part in the exercise. Students were given the option to either take part or not. Out of the 28 students I taught during the period―Fall 2017 and spring 2018― 15 students accepted the invitation to participate in the study. This is the breakdown of the participants:

• 15 students, five females, and ten males took part in the survey

• 4 participated in the interview, and

• 1 ESOL director

The interview was primarily based on students who had the opportunity to take in the

General Writing Studies (GSW) a regular writing program by the English Department at

Bowling Green State University. The rationale for including the ESOL Director in the study is to draw the department into the discussion and to assess her point of view as an instructor, and also as an administrator. 59

Data Collection

Survey

I distributed paper copies of survey questions to students who were enrolled in ESOL

1010 classes. Before administering the survey, students were given a consent forms to read through and either accept to take part or refuse to be part of the study. The consent forms explained the background of the study, procedure, potential risk, potential benefits, confidentiality, contact information, consent, and signature portion. Students were to sign and date the forms to indicate approval of their participation. The questions involved YES or NO questions, multiple choice questions, and in some cases, write a sentence to give reasons to support the answers. The survey and interview took between 15-30 minutes to complete.

There was no specific place set to conduct the survey; students had the opportunity to choose the venue on campus at their own convenience. My office and the Jerome library became the two places where the surveys were conducted.

Interview

Two different interviews were conducted ―The first involved 4 students and the second was with the director, ESOL department who has had the privilege of teaching the ESOL 1010 class. In the interview, students shared their stories before, during and after participating in the

Showcase event. The interview segment with the Director will helped me to discuss her/student’s perspective on multimodal composing in L2 settings. The current director has taught ESOL 1010 in the past and her input will be a useful resource to the study. I focused on her motivation to use multimodal text, how students responded, challenges, and recommendations. The outcome will provide the basis for analysis with past and present students in the study. The student interview was conducted in my office and the final interview with the ESOL director was conducted in her 60 office. As usual, I communicated with participant seeking their opinions about setting the venue for the interview. All the students decided to come to my office for the interview and the ESOL directed opted for me to interview in her office.

Recording Device

The interview was conducted using the recording device in my cell phone. Before recording, I explained the interview procedure to use my cell phone to record the conversations. I did indicate to them that I will play back to them to make sure every word was captured on the device. It was agreed that I should not use their names but rather use their initials to distinguish the various speakers. I also assured them the audio would be stored in accordance with the terms outlined in the IRB and the consent forms respectively. I did indicate that I was going to manually transcript the interview as part of my commitment to protect their privacy. After the interview, I uploaded the transcript from my phone unto my laptop for safety keeping and I saved the document using codes that no one will have access to.

Recruitment

Recruitment was strictly voluntary. I emailed students by explaining the need for me to contact them to take part in a survey and an interview for my dissertation based on their knowledge on the use of multimodal composing in and outside the classroom. Students who responded to my email, received followed up emails to arrange on the time and venue at their own convenience. I also had the chance to meet some of the students on campus in and out of classes, and we talked about the survey and interview. Students who accepted to take part in the both the survey and interview were briefed on the proposed study and the rationale for soliciting their cooperation in the study. Students who volunteer to take part were given the option to opt out at any time of the process and will not be held accountable for their inability to continue with 61 the process. The study did not compel students to participate against their wish. Whereas I will welcome the inclusion of all students, I am mindful of the ethical rules and roles of researchers to uphold the rights and freedoms of subjects. In the case of the ESOL Director, I sent a formal request soliciting her participation in the study to help me to broaden the scope of my study and she accepted to take part in the study.

Coding

The interview transcript of both students and the ESOL director would be coded using reoccurring phrases and themes to generate headings for interpretation and analysis. Charts and other images would be used for the purpose of interpretations of data.

Conclusion

In this chapter, I have discussed the rationale for adapting the different methodological approaches for the study. I also talked about the participants, survey, interview, and the data collection process. I used theories and expert opinions to make an informed decision. These sources helped me to understand, collaborate and engage with students in the study to encourage them to tell their stories from their own perspectives. In chapter three, I will discuss the results of the study by providing graphs and charts other relevant text and to set the stage for discussions in chapter four. The results session will include the survey and interviews with both students and the ESOL director. 62

CHAPTER THREE: SURVEY ANALYSIS-PERCEPTION OF STUDENT USE OF

MULTIMODAL COMPOSING

Results

In this section, I analyze the results of a survey I conducted for my dissertation. The survey represents responses from fifteen (15) students who had previously taken English for

Speakers of Second Language (ESOL) class― ESOL 1010 Academic Composing II that I taught during the fall of 2017 and spring 2018. The rationale for using this target group was to help me to understand whether or not students use multimodal composing during writing in class or outside the classroom. It was also important for me to use this study to critically assess whether multimodality has a place in the writing classroom. It is true that the study was conducted in second language settings, but the relevance of the study cuts across all writing classrooms. The survey questions for both students and the ESOL director are attached in the Appendix.

Survey Questions

A total of 15 students participated in the study. 10 were males and 5 were females. The rationale for including this question was to ensure balance opinions of both sexes. The table below gives the breakdown of the participants:

Table 1. Gender.

Cumulative

Frequency Percent Percent

Valid MALE 10 66.7 66.7

FEMALE 5 33.3 100.0

Total 15 100.0 63

The rationale for this question was to find out whether student perception about the use of multimodality was the same irrespective of year in school. I will make reference to this when analyzing the data in response to questions 5, 7, 8, and 9.

Table 2. School Year.

Cumulative

Frequency Percent Percent

Valid FRESHMAN 1 6.7 6.7

SOPHOMORE 9 60.0 66.7

JUNIOR 3 20.0 86.7

SENIOR 2 13.3 100.0

Total 15 100.0

The goal for question 3 was to find out the number of years students have studied

English. This will help me to understand whether students’ ability to use or not use multimodality had anything to do with the number of years participants studied English. Again this will play a key role in analyzing questions 5, 7, 8, and 9.

The table below is the summary of student’s response to the number of years they have studied

English: 64

Table 3. Years Studied English.

Number of Students Number of years studied English

5 2

1 3

1 4

1 5

1 6

1 8

3 10

1 14

1 15

The aim for question 4 was to find out specifically which aspect of English students studies most. The purpose for this question was to assess the effectiveness and use of these skills in the writing classroom. This table would be will be used to analyze questions 5, 7, 8, and 9.

Table 4. Area of English Studied.

Cumulative

Frequency Percent Percent

Valid GRAMMAR 10 66.7 66.7

VOCABULARY 2 13.3 80.0

WRITING 3 20.0 100.0

Total 15 100.0

The results from the above table indicate that students study grammar most, followed by

writing, and vocabulary. Again this will play a key role in analyzing questions 5, 7, 8, and 9. 65

Table 5. Use of Visual Imagery.

Cumulative

Frequency Percent Percent

Valid YES 14 93.3 93.3

NO 1 6.7 100.0

Total 15 100.0

Question 5 of the survey question was to find out whether students used multimodal writing strategies during writing. To help students understand the question, the word multimodality was explained in simple terms for the students to answer the question with the right response. This question was to find out whether students in the study were exposed to any form of writing in and outside the ESOL 1010 writing class. The table above is the breakdown of the response from participants.

Response from the above table indicates that 93 percent of the students use various aspect of multimodality in the writing.

In a follow up question, participants were asked to indicate where they learned or acquired the skill of using visual imagery in their writing. The table below is a summary of response from participants who answered “Yes” in question 5―using pictures, videos, clip art, or audio other than written text. 66

Table 6. Source of Acquisition of Skills.

Group Frequency Relative Rank

Frequency

ESOL/Class 11 73.3% 1

In my major 1 6.7% 2

Work 1 6.7% 2

No Prior 1

Experience

Different 1 6.7% 2

situation

15

Results from the above table show that 11 of the participants acquired the skills of using multimodal text were in ESOL writing class, 1 from major, another from work, and the other from a different institution. One respondent said he had no prior experience in using multimodal text. The above result is further represented in the pie chart below to for clarity. 67

6.7% 6.7%

6.7%

73.3%

ESOL/Class In my major Work No Prior Experience Different Institution

Figure 3. Source of Student Acquisition of Skills.

The chart above represents that 78.6 percent representing 11 participants in the study acquired the skills of using multimodality in ESOL class. 7.1 percent each represents the other three categories―major, work, and different situations.

Table 7. Results of Multimodal Text.

Cumulative

Frequency Percent Percent

Valid YES 15 100.0 100.0

Question 7 of the survey question was to find out whether students have experienced improvement in their writing? Results from survey shows that all the respondents witnessed an 68 improvement in their writing after using multimodal composing text during writing. I was surprised by these results because the way students reacted in class during the introduction of multimodal composing text, suggested that students were not ready to explore new writing genre.

As indicated during the interview, some were confused, others were not excited, and yet some were unsure about how the process will work out for them. Reading such responses and revisiting their work in class exemplifies their assertion that multimodal composing text helped them to see improvement in their writing.

Table 8. Assessing Multimodal Text.

The table below gives the breakdown of how students responded to the question:

HOW WOULD YOU RATE YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL IN USING

MULTIMODAL TEXT?

Cumulative

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent

Valid HIGH 8 53.3 53.3 53.3

MEDIUM 7 46.7 46.7 100.0

Total 15 100.0 100.0

This response from participants in part, is due to how students took the initiative and responsibility of their writing to incorporate multimodal text to achieve their writing goals.

Question 9 is an open ended question and the following responses represent the answers student gave during the survey. Question 9 seeks to hear from students experience with multimodal composing. The question for the survey was “Can you share one thing about multimodal composing that helped you to achieve your writing needs”? This is an open ended question and 69 these represents the actual answers given by students in response to the question. The table below is a summary of the responses from participants during the survey.

Table 9. Students Use of Visual Imagery.

Group Group Relative Rank

Frequency

Pictures for 6 42.9% 1

clarity

Organize ideas 5 35.7% 2

Brochure 2 14.3% 3

Logo 2 14.3% 3

15 70

14.3%

14.3% 42.9%

35.7%

Pictures for clarity Organise ideas Brochure Logo

Figure 4. Student Use of Visual Imagery.

These responses indicate that 6 participants representing 42.9 percent in the study used pictures to compose text for clarity. 5 representing 35.7 percent said they used visual imagery to organize ideas. 2 representing 14 percent used it to design brochure to communicate to the audience, and finally, 2 representing 14.3 percent of the participants used it to design loges to write a personal narrative for class assignment. I must reiterate that my desire to adapt this concept of writing in the classroom was in response to students writing and engagement with text in the writing classroom. In chapter one, I talked about my inspiration into undertaking this study for my dissertation. In part, I told the story about translation of my local language “Twi” into

English for my grandmother in response to the relevant issue of writing challenges second language students go through in the composition classrooms. As an instructor, I see students going through these everyday as I read through their essays and giving them feedback. In 71 response to such student writing challenges, I decided to expose students in the study to explore new ways of writing to achieve their learning goals.

The final survey question (10) was to find out whether students will choose to adapt either multimodal text or alphabetic after experiencing the use of multimodal composing text during writing. The table below is the response from the participants:

Table 10. Student Preference in Writing.

CHOICE OF WRITING Cumulative Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent Valid MULTIMODAL TEXT 15 100.0 100.0 100.0

Results from the above table shows that students in the study were very comfortable in using multimodal composing text to write essays in and outside the writing classroom. All the 15 participants in the study said they will use multimodal text to as compared to the use of alphabetic text to write essays and other term papers.

Discussion

The main aim of this study was to find out whether multimodality plays a major role in student writing. In discussing the results of the survey, I will incorporate participants’ work on multimodal composing in class during the process to support the findings. These student works are not additional data collected during the study but as indicated in the methodology section, results of the study would be used to tell students own stories about their exposure to the use of multimodal composing text. The results in table 5 above shows that 93 percent of the students surveyed had previously used multimodal text in writing. Students in the study indicated that they have either used it in ESOL 1010 class, other classes, or on job related projects. The concept 72 of multimodality is not new; this findings supports previous research by Jason Palmeri (2012), arguing that multimodal concept is not new and that it has been used by different teachers over the years.

To buttress his argument, Palmeri (2012) elaborates on his study of theories of the process of movement in the 1970s and 1980s (Berthoff; Emig; Flower and Hayes; Perl;

Sommers). In his research, he found a rich tradition of compositionists studying and teaching writing profoundly using multimodal approach (2012, p. 24). In effect, Palmeri believes that the conversation about multimodality in the composition classroom was, and still is, recognized in the scholarship. Similarly, the willingness of students in the study to use pictures, videos, clip art, and audio in the composition classroom conforms to the long tradition of writing strategies with the aim of enhancing student writing. The over whelming response by students in the study show that students witnessed an improvement in their writing after being exposed to the use of multimodal composing text in their writing. As started in the results in Table 5, 14 out of the 15 surveyed indicated that they were exposed to the use of multimodal text in one form or the other, and according to the participants, it helped them to deepen their understanding and subsequently, using it to write their essays.

The result from the open ended questions ―5 and 6 shows that students in the study had already been exposed to visual imagery such as pictures, videos, clip art, and other digital forms of writing. Participants stated that their knowledge about visual imagery prior to the introduction of the multimodal composing helped them to successfully transfer such knowledge into the writing classroom. Response from participants answers the research question can multimodal text help students to develop their writing needs? To support the assertion made by students during the interview with regards to their prior knowledge of using visual imagery, I will share 73 three student class works here to show how participants used images to express their emotions, identities and cultural connections during writing. I will follow the discussion by using expert opinion to buttress my point.

The image below which is represented by “figure” was used by a participant in the study who used multimodal text in place of alphabetic text to write essays in or outside the classroom.

She said in the open ended question that exposure to multimodal text helped her to be creative and effective in writing essays for class assignment. This student used visual imagery write to a narrative about her high school days falling in love with acoustic music. In the narrative, the student indicated that EDC stands for “Electric Daisy Carnivals” an international musical festival celebrated in many countries worldwide and how she cannot wait for the festival to be celebrated in her country. Using nonlinguistic images such as this according to her makes it easy for her to express her emotions through writing.

Figure 5. Student Work 1. 74

The use of visual imagery by students in the study to achieve their writing goals is in line with Shin & Cimasko’s assertion that “L2 writers expressing meanings in that digital multimedia provide writers with imagery and audio-visual modes of representation beyond the linguistic mode for engaging in academic genres, if writers are willing to use these non-linguistic modes”

(p. 376). Results from the study above indicate that students in the study used pictures, sound, audio, and other visual imagery to tell their story and they accepted the challenge to explore the use of multimodality to compose essays and to engage in other collaborative writing in class to harness their writing. I must admit that this among other individual stories by students in the study helped me to learn more about multimodal text than when I was a student. Student’s openness to take full responsibility to produce such work in and outside the writing classroom indeed motivated me to intensify my research about the effective use of multimodal text.

The second image below is another student work in class during the course of the semester. This student also took part in the study and indicated that her ability to use multimodal composing was in part due to her prior knowledge of using visual imagery to write. In the open ended question, the participant said “Using pictures to tell my own story is a good thing, and it helps me to stay focus when writing”

Figure 6. Student Work 2 . 75

This student used visual imagery to talk about her travelling experiences, her determination to travel the world, and the desire to share such memories with her audience. The successful use of multimodal text by the student during writing to recall memorable occasions and experiences, and sharing this image with her audience to satisfy her desire to travel around the world, explains the effectiveness of multimodal text. To illustrate their point, Shin &

Cimasko (2008) cites John Seely Brown arguing that “these non-linguistic modes enable writers to present and communicate knowledge in different ways and to convey meanings within certain subject areas more powerfully and naturally than the linguistic mode” (P. 376). The effective use of non-linguistic modes by the student explains her rationale to answer “Yes” in the survey to use multimodal text as compared to alphabetic text.

The final image shows the effective way this student in the study was able to use visual imagery in the form of letters to write a narrative about his family. The letters represents names in his family and he was able to effectively use these images to write a complete account about his family. Each letter he said represents a member of his family and he was able to use this visual imagery to talk about his family, culture, color, relationships, and upbringing. He indicated the visual representation of letters gave him the needed impetus to plan well for his essay in terms of organization, ideas, audience, taking responsibility, engagement, and making the right connections with the audience.

Smart ZF uniform

Figure 7. Student Work 3. 76

Shin & Cimasko further states that “Such, multimodal approaches to composition provide writers who are having difficulty in using language, including those writers for whom English is a second language (ESL), with powerful tools for sharing knowledge and for self-expression.

In the authors’ view, there are “practical benefits of multimodal composition, researchers argue that understanding specific ways of using non-verbal elements in texts is an essential part of developing certain kinds of disciplinary knowledge for mainstream and ESL learners alike” (p.

376-377). The progress made by students in the course of the semester suggests that they were having fun using multimodal components to write essays in class. The process of using visual elements to write helped students to demonstrates their capabilities and readiness to explore new ideas during writing to achieve results. As an instructor, there is nothing more than seeing students effectively using ideas, knowledge, and skills acquired in class to demonstrate understanding and showing the world such achievements.

In table 6 above, the overwhelming response of students said they witnessed an improvement in their writing after integrating multimodal text. All the students who were interviewed responded “Yes” to indicate that multimodal text helped them to achieve their writing needs. To support student’s claim in the survey, I will share an encounter I had with one of the participants during the drafting process in class to show what multimodal composing meant to the said individual. Prior to the introduction of multimodal writing in class, students were given assignment which was based on alphabetic text without digital component. This particular student was struggling with the assignment and that made me to wonder what is really going on with the student writer.

However, in essay two, which required multimodal component witnessed a complete transformation in the student writing. The student took a complete ownership of his second essay 77 and this made me to probe further to find out what made the difference in his writing. I asked the student what is the secret behind your success in essay two? The student smiled and said, “This essay is about me” I used pictures to tell my story and according to him, the visual representation gave him the needed motivation to write his narrative. As indicated earlier, this research is about the students telling their own stories about the use of multimodal text in and outside the writing classroom to communicate their thoughts, experiences, and emotions to achieve their learning objectives and these students in the study, all have stories to tell.

Palmeri (2012) reiterates the need for multimodal composing suggesting that it can enhance student invention and revision of alphabetic text (p. 32). Flower & Hayes contributing to the discussions note that if students are writing about a familiar place, the writer might perceive sensory (auditory, visual, olfactory) images of the place (p. 33). In effect, the “writer’s organizational work in terms of visual shape rather than in terms of verbal outline” will enhance student writing. Palmeri in explaining this process focuses on Flower and Hayes definition of writing as an act of translation from multimodal mind to alphabetic page. In his view, adaption of this method will incite writing instructors to consider including multimodal invention activities in writing classes. He also believes that if teachers restrict students to word based planning activities to generate ideas, for defining rhetorical purpose, for analyzing audience, we may unduly limiting their ability to think deeply about their rhetorical tasks (p. 34).

In talking about why students in the study had a positive impression about multimodal composing text, in part was due to my approach to incorporate the idea in class by using real and practical examples during class discussions to talk about the concept. I took the initiative to incorporate multimodality as a way of giving students the opportunity to explore different genre to enhance their writing. At the time I was introducing this assignment, I had no idea of pursuing 78 a research in this area. The results and responds from student work drew my attention to the need to conduct the study to find out whether multimodal composing can help students in their writing. Students in the study have personal stories to share and in one instance, a participant who was struggling with his first essay took a complete ownership of his second essay which required students to use multimodal text to compose their essay. I wanted to know more about the sudden twist and increasing motivation of the student to produce a better essay than his previous work. I asked the student what is the secret behind his success in essay two? The student smiled and said, “This essay is about me” I used pictures to tell my story and according to him the visual representation gave him the needed motivation to write his narrative. The response from the students increased my desire to probe further about the effectiveness of multimodal text.

The results in Table 7 indicate that 53.3 percent of the students surveyed rate their confidence level high and 47.3 percent rate their confidence level medium. Participant’s responds to this question of having a high and medium view about multimodal composing can be attributed in part to the process in which multimodal assignment was introduced to students.

In a class exercise to introduce students to the concept of multimodality, I asked students to tell me stories about places they visited during the spring break. Prior to this exercise, the students had told me where they would be spending their break. On return to school, I intentionally asked the student who went to Hollywood to tell the class about Cancun beach in

Mexico knowing very well that this student had no idea about the place because she did not go there during the break. I wanted use this as a teachable moment for the students to have a practical experience of visual representation and what it means to incorporate such writing strategy. I did not want to spoon feed them, but rather to give them a real experience to enable 79 them to make an informed decision when it comes to the use of multimodal text. It was a nightmare and students were stung by my approach. Obviously, the student could not tell her story about the place she had not visited. In effect, the purpose of this exercise was to bring out the difference of using visual imagery by allowing students to recall places they have visited before and compare to how they will do when talking about places they have not visited. After the student had struggled and failed to give a vivid account of the place she has not visited, I decided to give her the chance to talk about Hollywood the place she actually visited during the spring break. I had to intervene because she would not stop talking about her experiences. I used the two scenarios to talk about the effectiveness of using multimodal text in writing.

To broaden their understanding, the students did collaborative writing using genre-based writing pedagogy a chapter from the class textbook-Inside Writing 3 by Kate Adams to elaborate on how students can successfully use visual imagery to write a narrative. My initiative to engage in this exercise is in line with Shipka in her book “Toward a Composition Made Whole” talks about the need to inculcate different genres in our composition writing class to take advantage of the emerging technology. Her quest to expose participants through works on different writing styles in music, dance, economies, and history, brings to the fore the issue of composition writing cutting across curriculum (p. 1). In recent years, many departments encourage their students to take writing classes to improve their writing, others also compel students to take writing classes as the basis for acceptance into a particular program, whilst many use writing to place students into different composition writing classes. Irrespective of the approach, writing has become a regular feature in our college institutions. The question is how can English teachers keep up with the increasing demand of students move forward into our composition classrooms? 80

Personally, I see the composition classroom as a cutting edge to harness the digital space, to make writing more attractive, creative, and above all, place students would like to spend much time to explore the unknown through writing. I share Shipka’s view by taking the responsibility to introduce my students to the use of multimodal text. Change is not easy, it comes with challenges and responsibilities and I believe the study contributes to the discussions on the efficacy of adapting multimodal text in the writing classroom.

The results from table 7 also conforms to the rhetorical writing strategies Cynthia Selfe adapted to encourage teachers to set the ground breaking rules towards implementing effective multimodal composing text in the writing classroom. Taking inspiration from Selfe, I adapted the following working strategies in my classroom to help students to use multimodal text:

Encourage to use multimodal text

Multimodal text does not require teachers to be digital experts

Using available resources such as computer based classrooms during lectures

Collaboration with colleagues, writing labs and other campus based logistical support

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes

Multimodal text requires time/group activities/personal time with students

Results from question 10 show that students in the study when given the chance to choose between using alphabetic text and multimodal composing, all participants said they will choose multimodal text to write term papers and other forms of assignment. Clearly, the responsibility for students in the study to use visual imagery in their writing suggests the rational and choice to use multimodal text. The results in question 10 suggest all the 15 participants said they will choose multimodal composing text over alphabetic text. Again as apart of telling student’s stories to support participant’s responses during the survey, I will share the story of one of the 81 participants of the study. The participant stated during the interview that “I am an architecture student; I use drawings all the time to build and designing structures on the computer”, and the idea to transfer knowledge from my major into the writing classrooms gives me the needed motivation to continue to do what I do best in my other class. This statement from the student explains how personal and depth of understanding students in the study brought into the discussions. The use of multimodality enables writers to rely on knowledge, expertise, and interest to transfer such skills into the writing classroom for results. The student in question is already familiar in using visual imagery in his major and adapting such skills into the composition classroom gives him additional motivation to excel during writing. Student Image in figure 2 above tells a story about how she was able to effectively transfer ideas about designing her Instagram page with images to tell her story about travelling. Prior to the student’s introduction of multimodality in the in her writing class, he was already using visual imagery to target her audience on Instagram. Harnessing such expertise according her gave him the confidence to develop her interest in writing. In the nutshell, the idea of multimodality as indicated by participants in the study, seek to provide an additional impetus to help students to achieve their writing goals. These student stories explain the overwhelming response from students to choose multimodal text from alphabetic text.

Results from the above study shows that students in the study effectively used the acquired skills in multimodal composing text to harness their writing to achieve the intended goals. In a sense, multimodality helps to create writing space to engage students in writing at their own pace, choice, interest and making connections to already acquired knowledge and skills. This means students come into the writing classroom with some rich background and by equipping them with the right writing tools will be the right thing to do. Student engagement during the use 82 of multimodal text over the period assured students that they were not alone throughout the composing, revision, and submission of their work. Students in the study were given the opportunity to work with the “Collab Lab” a new state of art facility on campus which provides workshops and seminars for students to use different applications during writing. I utilized this resource to engage in collaborative effort with the personnel to help students to identify applications that can help them to achieve their writing goals in a new settings or writing space.

Conclusion

In this chapter, I reviewed survey results and discussed issues raised by participants in the study with regards to their use of multimodal text during writing in and outside the classroom. I analyzed the results using student work to tell their own stories about their experiences, perceptions, and the interest to use multimodal text. I also expanded the conversation by making connections to previous studies, using research and expert opinions to buttress my argument about the need to incorporate multimodal text in the second language settings. In chapter four, I analyze four student interviews and one interview with the ESOL director who had had the opportunity to teach the class focused on in this study. 83

CHAPTER FOUR: INTERVIEW ANALYSIS-PERCEPTION OF STUDENT USE OF

MULTIMODAL COMPOSING

Results/Discussion

Four student interviews and one interview with the Director, English for Speakers of

Other Languages (ESOL) were conducted to tell student stories about the use of multimodal text in and outside the writing classroom. The focus of the interview was restricted to students who participated in the General Studies Writing (GSW) program ―Showcase. This event is conducted by the writing program every semester to give students the opportunity to interact with the Bowling Green State University (BGSU) faculty and community. Participants in the event share their work stepping outside their contort zone to engage the audience and talking about their work. Participants display their work and answers questions from attendees including panel members who evaluate student work and at the end of the day, awards are given to deserving winners.

Behind the Scene Incident Leading to the Study

I was approached by my boss the Director of the ESOL program about whether I would be interested in participating in the event. My initial reaction was no, but after a careful consideration, I decided to give it a trial by talking to my students if they will be interested in the event. I discussed the event with the class and they all said no. I asked why not? And one of the students told me that there is no way they could compete with students in the GSW program because those are higher level classes. We went back and forth in Q&A about the event. One thing that changed the trajectory of the conversation was when a student asked the question, what are we going to present? I answered your work from the class. Another student asked whether he could present the brochure project he is working on? I said yes. I told them the event was about 84 sharing their work with the entire community and if they feel confident about the work they have been doing in the class, then there is nothing that can stop them from participating in the event.

Five students confirmed their participation but in the end, four students committed to the program.

Follow-Up Conversation and Student Participation in GSW Showcase Event

The following class period, I decided to take a few minutes from the class schedule to discuss the event, and issues that came up convinced me that multimodal composing plays an integral role in student writing. This became the defining moment for me to undertake the study. My students did not win any awards but the certificate of participation was enough for them to be recognized. The following semester, I did not wait to be talked into the next event because the benefit and results from the previous engagement was still fresh in my mind. Three students accepted and committed to taking part in the second event in the fall. Students collaborated with each other to present their work―brochure, logo, and questionnaire report. They won the award for best collaboration presentation. As usual, we had a session in class to talk about the event and responses from the students convinced me to include an interview portion of the study to give students the chance to tell their stories. Class discussions on the issue would be addressed in the results and discussion sessions of the dissertation. Out of the seven students who participated in the event, four accepted to be interviewed. The rationale for including the interview segment was to hear the students talk about their experience, perception, challenges and other issues which will help my study. Apart from the student interview, I saw the need to interview the ESOL

Director because in the past, she had taught the same class and I thought it will be necessary to hear her views about using multimodality in teaching her class. Five themes emerged from 85 transcribing responses from participants during the interview, and in this section, I will analyze the result using the following subheadings to present issues discussed during the interview.

Initial Reaction

Challenges

Types of projects students engaged in during the event

Benefits

Assessment

Results

In this section, I will use images representing the various responses from both the students and ESOL Director’s interviews to analyze the interview data. Details of the interview transcript would be provided in the appendix for reference. I will also use excerpts from my interview with the ESOL director to elaborate on how her students reacted when she introduced multimodality in her class. It will be recalled that the ESOL director had taught the ESOL 1010 class and used multimodal composing text during writing. Even though we have taught the same course―ESOL 1010 class analyzing the reactions from both classes will help me to tell the students stories of using multimodal text. The two perspectives will provide the basis to understand the mindset of students anytime a new form of writing strategy is been introduced. 86

Figure 8. Students Reaction to Multimodal Text. 87

The figure above captures student’s reaction in class about using multimodal composing text to write essays for term papers. Response from the survey indicated that some students were nervous, whiles others were excited, and some were confused and shocked about the process.

Other students were excited; some were okay with the assignment. Student’s reaction to adapt a new form of writing did not go well at the beginning, but with time and class activities, students were able to adapt and composed written text using multimodal text. The challenge students in the study faced prior to the use of multimodal text was expected because they were all used to the traditional form of writing―alphabetic text. As an instructor, it was a necessary initiative to expose students to different writing methods particularly to take advantage of the digital world to harness their writing. 88

Figure 9. Types of Student Projects. 89

The figure above demonstrates the different types of projects students used during the presentation. In this image, students talked about the following types of projects they used for the event: Pictures, designing logos, brochures, charts, graphs, and questionnaires to report about their study, writing narratives and telling their stories, experiences, and interest. The participants also talked about other projects such as study abroad, recipe style, and photo post essay. I will use some excerpts from my interview with the ESOL director to discuss her student projects to bring out the significance of multimodality.

Figure 10. Students Overcoming Challenges.

The image above discusses the challenges participants in the study went through before, during, and after the showcase event. Responses from students include, talking about the paper in class, achieving their goals in writing, being satisfied with preparations, and excitement.

Participants also talked preparedness and challenges. I see this approach as a useful process to capture the various responses from the participants rather than writing each individual response. 90

It also reaffirms the multimodal approach by using the visual imagery to represent thoughts and ideas of the participants in these settings.

Figure 11. Benefit of Students Using Visual Imagery.

The image above will discuss the benefits from using multimodal composing in and outside the writing classroom to achieve their learning objective. Response from students in figure 4 talks about benefits such as the opportunity to showcase their work, how good it looks, how students became confident over time, helping them to be creative, and staying focus.

Others said the process helped them to increase their ability to use multimodal text, adapt different writing strategy, became confident, increased motivation, and helping them to improve writing. 91

Figure 12. Assessment of ESOL Director.

The image below identifies key issues relating to assessment with regards to responses from students and the ESOL director. Results from the figure below show different assessment tools used to help students in the study to evaluate their work. According to the participants talking about the assignment in class, receiving feedback from colleagues and the instructor, using genre-based model to assess student’s work, focusing on what is important, and using exiting genre for assessment helped participants to achieve their writing goals. The assessment part of the interview provides the basis for me as a researcher to critically assess the pros and cons of using multimodality in the writing classroom. I will focus on both students and the

ESOL director’s take on multimodality as the basis for reflection and the way forward. I will also use expert opinions to analyze the data and finally to make recommendation for the use of multimodality in my next chapter. 92

Discussion

The main goal of this study as indicated earlier was to explore the efficacy of multimodality in L2 settings and how it can influence student writing in and outside the classroom. The study also gave opportunities to students to tell their own stories about the use of multimodality to stir the conversation, and if possible advocate for the need to consider integration of this concept/strategy/framework to enhance student writing.

In this section, I will focus on student response during the interview and excerpts from the interview with the ESOL director to analyze the data. I will follow-up with expert opinion and research to buttress the need to integrate multimodality in the writing classroom. Results from the study show that the integration of multimodal text positively impacted student writing and increased passion to use multimodal text when given the chance. The success stories of the participants in part, stems from the integration of visual imagery in the form of pictures, charts, graphs, and digital representations to use multimodal text to write term papers in and outside the writing classroom. According to the students, they used different types of projects such as

Brochure, designing logos for narrative writing, questionnaire, reports and others to achieve their writing objectives. Participants also elaborated on their initial reaction to adapt multimodal writing strategist and how they were able to overcome such challenges. In addition, I will use excerpts from the interview with the ESOL director to reflect on the various responses from the participants in the study to determine whether student view on multimodality is different or the same. Using a different perspective and expert opinion on the issue will contribute immensely towards the discussions. 93

The image in Figure1 discusses participant’s reaction before, during and after participating in the showcase event. There was mixed feelings; some of the participants thought it was okay to use a different writing strategy to enhance their writing. Other participants were excited to explore new writing ideas. The results also show that others were intimidated by the processes involved and were less enthusiastic, and at the same time, some were confused and had no idea what difference this writing strategy will make in their writing. These reactions from students in the study helped me as an instructor to find possible ways to guide students to understand what it means to use multimodal text in writing in and outside the classroom. Furthermore, I will use excerpt from my interview with the ESOL director to show whether the reaction from students in the study differed or was the same when she first used multimodal text to teach her class. I used

S to represent me as the questioner and A to represent the respondent.

S: I know it’s not always an easy idea to introduce a new concept to the class and to this effect; I want to know what was the student’s reaction to the use of multimodal composing text?

A: Uh, I think there were a range of reactions. Uh definitely, there were some students who were completely unfamiliar with that idea very intimidated by it; they know how to write a 5 paragraph essay.

S: Yeah! You are right….laughter

A: And now you are telling them to do this totally new thing, and they are a little bit

shocked and a little bit confused and I think there were other students even who from the

beginning who were excited, they thought this was cool, I like doing this different thing

but I think by the end of the semester, I can’t say 100% but I think most students

appreciated the opportunity to work with different ways of writing and students often 94

commented on it in the semester reflections and even on course evaluations they like

having different kind of writing opportunity.

My take away from this response indicate that students reaction to a new writing strategy―cuts across all spectrum. Students are often not sure, not excited and even demonstrate negative reaction in such circumstances and students in the study were not different. These initial reactions from the students gave me the impetus to intensify my research and to find useful materials to engage them in moving forward. I found the Nigel Caplan generative genre from

Kate Adam’s book Inside Writing 3 a useful resource which made my work easier. In particular the topic on questionnaire and report writing and designing a philosophy gave students a practical feel of what multimodal composing can do to harness student writing. Students engaged in collaborative work using these and other text as a reference to introduce them to the idea of multimodality. In the end, results from the interview transcript confirm student’s interest and overwhelming support to use multimodality anytime they are giving the chance to use it. My curiosity to learn and to adapt multimodal composing text resulted in my follow-up question to the ESOL director during the interview. This was the response:

S: That’s great and I also understand that you adapted multimodal concept in teaching

some of the classes. I want to be specific; did your adaption of multimodal composing in

your classroom help your students to improve their writing?

A: I think I did, and I think uh even more important, it helped the students to think about

writing in new ways and to recognize that writing does not equal text or alphabetic

characters and words but that writing includes other ways of communicating to

incorporate pictures, graphs, and some of the charts we did in those assignments. So it’s

been really exciting to learn more about that area myself and then start to implement it in 95

as many classes as I can because I think uh our communication styles at this moment in

the world, really rely on multimodality and I want my students to be well prepared for

that kind of communication.

In effect, having the courage and innovation to adapt and implement different writing strategies in the classroom comes with responsibility to failure from the beginning, to learn as a teacher, and the commitment to finding best and useful resources to enable students to meet their learning objectives is relevant and this is exactly what I did to bring my students on board to use multimodal composing text. There were ups and downs but in the end, we were able to adapt multimodal composing text in a manner that students find it beneficial to the writing. The success stories from the study also take into account other views by scholars and researchers who caution the expediency of adapting the process.

In his article about the pitfalls and potential of multimodal composing, Warschauer

(2017) asserts that if multimodal composing is “introduced prematurely, it can divert language learners, from the foundational kinds of target language interaction needed for successful second language acquisition” (p. 86). I take these remarks seriously because it offers a kind of checks and balances to remind instructors about the need to be mindful of the implications involved in adapting multimodal composing. Warschauer is speaking from his experience about the lack of logistical support needed to implement such a writing strategy. Warschauer’s concern is supported by Li & Storch, (2017), the authors cite Hafner (2013, p. 830) asserting that “digital literacies entail a higher level of conceptual mastery,” and that “using language in combination with other semiotic resources for communication, entering into relationships with new kinds of audiences, and constructing new kinds of identities” (Hafner, 2013, p. 830). Multimodality is clearly defining the way students can harness technology and the digital world in a manner that 96 will bring positive results in and outside the classroom. I see this as a shared responsibility and our approach to teaching this writing strategy will be a defining moment if we want to move forward with new ideas.

I share Hafner’s assertion to integrate technology and writing, I recognized the need for logistical support and also the readiness of instructors to go the extra mile to engage students in adapting this concept/framework. It is worthy to take into consideration such cautionary measures as a reminder that “not all that glitters is gold.” At BGSU, I was fortunate to collaborate with colleagues, faculty, and a new state of art facility fully equipped with personnel who are ready to work and interact with students on issues relating to the use of applications, making videos, and others. This networking paid off because the class was able to use all available resources to support student work. It is also interesting to note that majority of our students are already using videos, podcast, blogging and others to attract and to keep their audience. Students are already on the web using it for other purposes and asking and guiding them to use the same strategy in the writing classroom should be embraced. In talking about the challenges of instituting multimodal composing, it will be necessary to also look at how students in the study were able to overcome such challenges.

The image in figure 2 identifies different writing projects participants used to address the audience. These include questionnaire administration to write reports, designing brochure and logos to write a narrative, and movie reviews. Figure 2 above shows how students in the study were able to incorporate pictures, charts, videos, and captioning to attract audience attention. The effective use of visual imagery by participants to achieve their writing objectives fulfils the goals of the study. Prior to the study, students doubted the efficacy of multimodal text, but results in figure 2 shows that after using multimodal text to undertake different projects for class, 97 participants concluded that the use of visual imagery helped them to harness their writing objectives. In figure 2 above, participants during the interview talked about the freedom to express their own voice through the various projects such as the photo and video essays to tell their own stories during writing. Participant’s ability to use multimodal composing text to identify their writing needs answers the second research question which was designed to find out about students’ needs in using multimodal text.

Again as part of my enquiry to learn from others and more particularly from the interview

I conducted with the ESOL director, I asked:

S: So can you describe some of your memorable experiences whiles teaching multimodal

writing assignment?

A: Is a different course but the projects uh the students did uh, the biggest projects was a

photo essay, it was a little bit about flexible genre uh that we looked at several samples

and I gave some suggestions how they might approach it and uh the students were so

creative in what they did.

One student did like a day in my life style photo essay so he took photos of all the things

he was doing for one day and then wrote about his daily routine so is like a window into

his life.

Several students did a recipe style post, one of our examples was a food block and how

they took pictures of each recipe and so one student as he was making the recipe and

taking pictures.

Some other students had to write about study abroad experiences so they all pursued their

own interest and they were required to use their own photographs so that was really neat

to see them kind of showing off their experiences. 98

The different approach to the use of multimodality gives me confidence and the need to strive further to seek available and credible learning resources and best practices that will harness student learning and writing. This form of writing supports the research finding conducted by

Vandommele et, al (2017) citing Bruce, (2009) eluding that “Multimodal composition has distinct stages, reminiscent of traditional writing, which transpire in a non-linear and iterative manner: brainstorming for ideas, selecting and editing texts, pictures, drawings, photographs, music and video sequences” (p. 25). Students in the study were exposed to these forms of writing strategies to incentivize them, and offering additional support to make sure they were comfortable and not overwhelmed with the idea of multimodality.

To broaden their understanding about the use of multimodal text, different workshops, in class activities, and one-on-one sessions with me was devoted in assisting students throughout the writing process. I believe these among others boosted the confidence level to be creative in using multimodal text. In support of this approach, the authors further quote (VanKooten, 2016) that, “video composition has been shown to be a valuable site for the development of meta- awareness about composition processes, which has the potential to feed back into other (written) compositions” (p. 25). There is no joy than hearing students say “I feel pretty good about my work.” Exploring new ideas comes with responsibility and uncertainties. At the beginning not all the students were excited about the idea of using multimodal text. During the interview, one of the participant said “I am used to alphabetic text” and the talk about multimodality scares me at the beginning, but in the end “I love it, and I will use it again.”

The above figure captures student’s responses from the interview with regards to how they were able to overcome their initial reactions and challenges before, during, and after the use of multimodal composing. Three things stood out during the interview: 99

Students talking and discussing the various strategies in class

Student’s preparation to adapt multimodal composition, and

The thought of achieving positive results

These were issues of discussions participants in the course using multimodal composing text.

In Figure 3 above, participants discussed how they were able to overcome such reactions to engage in using multimodal composing text. According to them, talking and discussing the project in class and working with their peers and having one-on-one conference with me as the instructor helped them to overcome their initial reaction of being confused and unsure of what to expect during the composing process. Response from figure 3 above, also discusses how students intensified their preparations by making effective use of available resources on campus, visit the

“Collaborative Lab” peer review, and conferences to achieve results. Lastly, in figure 3, participants talked about having a positive mindset believing in the process of using multimodal test to accomplish their writing task.

These concerns and the need for student engagement during the different stages during writing are crucial and with effective strategies in place, students can achieve the needed results.

Li, & Storch, (2017), elaborate on how students go through this process. The authors cite (Kress,

2010; p. 162) stating that “In a number of L2 writing contexts, across the educational spectrum, students are now engaged in multimodal writing projects, in which they orchestrate various semiotic resources, and citing examples such as the use of “images, photographs, and videos to create digital products that combine a plurality of signs in different modes into a particular configuration to form a coherent arrangement.” Some of the key phrases that dominate rubrics in assessing students are: Creativity, engagement, responsibility, metacognition, curiosity, and many more. As instructors, if we want our students to live up to expectations, then we owe it as a 100 responsibility to motivate, encourage, and guide students to take bold initiative to experience the world of writing which is evolving around technological advancement.

The image in figure 4 elaborates a number of responses from participants representing their views on the use of multimodal composing in and outside the classroom. The participants in the interview talked about the benefits of using multimodal composing text. The following are benefits discussed by participants in figure 4 above:

That multimodal composing text helped them to be creative,

It gave them a new experience,

It enabled them to be confident,

It increased their motivation,

Helped them to think about their work,

That their exposure helped them to develop an important literacy skill,

It also helped them to focus on their writing, and lastly,

It helped them to improve their writing

Clearly, responses from the results in figure 4 demonstrates the effectiveness of multimodal composing text and how students in the study were able to use it effectively to address their writing needs. This results justify research by Li, & Storch, (2017) arguing that collaborative engagement in using multimodal text serve as a “motivational bridge” ―and that the use of “video project fostered students’ communicative competence, enhanced their audience awareness, and helped them establish appropriate discoursal identities” (p.2). It is important to note that students in the study, apart from engaging in collaborative writing in class, also had the opportunity to work with others in class and during the showcase event. Their collaborative 101 effort resulted into the group winning the collaborative award. The participants further stated that multimodal composing increased their confidence level and motivation to try new ideas to achieve their writing goals. This view is supported by research conducted by Li, M., & Storch,

(2017) quoting (Yi & Crowder, 2016) to buttress their argument stating that “Multimodal writing practice enables L2 students to develop multiliteracy skills, negotiate their identities, and become more motivated independent learners” (p.2). Encouraging students to take responsibility in their writing is an important writing skill to help students to explore the world around them. Students in the study incorporated diverse, experiences, skills, and the use of multiple genres to communicate effectively with their audience.

The results from figure 4 above further reiterate benefits participants derived from using multimodal composing text. According to the participants, the exposure to use different writing approach was an important literacy skill giving them more flexibility to be creative, stay focus, think about other writing strategies, and above all, the freedom to have their own voice beyond the confines of the writing classroom represents a positive engagement to adapt a completely new genre. This assertion complements Li, M. & Storch, (2017) in their article Second language writing in the age of CMC: Affordances, multimodality, and collaboration, stating that “L2 writers, in particular, may no longer be constrained by their L2 linguistic resources” noting further that student use of multimodal composing, “offers writers rich opportunities to deploy multiple resources (e.g., linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial)” (p. 1). Students in the study successfully applied multimodal text to represent style and ideas to achieve results.

Response from the interview transcript speaks volumes of the numerous advantages and exposure that helped students to adapt different forms to writing strategies to achieve positive results. 102

Results in figure 5 above helps to consolidate the gains and effective use of multimodal composing in and outside the writing classroom to achieve results. Response from the interview transcript of both the student and teacher interview show that the use of multimodal composing comes with assessment that clearly sets the parameters of the outcomes of student work. Results from figure 5 above discuss the following issues relating to assessment during the interview:

The use of genre based model to assess students

Provide the basis to explain the assignment

Use student reflection to learn more about student use of multimodal text

Use existing genre

Talking about paper

The above responses from participants demonstrate how they were able to use assessment effectively before and during the composing stages to enhance their writing. In the interview with the ESOL director, she talked about the use of genre based model to assess students. This model gave participants the opportunity to have a practical knowledge about their writing needs.

Participants used the model to serve as a guide for students to understand the process of writing.

From the above results, participants stated during the interview stated that the use of clear assessment and procedure to evaluate their work helped them to take full responsibility and control to explore the use of multimodality to enhance their writing. The results from the study also asserted that student’s reflection papers on multimodal text provided the basis to assess student work. The ESOL director during the interview said reading student reflection in the course of the semester helped her to understand student’s perception in using pictures and other visual imagery during writing. 103

Another important aspect of the results from the study talks about using existing genre to teach and assessing student work. In her response the ESOL director stated that the use of exiting genre to during class work gave her students motivation and confidence to use multimodal text.

Similarly, students in the study indicated that prior knowledge about multimodal composing helped them to improve their writing because they had access to exiting genre and also had the opportunity to work collaboratively with peers and during conferences. The participants further stated that talking about their work in class played a significant role in improving their work especially during revision.

These student stories on multimodality and my choice to interview the ESOL director who has had the experience to teach the same class I was using for the study, was necessary to learn from her experience to shed more light on similar experiences students went through in the course of using visual imagery in and outside the writing classroom. Her student stories about the process to explore the new writing genre are similar to the views expressed by participants in the study in terms of the effectiveness of using assessment to achieve the intended goals. From the student perspective, it became clear from the interview that talking about the paper in class during revisions, peer review, and student-teacher conferences helped students a lot to work on the different assignment. Students were also satisfied with the numerous explanations, assistance, and guidance during the process and above all, knowing and understanding how their work would be evaluated gave them confidence and the needed motivation to work harder to achieve results.

To further strengthen my position on using multimodality in the writing classroom, I will use another excerpt from the ESOL director to talk about the effectiveness of multimodality in 104 the writing classroom. The rationale for focusing on this interview excerpts was to bring into the discussion a different perspective to enhance my argument in discussion multimodality.

S: Okay, so how did you assess student’s performance in using multimodal composing in

or outside the classroom?

A: I think that evolve for me also. I think at first it was a little bit of a check box did the

students include multimodal elements uh because I wanted to be careful that I wasn’t uh

holding students accountable for grading things that I didn’t teach, right! So if my criteria

were it should be multimodal then my grading wasn’t multimodal or not right! Not so

much in evaluating the quality of those non textual elements, but I’m interested in

encouraging students to evaluate their quality there. So as I move towards genre based

model, we are looking more at how the genre has used multimodal elements and talking

more about this in class which I think lessened uh incorporating that more in assessment,

but I will say that I’m assessing primarily their written text a lot of cases uh so the

multimodal component may be one element on the rubric but it’s not going to be as

heavily weighted as I mean the more traditional categories like organization,

development, and grammatical accuracy and so on.

The issue of assessment comes into the fore front in discussing issues relating to multimodal assignment. The first question often asked is how is student work going to be assessed? What is the required length, and how do students incorporate both alphabetic text and visual images―videos, graphs charts and so on? These are all legitimate questions which needs answers to assure both students and teachers that they are all on the same page. Having used results from the interview to present the case for effective assessment to support the 105 implementation of multimodal composing, I will support my argument by using expert opinions to buttress my point.

Another relevant question which usually accompanies multimodal composing is what are effective strategies for assessing text that is different from the traditional composition classroom?

Borton & Huot (2007) discuss instructive evaluation and instructive assessment as the basis to help students to learn and assess rhetorical texts (p. 100). According to the authors, the method requires involving students during the assessment process and that teachers must help students to set rhetorical and linguistic/ multimodal targets during learning (p. 100). The other also involves collaborative efforts between students and teachers to create motive, and to revise difficult areas of the assignment. The authors also discussed formative and summative assessments which are commonly used in educational context (p. 100). According to Borton & Huot (2007), formative assessment provides feedback to students while they are still working on the assignment and summative assessment is the final grades that teachers give to students. These two forms of assessment become critical to guide students and to give them the tools to create rhetorically effective compositions in any medium (p. 100).

In discussing the issue of assessment, the editors of the book cite the work of Charles

Moran & Anne Herrington (2007), to explain further the need to respond to assessing multimodal texts. The authors note that instructive evaluation in composition classrooms does not only reflect on media with which students work and the semiotic modalities such as words, images, sound, color that students adapt in making meaning, but also forms part of the course objective and contextual understanding of other rhetorical constraints and possibilities which takes into account purpose, audience, content, genre, circulation, and organization (p. 103). This in effect means that teachers should identify criteria that have to do with student’s success in 106 identifying appropriate sound levels for specific audiences or the author’s ability to relate multiple modalities in a way that communicates more than the sum of their parts within a particular rhetorical context. Moran & Herrington recognize the challenges students face as authors of multimodal texts and are also mindful not to suggest that every composition teacher will want or need to develop extensive expertise in creating multimodal texts. In their view, they

“feel strongly that teachers who assign and evaluate multimodal texts need to develop some understanding of the challenges involved in composing such texts” (p. 103).

Multimodal composition is becoming a commonplace and that digital composing environment is challenging writing in the sense that the process can be disruptive for many teachers of English composition. Selfe is optimistic about the future of multimodality but at the same time cautioned that “If our profession continuous to focus on solely the teaching of alphabetic composition either online or in print we run the risk of making composition studies increasingly irrelevant to students engaging in contemporary practices of communicating” (p.

2). To support her position on multimodal composing, Selfe reiterates that the “21st century technological world requires our student’s not experienced and skilled only in reading

(consuming) t exts employing multiple modalities, but also in composing in multiple modalities, we want them to communicate effectively with the digital communication networks that characterized workplace, schools, civic life, and span traditional cultural, national, and geopolitical borders” (p. 3). S he further states that for composition to be relevant there is the need to recognize that “the composition and text needs to grow and change to reflect peoples’ literacy practices in new digital communication environment (p. 3).

Conclusion

The study complements previous studies that: 107

1. Multimodal composing has the potential to improve student writing in and outside the classroom,

2. That multimodal composing enhances creativity, motivation, and builds student confidence level to engage in using multiple genres in writing to achieve results,

3. That multimodal composing is an important writing strategy which helps students to achieve literacy skills, and finally,

4. That teachers should not be afraid to adapt this writing strategy in and outside the writing classroom. These conclusions are in line with research and expert opinions arguing for the need to integrate this writing strategy in the composition classroom.

Our discussions about multimodal composing process have taken us down the memory lane to learn about the history of using multimodal composing by scholars in the 70s and 80s.

Their expertise and use of this learning approach after all is not new and has been intensified to draw attention to the discipline that neglecting research and the inability to take a bold step to harness student writing will not only turn students away from our writing classrooms but it will create space for other disciplines take advantage and lure students with the passion to write to their fold. Cynthia Selfe summarizes this position by saying that “If our profession continuous to focus on solely the teaching of alphabetic composition either online or in print we run the risk of making composition studies increasingly irrelevant to students engaging in contemporary practices of communicating” (p. 2).

Society has evolved and with technology taking a center stage in our everyday life, it behooves on us to figure out how best we can use technology in our writing classroom to achieve success. The use of technology has created its own space and our students use it on daily basis to engage the world around them. Students use different applications to generate and expand their 108 social media status for feedback, games, and social interactions and so on. The same students flood the composition classroom with different sets of ideas and experiences ready to explode in the writing classroom but our addiction to alphabetic text and change makes it harder for students to survive the rule bound composition classroom which requires students according to

Bartholomae (2007) to invent the university. This among others takes away the creative in stint and capabilities of students to explore the world and take ownership of their writing.

Majority of such students come to the writing classroom with rich experiences and background but are unable to harness such qualities because we fail to recognize the full potential of our students. If I may go back to paraphrase one of the quotes from a participant of the study, he said” I am an architecture student, I use drawings to design in my major and if I can transfer such ideas in my writing classroom, I will take it. Experiencing students transfer knowledge from one class to the other helps in many ways to motivate them to engage in different types of writing to achieve results. All it takes is the courage and the determination of instructors to explore new ideas, accept change, and institute collaborative efforts and linkages to facilitate a healthy learning environment which recognizes the full potential of all stake holders.

Writing in the 21st century is characterized by technology advancement and the responsibility to live up to expectation lies in our hands. To what extent can we harness and create the right space for our students to develop interest in writing? In chapter five, I will use the research questions and results from the study to discuss the implication of the study to students, policy, and the scholarship. 109

CHAPTER FIVE: PERSONAL BIASES, IMPLICATION FOR SCHOLARSHIP AND

FUTURE RESEARCH

Introduction

Results from the study indicate that multimodality plays an integral role in student composing in and outside the classroom. However, reading student’s work during the process really surprised me seeing how they have evolved and taken complete ownership of their writing.

Even though, I was happy about the results, I least expected the students to come up with such a quality work within a short period. The student survey in chapter three and interview in chapter four confirms research and work done by scholars in the field asserting that multimodality enhance student writing, creativity to use visual imagery to compose text, helping students to develop literacy skills, and a source of motivation and encouragement to guide students to effectively combine pictures, videos, audios, and text to achieve their writing needs. Before I delve into details and reflections on the future research, I will talk about my own personal biases about the study to help readers to understand my thoughts before the study. As indicated earlier in the previous chapters, the study started as an observation in class about the progress, challenges, and an attempt to finding the best writing strategy that can harness student writing.

Seeing students struggle to use only alphabetic text in the composition classroom, and the thought of finding a possible solution to address their writing needs culminated in my effort to test the efficacy multimodal composing to find out whether or not, it can fill in the gap of providing a safe haven for students during writing. Having taken classes on computer mediation, using internet in classroom, cultural rhetoric, and teaching grammar in the context of writing, I thought it will be necessary to undertake a study to find out more about multimodal composing as a writing strategy in second language (L2) s ettings. A lot of questions came into mind as to 110 what format the study will take, who will participate in the study, why the study, and how will the study be conducted? A numbers of theories and research came into mind as well in considering these questions. I finally thought about Shawn Wilson’s idea of gate keepers in research and how researchers who work closely with people directly affected by issues succeed in coming out with a true reflection of what that group represents. I also thought about Lee

Maracle’s research on storytelling and how this method of research helps researchers to use storytelling to talk about ideas, emotions, and experiences.

In chapter one, I elaborated on the importance of storytelling in my culture and how it helps to shape personal identity, experience, and knowledge. In deciding on the methodology to use for my dissertation, this quote from Maracle became the defining moment for me in choosing narrative/storytelling as the methodological approach for the study. Maracle said “If it can’t be shown, it can’t be understood” and that “every story has a character and a plot.” The students of

ESOL 1010 class had a story to tell, the character of their individual stories is an illustration of their take away from the use of multimodal composing in and outside the writing classroom. The plot in their story demonstrates the process they went through ―initial reaction to the use of multimodality, challenges, perceptions, and experiences, among others were the foundation for the study. I also wanted to use this study to learn more about the use of multimodality in and outside the writing classroom, student perception, and how this method of writing can be replicated if necessary in other settings. I finally, decided to use my own class for the study. The rationale for using my teaching class is not different from what has been stated above citing

Shawn Wilson and Lee Maracle. This understanding helped me to connect the study with narrative approach to storytelling by Debra Journet in her chapter Narrative Turns in Writing

Studies Research (2012). The choice of using my own class, students and a teacher whom I have 111 had the opportunity to work with makes it extremely difficult for me to hide and separate my own biases from the study.

The premise of the study stems from my own struggle as a second language learner and how past experience about writing is still prevalent today. In chapter one, I told a story about my role as a scribe for my grandmother translating text from my native language “Twi” into English and the difficulty I went through trying to explain to my grandma how translation changes any time two languages come onto contact. I also reference a conversation I had with a student who stated that “teacher I cannot write an essay because I have never written an essay before.” These issues are all personal and I talk about them with passion in an attempt to find the way forward in my research. These personal issues expose my own biases in approaching this study because there is no way to verify my story except to depend on whatever I say, and the tendency to be too emotional about narrating such stories, and above all, potential to be selective in approaching the study. Having pointed out the flaws in the study, I believe it is important to be clear and up front to enable my audience to make an inform decision about the study.

In addition, I have had the opportunity to work with participants for at least a semester serving as an instructor in ESOL 1010 writing class with enormous amount of power to coerce students into taking part in the study to serve my own interest. As an instructor, I also had the power to use student work and interactions for the study, but in all such circumstances, I chose to follow ethical direction and principles that has the potential of producing a credible project for today and the future. I openly discussed my research interest with the class indicating that their opinions, perceptions and experiences on the study will help me to become a better instructor. I worked with students in the study to make sure that they are in control and that I was the facilitator seeking to use their thoughts, ideas, and perceptions on the subject to tell their stories 112 about multimodality, and in essence, harnessing effective collaboration with students to achieve results. From the get go, I wanted the study to be about the students using insiders knowledge to help write a narrative to shape my research. All emails, discussions, and interactions in and outside the classroom were done to ensure a level playing ground to enhance student participation. Students took complete ownership and exhibited the sense of responsibility to use multimodal text to achieve their writing goals.

Furthermore, seeing students in my class struggle to write convinced me to help students to explore different writing methods to harness their learning outcome. To ensure that students succeed in this endeavor, I took the initiative to work one-on-one with students, collaborating with the “Collab Lab” a state of art facility to engage students using digital means to work on different projects. Series of workshops were organized and students had full access to the facility to work with experts on areas they needed assistance. This logistical support motivated students in the study to undertake the various projects with satisfaction.

Finally, another area that is worth mentioning is the interview I conducted with the ESOL director for the study. I discussed the possibility of having the interview knowing very well that she had taught the class before, and that her views and conditions at the time she taught the class might not be the same as mine. In the nutshell, her philosophy, students, class size, time and space might not be same, but I saw the usefulness of incorporating her thoughts and reliance on her students’ views during the interview to help me to have a different understanding about student use of multimodality. Of course, my personal relationship of looking at her as a mentor raises concern about the information gathering process. Having stated all these, I must say that I followed every protocol―IRB, ethical research approach, protecting and respecting participant’s space, materials and making every effort to follow ethical principles and guidelines to approach 113 this study. Having addressed my own biases and related issues that made me to undertake the study, I will delve into the implications of the research to the scholarship and for future research.

To do this, I will reiterate my research questions here and attempt to answer the questions based on the information I gathered during the study.

What are student’s perceptions of multimodal assignments?

What are students writing needs?

Does multimodal composing help students to achieve their writing needs?

How can students use multimodal composing outside the classroom to

participate in GSW showcase event?

In an attempt to answer these research questions, I will use this moment to reflect on issues discussed in relation to the questions asked during the data collection. The first two research questions are in some way related in the sense that their perceptions stems from their initial reaction to the term multimodality when it was first mentioned in class. To this end, I will talk about their initial reactions in the contest of participant’s perceptions and needs. Student initial reaction brought back memories from the class during discussions about the introduction of multimodal composition. Response from participants as discussed in chapter five presented a mixed feeling, there were those who were excited to try another new thing, some were shocked, others according to the study were confused, and there were those who were nervous about the process. These responses are not different from the students respond to new challenges, tasks, and practices in class. In fact the participant’s initial reaction gave me the needed strength and determination to intensify my research on the topic before implementing the strategy in class. As stated during the teacher interview, that “teachers should not be afraid to try new ideas,” change is not easy, it comes with resistance, doubt, and discouragement however, stepping up and taking 114 the challenge is a worthy experience and I must admit that I have learned more about multimodality during the study than I knew prior to the study.

Any attempt to integrate digital media into the classroom must be commensurate with not only administrative support, as Belcher notes, but also with the broader human, social, and economic capital available. My earlier study in Egypt showed the danger of a narrow focus on new technologies without the appropriate resources... (Warschauer 2017).

The concerns raise by Warschauer is a reminder and also being honest about the responsibilities that come with teaching or introduction of multimodality in the composition writing classroom. As already stated in one of the responses from the interview that the initial choice of using multimodality was a “chick box” approach she adapted to try something new without looking at the larger picture of teaching multimodality in class. She further stated that her reading of student reflections and student work convinced her to look deeply at existing genre, and other ideas in the scholarship that will help to teach this method. The initial reactions from students in the study during class, gives a clear understanding on the concerns raised by

Warschauer as legitimate point of reference to teachers who would like to teach this method of writing. In my case, the doubt, fear, nervousness, shock, and excited expressed by students were addressed by using external logistical resources BGSU offers for students, faculty, and staff. As stated earlier, I was able to collaborate with personnel from the new state of art lab to organize workshops and seminars for my students to engage with experts in applying applications of their choice. The creation of a new working space for students does not only help them to take full responsibility of their writing, but also provide additional logistical support that will motivate them to adapt the new concept―multimodality. Student perception about multimodality can be 115 categorized under the following based on responses during the survey and the interview:

Initial Reaction

Student ability to use visual imagery in the form of pictures, videos, charts, graphs, and others to write narratives, to design brochures and logos, to write movie reviews and to participate in GSW showcase event. At the time I was introducing the prompt students were not sure about how they were going to use visual imagery to represent text and be graded for full credit, however, after going through class exercises and review of multimodal components, students became more convinced that it is worth trying after all the concept of multimodality is not new, and all they had to do was to transfer knowledge from one class, work related knowledge and experience to the other. In questions 5, 8, and 10 from the survey, I wanted to find out whether students were able to overcome their initial reactions/perception of the use of multimodal text. Specifically, question 5 of the survey asked whether students had prior knowledge of using of multimodal text or not, and out of the 15 respondents, 14 said yes, representing 93.3 percent of the total number that were surveyed. The term multimodality was broken down into simple terms to enhance student understanding. Question 8 of the survey asked

“how would you rate your confidence level in using multimodal text’? In response, 53.3 percent said their confidence level is high and 46.7 percent said medium. Question 10 asked participants whether if given the chance to choose between alphabetic and multimodal text which one would they prefer. All the 15 participants said multimodal text representing 100 percent. Results from the survey and interview shows participants had doubts about using multimodality at the beginning but when participants began to see their effort in using visual imagery to compose text, they became confident and developed interest in multimodal text. 116

Clearly the use of multimodality in second language settings has its challenges, but results from the study indicate that if the concept is introduced properly it will achieve the intended results. Giving writers the opportunity to reflect and use pictures to write as indicated by Flower & Hayes (2008) that “if students are writing about a familiar place, the writer might perceive sensory (auditory, visual, olfactory) images of the place” (p. 33). This assertion is supported by participants in the study stating that visual imagery contributed a great deal in writing their essays. In responding to whether the use of pictures, charts, and videos play any role during the composing process, one of the students remarked, this drawings and pictures are personal and it represents my identity, and looking at the pictures, it helped me to tell my story.

Another also said during the interview that the post card presentation during the show case event helped her to answer questions from the audience. According to her, the pictures helped her to reflect on the survey report she submitted for her assignment and that by looking at the pictures, memories of the event came back and she was able to address issues and concerns raised by the audience. Another students also indicated that he was able to successfully replicate the use of pictures in writing term papers in his other classes, and the results was very good.

Contributing to the discussions Yi (2017) said “multimodal literacy consists of language, as well as images, sounds, gestures, and so forth, further stating that “language (oral or written) is only part of a larger constellation of semiotic resource in meaning-making” (p. 90). In effect, the perception/initial reaction of students in the study to the use of multimodal text was addressed by their persistence to explore new writing strategy using pictures, charts, videos and other digital means to develop their writing/literacy skills was indeed, a breakthrough. The second question deals with student needs and the rational for this question were to find out what can be done to assist students to use multimodal text during writing. 117

Needs

Results from the study revealed that student needs during the use of multimodal composing include the following:

1. Talking and discussing issues relating student work in class, during conferences, and one-

on-on interaction in class, and during group work.

Students saw the importance to discuss their work during peer review, conferences as a way of revision and also to gain confidence in using multimodal text. As stated earlier, students in the study were not sure about how multimodal text could help them to achieve their writing

2. Rubric to inform students about the way their work would be graded.

These are all legitimate issues that need to be considered before introduction multimodal composing. As an instructor, the first question I ask myself anytime I am developing an assignment is what are student’s needs? This question helps me to have a holistic approach to teaching by looking beyond the confines of the classroom to reward students for creativity, curiosity, engagement, and so on. This can be achieved if student’s learning goals are taken into account when developing assignments. In this study, participants enumerated their needs in terms of on-going discussions with peers, teachers and collaborators, and also their expectations for being rewarded with good grades after putting in a lot of hours to create multimodal text in and outside the classroom. This understanding is supported by Belcher (2017) stating that

Writing was a discovery process—of ideas and forms, a means of self-expression, and

very often an opportunity to collaborate with peers and with writing teachers, who

functioned less as enforcers of correct usage, whether linguistic or rhetorical, than as

facilitators of the writing process. (p. 80) 118

Participants in the study saw the need to engage in collaborative writing and feedback as an important writing process considering the risk of encroaching on a new form of writing

―multimodal composing. Results from the survey indicated that they all had ideas about multimodal composing but when it comes to using the concept to write essays the participants wanted to more about how they will be compensated in terms of grades and quality work to demonstrate during the show case event. Participants also used the study to share ideas, experiences, and how to express their emotions, and cultural identities using designs, pictures, colors, charts, and videos to tell their stories about multimodality. These concerns is illustrated by Belcher (2017) arguing that

Writing pedagogy should be viewed as facilitating composing, that is, creating and

communicating meaning, with the added benefit of a large semiotic toolkit, taking

advantage of the full panoply of color and sound, still and moving images available. (p.

81)

In chapter 4, I exhibited some of the student work to indicate the full extent of their understanding of using multimodal text to write narratives and other assignments in class. In one instance, I recall how student’s effectively used colors to talk about the environment, families and cultures. Exposing students to new ideas does not only help them to broaden their horizon, but also helps them to see the world around them using different lenses.

The third research question, does multimodal composing help students to achieve their writing goals? This question provides useful insights about the use of multimodal composing in and outside the writing classroom. Results from the study shows multimodal text helped participants to be creative, increased the confidence level, and also served as motivation to engage in text. The participants in the study also indicated that multimodal composing helped 119 them to develop literacy skills, to stay focus, and gained new experiences during writing. Some also said multimodal composing helped them to think beyond the assignment and that it was exciting to use multimodal text to engage the audience. It is interesting to hear participants in the study talking about how multimodal composing helped them to develop literacy skills to succeed in the writing classroom.

The positive stories being told by participants did not come with ease. Collaborative writing in class using generative genre from Kate Adams inside Writing 3 was successfully applied during in class activities, allowing student to mimic response and reactions from the book to create their own work. Another area that impacted student writing was the initiative to give students the opportunity to express their own voice using personal stories and experiences to transfer such skills into the writing classroom in part gave participants the sense of ownership to use multimodal text to achieve their learning outcome. It is also worth noting that the participants determination to accepted the challenge to explore this process of writing is an indication that L2 learners are no longer resisted or “constrained by linguistic resources” to use multimodal text in the composition writing classroom. This assertion justifies research by Li & Storch, (2017) outlining potential benefits of multimodalities in L2 settings:

L2 writers, in particular, may no longer be constrained by their L2 linguistic resources.

Writing, reconceptualized as multimodal composing, offers writers rich opportunities to

deploy multiple resources (e.g., linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial). For L2

writers, there is also the ability to draw on their multiple languages to make meaning.

(p.1)

Participants in the study within a short period of time were able to use visual imagery to construct text to express their emotions, sense of belonging, and to tell their own stories. 120

The final research question was to find out how students can use multimodal composing outside the classroom to participate in GSW showcase event can be tied to the various responses provided by participants in the previous question. According to the participants the use of multimodal composing served as a source of motivation during the showcase event. The participants also indicated that seeing the positive results of their work gave them the needed confidence, and determination to leave their comfort zone to show case their accomplishments.

As indicated earlier, students’ initial reaction to participate in the event was negative. They did not see how their effort would be recognized and that all the odds were against them because their level were below participants who were all taking higher level composition classes at the time. I did state elsewhere that the ESOL 1010 class was a prerequisite for General Writing

Studies (GSW) composition classes. Participants thought they were at a disadvantage but after learning that they could collaborate and present their own class work at the event, they saw it as a breakthrough to exhibit their work. The participants thoughts about the show case event justifies research by Vandommele et al., (2017) arguing that the benefit of using multimodal text

“might result from learners being pushed to produce messages explicitly and clearly (Ellis,

2005), or can be attributed to the fact that by publishing online, the audience of a writing task becomes “tangible” and can even provide online feedback (Magnifico, 2010), resulting in more goal-directed writing. The author further suggests that “online compositions easily allow people to share texts and interact about them, to divide labor, to build on a previous composer’s work and to receive feedback from authentic audiences. According to the authors, multimodal writing appears especially beneficial to struggling writers, such as L2 learners and newcomers. Results from their research citing (Halverson, 2010) stating that multimodal composing provided

“learners with alternative means to construct and communicate identities. (p. 24) 121

Results from the study shows that the gains of multimodality were the driving force that encouraged participants to take part in the event even though I would have wished that majority of students participated. I managed to sell the idea of participation to students but like students in the study, were nervous and felt disadvantage have to compete with native speakers in the same event. The participants in the first event did not win an award, the certificate of recognition and the opportunity to speak in front of a large crowd was enough for them to be proud. The second group of participants won the award for best collaboration and that was a huge accomplishments.

So far, I have been able to use the research questions to advance the argument for the need to incorporate multimodality in L2 settings; however, additional research would help the scholarship to make an informed decision regarding the efficacy of multimodal composing text in the future.

Implications for the Scholarship

The results from the study have shown multimodal composing in the writing classroom helps students to develop and improve writing. This result supports prior studies on multimodality by L2 researchers such as Belcher (2017), Li & Storch, Yi (2017), and others.

Student’s discussions on the usefulness of using multimodality is similar to studies conducted by other scholars and this raises the question why this writing strategy does not feature in regularly in formulating assignments in second language settings? Whiles, I find it difficult to answer the question; however, sharing my experience working with students throughout the composing process might set the stage for consideration by the scholar to either intensify research or to inculcate multimodality in second language settings.

My classroom was already furnished with computers by the school. I must admit that this logistical support was necessary because it afforded equal opportunity and access to all students. 122

It also challenged me as an instructor to put into use the logistical support to harness student writing. I accepted the challenge to incorporate multimodality as part of student writing assignments for the semester. I was also fortunate to work with my mentor who had already thought this class and readily shared materials with me. I was able to put the pieces together to work with students from start to finish. We engaged in series of workshops, working with experts to introduce students to new application and encouraging students to transfer knowledge from other areas to the writing classroom. Our collective effort was paid off hearing participants sharing their stories about how multimodal composing shaped their writing.

I admit, there were some doubts, but collaborative working with colleagues and logistical support from other departments made it possible for students in the study to effectively explore multimodal text to harness their writing. I believe the responsibility to explore multimodality lies on teachers, administrators, and the scholarship as whole to look at the future of writing in the digital age. I see the multimodality as a strong force with the potential to harness student writing in the 21st century. Students who come to the composition classrooms are already on the web, posting photos, writing blogs, and creating podcast and using videos and other visual imagery to attract their audience. These student skills can be replicated in the writing classroom as a way of transferring knowledge and expertise to achieve results. The unfortunate part of the issue according to Belcher (2017) citing Hafner (2014) has argued that,

It has been difficult to find much research on multimodality in the context of L2 writing,

although there has been a surge of interest in the last few years and that L1

compositionists have been interested in this topic much longer… (p. 80)

The question to ask is why the lack of research in L2? Is it because researchers are not interested in this area? Or is there misconception about the future of L2 writing? I do not know the answer 123 to these questions, but one thing that I can confidently say is that L2 writing has evolved and there are positive indicators to support my argument for the future of L2 writing. I share the opinion of Belcher citing (Canagarajah, 2013) asserting that

As first-year writing classes in the United States and other immigrant-receiving English-

dominant countries have become more and more linguistically and culturally diverse and

the line between L1 and L2 (first and second language) writing more and more blurred.

(p. 80)

The claim by Canagarajah seem to suggests that the menace of globalization versa vie technological advancement is or has already started to shape the way second language learners write and there is no doubt that technology has created a new writing space in and outside the classroom. Today, applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and others have altered the way we communicate and these cuts across cultures. Users of such applications are able to create videos, pictures, collage, and content that attracts millions of viewers around the world by carefully crafting messages using both alphabetic text and visual imagery to communicate to their audience. The creativity, passion, and motivations which enable users to adapt these writing approaches to attract follower’s cuts across cultures and it will only take a careful eye to distinguish between the content produced by either L1or L2 writer. In support of this, Bolter in his article “The Writing Space” Takes his audience down the memory lane by capturing the revelation of digital writing taking the center stage in technological advancement, in a well- known passage from Victor Hugo’s Notre dame de Paris 1482.

The priest Frollos sees the invention of the printed book an end rather than a beginning

(p. 1) the remark by the priest “Ceci tuera cela” this book will destroy that building was 124

an indication that not only will print and literacy undermine the authority of the Church

but also human thought will change its mode of expression (p. 2).

We are living in an era where technology is not only dictating the pace and reality of our time but influencing our actions, learning the behavioral pattern as well. The younger generation is constantly on the web busy making friends and reaping the gains of technology. They are gradually becoming experts, dictating, and controlling the narrative and also setting the pace for discussions, and yet as composition instructors we fail to capture the attention of this audience when we engage them in our writing classes. Bolter further argues that

We live in a late age of print where word data, email, and the World Wide Web has taking over printed communication for various reason (p. 2). The good olds of writing personal letters to friends and family have been overshadowed by emerging technology and the joy of personal communication through hand written notes has been eliminated to the background. Bolter notes that the current trend of technological advancement has resulted into the breakdown between lasting texts and pragmatic communication giving rise to all kinds of communication being digitized (p. 2) making it possible for what we are witnessing today that many books are not making it to the press houses but in digital forms such as EBooks. This development is no doubt shaping access to information in the form of print media, books thereby encouraging students and learners to select texts of interest to pursue their learning objectives. On the other hand, in embracing the new technology also comes with the challenge of the culture of using different genres and audiences as well as economic market. (p. 12)

The author explains that current publication, electronic texts, Web sites, hyperfictions are offered to consumers in fragments not as a whole and this creates chaos in our writing space (p.

11). To refashion our writing space, there is the need to redefine the visual and conceptual space 125 of writing (p. 12). In considering the issue of writing space, I agree with the question pose by

Bolter, how does this writing space refashion its predecessor? How does it claim to improve on print’s ability to make our thoughts visible and constitute the lines of communication for our society (p. 13)? Clearly, thinking as a composition instructor and a student of rhetoric, I am hopeful to see the effective implementation of multimodality in our writing classroom to embrace different writing genres that rewards creativity of learners and participants in the new technological advancement. In addition to embrace the idea of digital composing, it also behooves on us as ―the responsibility as compositionist to help students to navigate the web by using our expertise in writing to prepare our students to become leaders of the web to control the narrative to promote effective communication and audience participation. (Yi 2017) suggests the need to move forward to take advantage of the new digital space technology has created into our writing classroom. She is of the opinion that moving forward with technology will enhance L2 writing. She cited (Ware, Kern, & Warschauer, 2016, p. 319). Saying that it’s time to

“explore how L2/multilingual writers navigate and integrate the spoken word, written

text, visual impressions and images, social conventions, memories, feelings, and more to

make and remake language for their specific purposes and interests” In her opinion, she

believes by exploring that “L2/multilingual writers’ multimodal literacy practices across

varied contexts, we can broaden our understandings of composing, composers, contexts,

and the role of composing in our lives”

To support her argument, Yi offered this example eluding that “for L2 and content learning, identity negotiation, career enhancement, civic engagement, or just enjoyment) and think about what counts as text and what it means to be literate in the 21st century” She went further to ask the question how can (should) we establish multimodal literacy research as a topic area within 126

L2 writing? In response, she said that “the most critical first step is to explore our views of, especially our bias against and resistance to, multimodal literacy and to reconceptualize various aspects of multimodal literacy research and pedagogy.” (p. 90)

As suggested earlier, even though, research in second language writing on multimodality is limited, I believe the upsurge of research in recent times needs to be assessed and considered for curriculum implementation in the future. The benefit of multimodal composing through this research has proven to be effective and has given students a sense of hope and confidence to transfer knowledge from one field to another to achieve results. Shin & Cimasko (2008) said

“research has noted that multimodal writing allows for better communication of knowledge and expression of personal identities through various modes of representation” (p. 377), participants in the study was given the opportunity to use different modes of writing to communicate knowledge, experiences, to tell their individual stories about how they used multimodal composing to engage the audience. Hafner whiles arguing for the case of multimodal text indicate that the digital age offers a challenge to the scholarship to vary the writing approach of composing texts. He calls for researchers and practitioners in TESOL to consider issues of emerging technology in ESL writing classrooms. The author argues that digital literacy provides useful starting point to address the writing needs of learners. Hafner notes that one of the ways this can be achieved is by encouraging students to write and read by using digital media. He admits that this approach requires mastery to be able to operate digital tools such as computers and smart phones (p. 830). Hafner suggests that the engagement in the digital practice requires using language in combination with semiotic resources for communication to engage audience participation (p. 830). This suggestion in my view has been carefully followed by researchers who have had a real practical engagement with L2 students in this area. 127

He outlines three keys areas that need to addressed: Hypertext and multimedia, collaboration and remix, and authentic online audience (p. 831). He affirms the need for TESOL to equip second language or foreign language learners with adequate learning skills for the digital age. He calls for the need to reexamine the writing tools, processes and social relationships, involved in writing and the product of writing in relation to composition with texts (p. 832). He acknowledges the development of critical literacies, multimodal composition and visual literacy, relevant technology using videos editing, collaboration, and audience awareness (.833). He admits the successful implementation of this approach will depend on how these tools are designed to meet the learning needs of students. Evidently, Hafner’s concerns are legitimate and not different from what other scholars have suggested moving forward with multimodality.

To support Hafner assertion, the study has shown that multimodality offers enormous opportunities to enable students to explore different writing strategies to achieve their learning goals. Participants in the study were able to apply practical experiences and successfully, connected such expertise into creating visual imagery to express their thoughts, emotions, and writing personal narratives for term papers. Multimodality at the beginning of the writing process was unfamiliar word and students had no idea how to make meaning of its application. However, by redefining the term using simple words such as pictures, images, charts, graphs, and other visual representations to express their own voice and also took complete ownership of their writing. Students in the study learned valuable lessons such as effective collaboration in the form of providing writing workshops, group activities, feedback, and engaging students with practical examples to boost their interest. These activities no doubt helped participants in the study to commit to the different projects knowing very well that they are not alone in the writing process.

This confidence level expressed by students in the study in part was the reason why students 128 were able to take personal ownership of their work. Results from the study has also shown that multimodal composing come with logistical support, readiness of instructors to work one-on-one with students, coming up with rubric that explains how student work will be assessed or graded, and student engagement in collaborative writing are key components to using multimodal text.

These issues are not new to instructors because we adapt these measures all the time in our classroom to guide and to assist students to meet their writing needs. The difference here is that students and instructors alike are not sure how to effectively implement multimodal composing either in place of alphabetic text, or combing both to enhance student writing. Results from the study along with research from experts on the filed have suggested that multimodal text is not new, and that it was, and still, been used in our everyday writing classrooms.

Future Research

The history of writing has shown that writing has evolved over the years and the era of technological advancement presents yet another challenge for the scholarship to take advantage of the changing trend to determine whether to embrace or reject the use of multimodality to achieve results. In considering future research, one issue I struggled with was finding the right word to use making reference to multimodality. Is multimodality a genre, a writing strategy, a concept, or a writing form, or method? Throughout the study, I have used all these words to elaborate on multimodality as a form of writing. I am interested to know how future research will be able to come up with one or two acceptable words/phrases to represent multimodal text.

Multimodality is a test case for future research and I believe this study and others will open the door for more researchers to critically examine the use of multimodality in not only L2 settings but in the composition classroom as a whole. Li & Storch (2017) arguing the case for the changing trend in the composition classroom cites (Hyland, 2016), stated that 129

a number of scholars have observed that the way of writing representation has been

shifting from purely verbal to visual in a wide range of informative, persuasive, and

entertainment texts. The authors indicates that the shift coincides with the visual turn in

writing studies: seeing texts as visual and treating images as texts (p. 1)”

The authors further states that in the multimodal writing process, students develop their skills in digital literacies, namely searching and critically evaluating online information, creating multimodal texts, remixing online texts, and interacting appropriately with others in the online space.

Initial research and effort to implement multimodal composing have been discussed and results indicate that the implementation of multimodal composing in L2 settings is yielding positive results. To buttress this point Li & Storch assert that, multimodal writing can lead to improved academic writing, having examined undergraduate students’ digital literacy practices in English for Specific Purposes course. They indicated that students worked collaboratively on an innovative writing task, a multimodal scientific documentary with a general audience of non- specialists on YouTube. Finally the authors cites (Hafner, Chik, & Jones, 2015) arguing that

“studies have shown that the incorporation of multimodal composition in classroom settings is both feasible and worthwhile” (p.40). Belcher affirms that

“there is at least one area, however, in which L2 writing does not appear to be either

leading the way or in sync with the writing studies field, namely, multimodal composing

and digital design (also referred to as multimodal design. (p.80)

In response, the study was conducted in L2 setting and the results have shown that there is growing awareness about how L2 teachers can explore different writing approaches to enhance student writing especially in the digital age. There only requirement is to explore, commit, and 130 motivate students to engage text by using visual imagery. Li & Storch cites Thorne and

Reinhardt (2008), contributing to the discussions states:

In a technology driven world, advanced level L2 literacies now need to include

familiarity with new and emerging computer mediated writing tools, a growing range of

these computer-mediated forms of communication enable writers to produce texts

collaboratively, and to share and evaluate each other’s texts more easily and readily than

ever before. (p. 1)

In support of the assertion made by Li & Storch students in the study engaged in collaborative writing to share ideas with each other during feedback and one-on-one interaction with me as the instructor to achieve their learning goals. The study further shows that multimodality helps L2 writers to develop literacy skills which offer students the opportunity to use creativity, to take responsibility to engage in text. I believe that my study and research on multimodality will encourage the scholarship to engage in additional research to test the efficacy of multimodal composing in L2 settings.

Final Take Away

Multimodality in second language settings has proven to be a useful writing strategy to help students develop literacy skills by using visual representations to compose text. Individual stories by participants in the study show the effectiveness and success stories of how students used pictures, charts, logos, brochure, videos and other digital means to write personal narratives, reports, movie reviews and other projects to achieve learning goals. These student stories confirm prior studies by researchers talking about the usefulness of multimodality.

Multimodal composing is not new; students are ready to explore the digital space with innovation, creativity, and passion. 131

My Final Thoughts

It is interesting to note that what started as a curiosity to understand why students find it difficult to use only alphabetic text to write term papers, my experience with grandma as her unofficial scribe, and the question pose by a student that “teacher I cannot write an essay because

I have never written an essay before” have turned into research for my dissertation. As alluded earlier, the comment by one of the struggling students who suddenly took a complete ownership of his essay saying that “this paper is about me, the use of pictures, colors” and visual representation gave me the needed motivation and confidence to write this paper. I thought about the sudden change and became more curious to know more about multimodal composing. I recalled lectures I received in my computer mediation class, grammar, and cultural rhetoric and I began to put the pieces together. I must say the final discussions I had with one of the dissertation co-chairs was the final straw that resulted into this study. The choice of using my own students was my way of saying thank you and to appreciate my students for working with me to bring into the fore their hard work and boldness to use multimodal composing to achieve their writing goals. This might be one of the researches for a dissertation, but I am looking beyond the future with great expectation and the desire to see what else multimodal text can do to harness the potential of L2 writers in the composition classroom. 132

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Borton, C, S & Huot, B (2007) Responding and Assessing In Selfe, C. L., (Eds), Multimodal

composition: Resources for teachers. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

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Sheridan (Eds). Writing Studies Research in Practice:Methods and Methods and

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APPENDIX A: CONSENT FORMS

B O W L I N G G R E E N S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

Rhetoric and Writing Program Department of English

Research Project Title: Harnessing Multimodality in First-Year Composition Classrooms in Second

Language (L2) Settings to Enhance Effective Writing

Student Interview Consent Form

Introduction and Background Information:

This study investigates the use of multimodality in first-year composition classrooms by second language writing students.Your participation in this portion of the study involves participating in an interview. The study is being conducted by Stephen Ohene-Larbi from the Department of

English at Bowling Green State University as part of his dissertation.

Procedures:

This interview is administered in Bowling Green, at BGSU campus at the student union. The questions for the interview will address participants’ use of images, audio, and other visual designs elements in writing in second language (L2) classroom settings, and how it might influence student writing. In addition, you will be asked to share your experiences about the use of this method of writing. This interview is going to be conversational and you are allowed to discuss ideas, recommendations and other related issues that would enhance effective writing in the

BGSU IRB - APPROVED FOR USE classroom. The interview will take about 30 minutes. IRBNet ID # _1252081_ EFFECTIVE _10/17/2018_ EXPIRES _06/18/2019_

212 East Hall Phone 419.372.2576 Bowling Green, OH 43403-0191 www.bgsu.edu/departments/english Fax 419.372.0333 137

B O W L I N G G R E E N S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

Rhetoric and Writing Program Department of English Potential Risks:

There will be no risks beyond those in everyday life. You can opt out and you are not obliged to complete the interview.

Potential Benefits:

Taking part in this study might help participants to understand writing in a new way. The study will give participants the chance to offer suggestions and experiences which will form part of the general recommendations to be considered for mplementation in the second language writing classroom at BGSU. Issues discussed by participants may also help teachers to understand student’s view of using images, audio, and other visual designs elements in writing.

Confidentiality:

The transcript from the interview will be kept in a safe and stored for a period of five years before discarding the information. As the researcher, I will make every effort to protect your confidentiality by ensuring that the transcript is protected.

Voluntary Participation: Your refusal to participate in this study will involve no penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled and will not affect your relationship with Bowling

Green State University. If you start the interview and want to stop, you can stop.

Contact Information: If you have any questions at any time before, during, or after your participation, please ask Stephen Ohene-Larbi ([email protected]; 419-973-1197) or his doctoral advisors―Dr. Daniel Bommarito ([email protected]; 419-372-6833) and Dr. Sue Carter Wood

BGSU IRB - APPROVED FOR USE ([email protected]; 419-372-8107). IRBNet ID # _1252081_ EFFECTIVE _10/17/2018_ EXPIRES _06/18/2019_ 212 East Hall Phone 419.372.2576 Bowling Green, OH 43403-0191 www.bgsu.edu/departments/english Fax 419.372.0333 138

B O W L I N G G R E E N S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

Rhetoric and Writing Program Department of English If you have questions beyond those answered by Stephen Ohene-Larbi or his doctoral advisors, please contact the Office of Research Compliance at ([email protected]; 419-372-7716). Before you sign this form, please ask any questions on any aspect of this study that is unclear to you. You may take as much time as necessary to think it over.

Consent:

By providing your signature and date below, you agree that you have read and been informed of the above information and hereby consent to voluntarily participate in the survey/interview portion of this study. Once you sign this consent form, I Stephen Ohene-Larbi will provide you with your own copy of the form. Please keep that copy for your records. Please note that participants must be 18 years of age or older. SIGNATURE SECTION – Please read carefully

You are making a decision whether or not to participate in this research study. Your signature indicates that you have read the information provided above, you have had all your questions answered, and you have decided to take part in this research.

The date you sign this document to enroll in this study, that is, today's date must fall between the date you indicated at the bottom of the page.

Name of Subject (please print) Signature Date

Name of Person Obtaining Consent Signature Date

BGSU IRB - APPROVED FOR USE IRBNet ID # _1252081_ EFFECTIVE _10/17/2018_ EXPIRES _06/18/2019_

212 East Hall Phone 419.372.2576 Bowling Green, OH 43403-0191 www.bgsu.edu/departments/english Fax 419.372.0333 139

B O W L I N G G R E E N S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

Rhetoric and Writing Program Department of English

Research Project Title: Harnessing Multimodality in First-Year Composition Classrooms in

Second Language (L2) Settings to Enhance Effective Writing

Survey Consent Form

Introduction and Background Information:

This study investigates the use of multimodality in first- year composition classrooms by second language writing students. Your participation in this study involves completing a survey.

Additionally, at the end of the survey, I will ask you whether you are interested to participate in an optional follow-up interview. The study is being conducted by Stephen Ohene-Larbi from the

Department of English at Bowling Green State University as part of his dissertation.

Procedures: You will be given a hard copy of survey, which contains YES or NO questions, multiple choice questions, and, in some cases, open-ended questions with the opportunity write in responses. The questions are all centered on the study of multimodal composing in second language classroom settings and how it affects student writing. The survey will take about 15 minutes and, after the survey, I will ask you whether you will be interested in taking part in a follow-up interview.

Potential Risks: There will be no risks beyond those in everyday life. Participants in the study can opt out during the survey and are not obliged to complete the survey.

Potential Benefits: Taking part in this study might help participants to understand their use of use of multimodality in new, sophisticated ways. Additionally, survey responses may be used in the BGSU IRB - APPROVED FOR USE IRBNet ID # _1252081_ future to help EFFECTIVE _10/17/2018_ 212 East Hall Phone 419.372.2576 EXPIRES _06/18/2019_ Bowling Green, OH 43403-0191 www.bgsu.edu/departments/english Fax 419.372.0333 140

B O W L I N G G R E E N S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

Rhetoric and Writing Program Department of English writing teachers, administrators, and policy makers to make informed decisions about the use of multimodal composing in the classroom to improve student writing.

Confidentiality: Your signed consent form will be kept separate from your survey responses, which will be kept anonymous and held in a safe for a period of five years before discarding the information. As the researcher, I will make every effort to protect your confidentiality by ensuring that the survey responses are protected.

Voluntary Participation: Your refusal to participate in this study will involve no penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled and will not affect your relationship with

Bowling Green State University. If you start the survey and want to stop, you can stop.

Contact Information: If you have any questions at any time before, during, or after your participation, please ask Stephen Ohene-Larbi ([email protected]; 419-973-1197) or his doctoral advisors―Dr. Daniel Bommarito ([email protected]; 419-372-6833) and Dr. Sue

Carter Wood ([email protected]; 419-372-8107). If you have questions beyond those answered by Stephen Ohene-Larbi or his doctoral advisors, please contact the Office of Research

Compliance at ([email protected]; 419-372-7716). Before you sign this form, please ask any questions on any aspect of this study that is unclear to you. You may take as much time as

necessary to think it over. BGSU IRB - APPROVED FOR USE IRBNet ID # _1252081_ EFFECTIVE _10/17/2018_ EXPIRES _06/18/2019_

212 East Hall Phone 419.372.2576 Bowling Green, OH 43403-0191 www.bgsu.edu/departments/english Fax 419.372.0333 141

B O W L I N G G R E E N S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

Rhetoric and Writing Program Department of English

Consent:

By providing your signature and date below, you agree that you have read and been informed of the above information and hereby consent to voluntarily participate in the survey portion of this study. Once you sign this consent form, I Stephen Ohene-Larbi will provide you with your own copy of the form. So please keep that copy for your records. Please note that participants must be 18 years of age or older.

SIGNATURE SECTION – Please read carefully

You are making a decision whether or not to participate in this research study. Your signature indicates that you have read the information provided above, you have had all your questions answered, and you have decided to take part in this research.

The date you sign this document to enroll in this study, that is, today's date must fall between the date you indicated at the bottom of the page.

Name of Subject (please print) Signature Date

Name of Person Obtaining Consent Signature Date

BGSU IRB - APPROVED FOR USE IRBNet ID # _1252081_ EFFECTIVE _10/17/2018_ EXPIRES _06/18/2019_

212 East Hall Phone 419.372.2576 Bowling Green, OH 43403-0191 www.bgsu.edu/departments/english Fax 419.372.0333 142

B O W L I N G G R E E N S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

Rhetoric and Writing Program Department of English

Research Project Title: Harnessing Multimodality in First -Year Composition Classrooms in Second

Language (L2) Settings to Enhance Effective Writing

Interview Consent Form for ESOL Director

Introduction and Background Information:

This study investigates the use of multimodality in first-year composition classrooms by second language writing students.Your participation in this portion of the study involves participating in an interview. The study is being conducted by Stephen Ohene-Larbi from the Department of

English at Bowling Green State University as part of his dissertation.

Procedures: This interview will be administered in Bowling Green, at BGSU campus at the

ESOL office. You will be asked to share your teaching experiences with students use of use of images, audio, and other visual designs elements in the writing classroom to meet their writing needs. This interview is going to be conversational and you are allowed to discuss ideas, recommendations and other related issues that would enhance effective writing in the classroom.

The interview will take about 30 minutes.

Potential Risks: There will be no risks beyond those in everyday life. You can opt out, and you are not obliged to complete the interview.

BGSU IRB - APPROVED FOR USE IRBNet ID # _1252081_ EFFECTIVE _10/17/2018_ EXPIRES _06/18/2019_

212 East Hall Phone 419.372.2576 www.bgsu.edu/departments/english Bowling Green, OH 43403-0191 Fax 419.372.0333 143

B O W L I N G G R E E N S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

Rhetoric and Writing Program Department of English Potential Benefits: Taking part in this study is an acknowledgement of your previous teaching of this course and your contribution would immensely improve teaching of this course in the future. Your participation in the interview will likely lead to insights that will be shared with you and could inform the administration of the ESOL program.

Confidentiality: The transcript from the interview will be kept in a safe and stored for a period of five years before discarding the information. As the researcher, I will make every effort to protect your confidentiality by ensuring that the transcript is protected.

Voluntary Participation: Your refusal to participate in this study will involve no penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled and will not affect your relationship with Bowling

Green State University. If you start the interview and want to stop, you can stop.

Contact Information: If you have any questions at any time before, during, or after your participation, please ask Stephen Ohene-Larbi ([email protected]; 419-973-1197) or his doctoral advisors―Dr. Daniel Bommarito ([email protected]; 419-372-6833) and Dr. Sue

Carter Wood ([email protected]; 419-372-8107). If you have questions beyond those answered by Stephen Ohene-Larbi or his doctoral advisors, please contact the Office of Research

Compliance at ([email protected]; 419-372-7716). Before you sign this form, please ask any questions on any aspect of this study that is unclear to you. You may take as much time as necessary to think it over. BGSU IRB - APPROVED FOR USE IRBNet ID # _1252081_ EFFECTIVE _10/17/2018_ EXPIRES _06/18/2019_

212 East Hall Phone 419.372.2576 Bowling Green, OH 43403-0191 www.bgsu.edu/departments/english Fax 419.372.0333 144

B O W L I N G G R E E N S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

Rhetoric and Writing Program Department of English

Consent:

By providing your signature and date below, you agree that you have read and been informed of the above information and hereby consent to voluntarily participate in the interview portion of this study. Once you sign this consent form, I Stephen Ohene-Larbi will provide you with your own copy of the form. Please keep that copy for your records. Please note that participants must be 18 years of age or older.

SIGNATURE SECTION – Please read carefully

You are making a decision whether or not to participate in this research study. Your signature indicates that you have read the information provided above, you have had all your questions answered, and you have decided to take part in this research.

The date you sign this document to enroll in this study, that is, today's date must fall between the date you indicated at the bottom of the page.

Name of Subject (please print) Signature Date

Name of Person Obtaining Consent Signature Date

BGSU IRB - APPROVED FOR USE IRBNet ID # _1252081_ EFFECTIVE _10/17/2018_ EXPIRES _06/18/2019_

212 East Hall Phone 419.372.2576 Bowling Green, OH 43403-0191 www.bgsu.edu/departments/english Fax 419.372.0333 145

APPENDIX B: SURVEY QUESTIONS

Student Survey Questions

1. Gender, please check box

Male

Female

2. Which year are you?

A. Freshman

B. Sophomore

C. Junior

D. Senior

3. How many years have you be studying English?

______

4. What aspect of English did you study most?

A. Grammar

B. Vocabulary

C. Writing

5. In your writing for school/college, do you ever use pictures, videos, clip art,

or audio other than written text?

A. Yes

B. No 146

6. If you answered A, can you tell us where you learned to use this method?

______

______

______

7. Prior to using multimodal text in writing essay, you have been using

alphabetical text in your writing; do you see any improvement in the writing

itself?

A. Yes

B. No

C. I don’t know

8. How would you rate your confidence level in using multimodal text?

A. High

B. Medium

C. I don’t know

9. Can you share one thing about multimodal composing that helped you to

achieve your writing needs?

______

______

______147

10. When given the chance to choose between using alphabetic text and

multimodal text in writing-in or outside the classroom, which one will you

choose?

A. Alphabetic text

B. Multimodal text 148

APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Section Two Student Interview Questions

1. Gender

Male

Female

2. What year are you in school?

A. Freshman

B. Sophomore

C. Junior

D. Senior

3. Have you ever participated in the GSW showcase writing event?

A. Yes

B. No

4. How was your initial reaction when you heard about participation in the

event?

5. How did you overcome your initial reaction?

______

______

______149

6. What did you present and what strategy did you adapt?

______

______

______

7. Did your participation in the event have any influence on your ability to use

multimodal text?

A. Yes

B. No

If “Yes”, can you share your experience with us?

______

______

______

8. What is your take away from the presentation?

9. What difference did it make with your participation in the event?

A. It helped me to be creative

B. It was self-motivating

C. It helped me to stay focus

D. All the above 150

10. What are the challenges you went through if any, when you were introduced

to the concept of multimodal composing?

______

______

______151

Interview Questions for ESOL Director

1. Gender

Male

Female

2. Which levels of ESOL class do you teach/have taught?

______

______

3. Did your adaption of multimodal composing in your classroom help your

students to improve their writing?

Yes

No

______

______

4. What was the student’s reaction to the use of multimodal composing text?

______

______

5. Can you share your teaching experience of using multimodal composing with

Us?

______

______152

6. How did you assess students’ performance in using multimodal composing in

writing in and outside the classroom?

______

______

______

7. What made you to adapt multimodal composing writing strategy?

______

______

______

8. When given the chance to teach the class again, will you use multimodal

composing?

______

______

9. Can you describe some of your most memorable experiences while teaching a

multimodal writing assignment?

______

______

______153

10. What is your take away from the use of this writing strategy?

______

______

______154

APPENDIX D. INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

First interview with one of the participant:

S: Ok, it’s nice seeing you after two semesters

MT: Yeah!

S: I’m going to talk to you about the showcase event you took part in the fall or was it in the spring semester?

MT: Fall semester 2017.

S: Ok!

S: So when I told you guys in class about taking part in the event, what was your initial reaction?

MT: Well, my initial reaction was like, I was nervous because I know I have to prepare to present before people. Uh but I was excited as well.

S: Okay, so how did you overcome your initial reaction?

MT: Ooh I thought it was a great opportunity to show uh the work I have done and uh I was satisfied with and I prepared the speech about the project.

S: Cool, alright, and uh so what did you present and what strategy did you adapt for the presentation?

MT: Uh, my project was a questionnaire about uh whether students will agree with the housing rule that requires to uh requires students to live two years on campus and uh for the presentation,

I presented the main question on my questionnaire and the final outcome.

S: Did your participation in the event have any influence on your ability to use multimodal text?

MT: Uh I guess yes, uh it did have any influence? Obviously requires different structures and I have only been used to writing alphabetic text only, so that was like a new experience for me. 155

S: Good, so what was your take away from the presentation, or what is one thing you took from the presentation?

MT: Uh, yeah one thing I took away is that when you present a project, is important you present the errors of the project besides like the main points in what you find.

S: So what difference did it make with your presentation in the event?

MT: Uh I said it helped me to be creative uh yeah!

S: That means it helped you to come up with creative way of Uh

MT: Way of presentation and asking information from people

S: Good, so and then the last question is what are the challenges you went through if any when you were introduced to the concept of multimodal composing?

MT: Well, it was challenging at the beginning uh like I said, I was used to writing alphabetic text only and that was the way I used to expressing my ideas so when I was introduced to multimodal composing, I had to kind adapt to uh new method of composing but it was fun.

S: Okay, thank you very much for your participation, I appreciate. 156

Second interview:

Ok, so I am going to interview you about the showcase event you took part uh a couple of semesters ago, so when I first told you about the event that I wanted interested students to take part in the show case event, what was your initial reaction?

Y: Yeah! You told us about the showcase in the fall 2017, and that uh my reaction , my initial reaction to that was preparation, I was preparing with my instructor and also I practiced a couple of times before the actual showcase and that helped me to achieve the goals.

S: What did you present, and what strategy did you adapt?

Y: Oh okay, uh we did a project which was brochure project uh that was one of the projects of

English as a second language class 1010. I present that project with multimodal for example pictures and the faults within the project

S: So that was ESOL 1010 class, it’s been a while

S: So did your participation in the event have any influence on your ability to use multimodal text?

Y: Uh, yes, now I can apply multimodal text to my writing for example last semester, I did uh apply some pics to one of the narrative I did in GSW class.

S: Wow! And how did it go?

Y: Yes, it was great and also good.

S: So if there is one thing that you can tell us or what was your take away, or one thing you learned from taking part in the event? 157

Y: Uh, I learned a lot of things and about writing and that writing is not only ABC it can be more than that, it can be applied to pictures, videos, brochures and all the multimodal composing.

S: So what difference did it make with your participation in the event?

Y: Uh, I like the differences

S: Yes, what difference did it make?

Y: Oh yes, actually, it helped me to uh to be more creative, and motivating.

S: Okay, so what are the challenges you went through if any, when you were introduced to multimodal composing?

Y: Some of the challenges were concerning editing but I overcome that by going to the

“CollaLab” with editing stuff

S: Is that all?

Y: Yes

S: Thanks for your time, thank you. 158

Interview 3:

S: Nice to see you again, uh I want to interview you about the showcase event you took part last year. Uh, so my first question is have you ever participated in GSW showcase writing event before?

M: Yeah!

S: What was your initial reaction when you heard about participating in the event?

M: I mean nervous and at the same time excited about that.

S: Oh you were nervous about that okay! Uh so how did you overcome your initial reaction?

M: I mean just like during the class, talking about your writing idea to writing the paper and we talked about the stuff I wrote about the paper, I…is pretty easy because it is about my own opinion.

S: So that really helped you to overcome your nervousness at the beginning?

M: yeah

S: Ok so what did you present and what strategy did you adapt?

M: Oh I present about a questionnaire about building a shopping mall in BG and the strategy I adapted was organization of my paper and the questionnaire format and also the communication

I did-the questionnaire with people.

S: Ok, in a sense you wrote a report about the questionnaire

M: Yeah! 159

S: And did your participation in the event have any influence in your ability to use multimodal text?

M: Yes, I do

S: If yes, can you share your experience with us?

M: Sure, I uh I used the questionnaire to apply my topic. First, I went out to interview 10 random people doing my survey and then after getting the answer I gathered the data that I received and then I make a model to apply to my topic and then I wrote the paper.

S: Okay, in a sense uh, using the questionnaire helped you to write the paper?

M: Yes

S: Okay, good.

S: What was your take way from the presentation?

M: Oh, probably confidence and multimodal text

S: Okay, so it gave you confidence to apply multimodal text?

M: yeah!

S: So what difference did it make with your participation in the event?

M: Probably, I will say it helped me to be creative because like I didn’t write every sentence I’m gonna say in the showcase so something pop up in my mind and …

S: So you had the visual imagery of everything and it helped you?

M: Yes, yes

S: Okay, what are the challenges if you had any?

M: Uh just say, I’m thinking about the questions they gonna ask me and how I’m supposed to answer these questions before I prepare that.

S: Okay, thank you very much. 160

Interview 4:

So every question that I’m going to ask you is in line with the showcase event you took part last semester.

S: What was your initial reaction?

MO: I was very excited when I heard about it.

S: Okay, you were very excited that meant you were ready to go?

MO: Not 100% but my excitement made me prepare very well and to go the participation.

S: So that is how you overcame your initial reaction?

MO: That’s right.

S: So it helped you to prepare very well?

MO: Yes.

S: So what did you present and what strategy did you adapt?

MO: Uh the narrative, I used it to uh.. the logo that I made to represent a very important thing which is my family.

S: Is there anything else you want to talk about?

MO: It helped me a lot to improve myself and my confidence. Uh it was very helpful uh it influence my ability to use multimodal text.

S: Thank you, so the next question, did your participation in the event have any influence on your ability to use multimodal text? 161

MO: 100%, yeah!

S: Okay, if yes, how can you share your experience with us?

MO: Uh, my experience was really good and uh when I finished the presentation, I was kind uh nervous and wanted to know the results if uh I win or not because there are some judges who were going to judge us so I was kind nervous to know the results and I was also not ready to hear the results, honestly, and I didn’t know they will give us the results the same day.

S: Okay, apart from taking part in the academic work, you were also thinking about the prize, the cash prize which was going to be handed over to the winners of the competition. Okay and then what happened? Did you win the award?

MO: Yes, I did win, we had 2 certificates, you know we got first place.

S: So you guys won the award for best collaboration, because you guys did a joint presentation to win the collaborative award?

MO: Yes.

S: So what is your take away from the presentation?

MO: Have more, to be more confident in presenting in front of people.

S: You said you had judges going around looking at your work and asking questions?

MO: Yeah, which actually makes you nervous but you should not be. So it help me a lot it gave me confidence to present in front of people.

S: Okay good to hear that. So what difference did it make with your presentation in the event?

MO: It helped me to be creative, it helped me to stay focus and it was also motivating.

S: Okay, so you had all the qualities, so the last question, what were the challenges if any, when you were introduced to the concept of multimodal composing? 162

MO: Well, first, I was freaking out because I was not used to it, I had never used it, but when I got to know it more and more, I got confidence using it and I will like to use it more, and more actually, I am now used to it and I like it.

S: Good to hear. Thank you!

MO: You are welcome!

Interview with ESOL Director:

S: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to interview on the ESOL class I taught 2 semesters ago with your assistance and I decided to use that class for writing my dissertation and I have had the opportunity to survey most of the students from the class and interview them as well. I thought my dissertation will not be complete without interviewing you, so thank you again for giving for giving me the chance to talk to you.

A: My pleasure.

S: Uh my first question is uh, which levels of ESOL classes do you teach, or have taught?

A: I have taught almost all the ESOL classes that we offer. I just grabbed my favorite hand out and I will like you to take it with you. It’s the flow chart of all the classes at BGSU for ESOL, so we have undergraduate and graduate classes, at the undergraduate classes, we have 4, and there are two writing classes and they are sequence so ESOL 1000 is Academic composition I and students who place there when they complete it, they take ESOL 1010 Academic composition II as a course you taught. I have taught both of those, after those courses, students go into the GSW program- General Studies Writing. I have also taught all 3 of their courses for the speaking classes, and for undergraduates

S: Perfect 163

A: We also have the 2 levels, uh ESOL 1030 and 1040. I have taught both of those and in case you are curious about the grad level, we also have a big range of classes, writing classes, and speaking classes, and ITA classes-International Teaching Assistance. I have taught all those classes except for two, so I have not taught our ESOL 5060 which is most advanced graduate classes and I have not taught ESOL 5040which is one of our ITA classes, everything ESOL there

I have taught.

S: Wow! That means I made the right decision to come over here to talk to you.

A: Well I have been here for years now and I have had a lot of opportunities.

S: That’s great and I also understand that you adapted multimodal concept in teaching some of the classes. I want to be specific; did your adaption of multimodal composing in your classroom help your students to improve their writing?

A: I think I did, and I think uh even more important is it helped the students to think about writing in new ways and to recognize that writing does not equal text or alphabetic characters and words but that writing includes other ways of communicating to incorporate pictures, graphs, and some of the charts we did in those assignments. So it’s been really exciting to learn more about that area myself and then start to implement it in as many classes as I can because I think uh our communication styles at this moment in the world, really rely on multimodality and I want my students to be well prepared for that kind of communication.

S: Thank you, you are right on target and I think that is the movement of our composition classes towards multimodality.

So, I know it’s not always an easy idea to introduce a new concept to the class and to this effect;

I want to know what was the student’s reaction to the use of multimodal composing text? 164

A: Uh, I think there were a range of reactions. Uh definitely there were some students who were completely unfamiliar with that idea very intimidated by it; they know how to write a 5 paragraph essay.

S: Yeah! You are right….laughter

A: And now you are telling them to do this totally new thing, and they are a little bit shocked and a little bit confused and I think there were other students even who from the beginning who were excited, they thought this was cool, I like doing this different thing but I think by the end of the semester, I can’t say 100% but I think most students appreciated the opportunity to work with different ways of writing and students often commented on it in the semester reflections and even on course evaluations they like having different kind of writing opportunity.

S: Yeah! I think I also had similar encounter at the beginning. Thank you so much.

S: So my next question is can you share your teaching experience of using multimodal composing with us?

A: It seems like a broad question, so I will say something and you can tell me if it’s not what you are looking for. I think for me , it all evolve, first I was thinking mostly at the end of the semester reflection projects and I was trying to find out more, I wanted ways of making those more interesting to students than writing those essays so my main at first with multimodal writing was to trying to do something different and interesting but as I find more and explore ways of doing it, my justification has shifted to what I said before about how this is not fan and interesting but how we communicate as a world and so uh I moved more in the direction of looking for genres that are already multimodal and then incorporating those genres into my classes so in ESOL

1010 the class that we both taught, uh the report is a perfect example of that. It’s a common genre and they are always multimodal, they include charts and graphs, tables, and figures and 165 that’s common in academic writing and professional writings. So introducing our students to those skills within the context of our class, I think gives them a head start and I think it’s very valuable so I think it evolved right! So just thinking this might be fun to really thinking this is critical, this really important literacy skill that we need to be including. I don’t know if this really answers your question.

S: Yes, it does, and it reminds me of the book “Inside Writing” and the way it is structured and the way they structured the various chapters and those parts that deals with the visual imagery and multimodal aspect was something that was clear and vivid to give the students idea about what they needed to do and I share your views on that point and I think I’m also learning and I hope to learn more from you as well so that I can make changes to way I’m teaching multimodal concept in my class. Thank you very much for that.

S: Okay, so how did you assess student’s performance in using multimodal composing in or outside the classroom?

A: I think that evolve for me also. I think at first it was a little bit of a check box did the students include multimodal elements uh because I wanted to be careful that I wasn’t uh holding students accountable for grading things that I didn’t teach, right! So if my criteria were it should be multimodal then my grading wasn’t multimodal or not right! Not so much in evaluating the quality of those non textual elements, but I’m interested in encouraging students to evaluate their quality there. So as I move towards genre based model, we are looking more at how the genre has used multimodal elements and talking more about this in class which I think lessened uh incorporating that more in assessment, but I will say that I’m assessing primarily their written text a lot of cases uh so the multimodal component may be one element on the rubric but it’s not 166 going to be as heavily weighted as I mean the more traditional categories like organization, development, and grammatical accuracy and so on.

S: Yeah! I think it makes a lot of sense because the gradual process will help instead of overwhelming the students with multimodal all over. So I think I like your idea and I said I was going to learn a lot from you and I’m beginning to know and understand why.

A: I think I try to focus on what’s most important element about the multimodal element for that particular project, right! And whatever we have time to talk about like talking about a captioning a graph or photo in providing like a figure, I like a label then I might put that specific thing into my rubric and hold students accountable for it.

S: Perfect you got it.

Okay, my next question what made you to adapt multimodal composing writing strategy?

A: I think we already talked about that a little bit but it started when I just wanted to do something different but the more I learn the convinced I am how important it is.

S: Great!

A: And so seeing students engage with it, once they get over the initial shock of been asked to do something unfamiliar watching them enjoy it and rise to the challenge and produce really interesting and uh beneficial work, it encourages me to keep digging deeper.

S: Yeah! Okay, this brings me to the next question, when giving the chance to teach the class again, you will use multimodal composing?

A: Absolutely, yeah! And I haven’t taught that class since the year before you did so it’s been 2 years now but I did this fall highlight a new curriculum for our new ESOL 1000 course which is very similar to what we were using in 1010 so using the same text book we were using –Inside 167

Writing, the lower level book and most of the assignments we did in that class were multimodal assignments.

S: Oh perfect, I can’t wait to visit your class one of this days to see what is going on.

A: Yeah sure.

S: So can you describe some of your memorable experiences whiles teaching multimodal writing assignment?

A: Hmm, well what is most clearly in my mind right now are these projects we just finished in

ESOL 1000. Is a different course but the projects uh the students did uh, the biggest projects was a photo essay, it was a little bit about flexible genre uh that we looked at several samples and I gave some suggestions how they might approach it and uh the students were so creative in what they did. One student did like a day in my life style photo essay so he took photos of all the things he was doing for one day and then wrote about his daily routine so is like a window into his life. Several students did a recipe style post, one of our examples was a food block and how they took pictures of each recipe and so one students as he was making the recipe and taking pictures, he was kind enough to bring the baked good, the cookie cake to class, “well I made it in

English class and I thought I should bring it and show it to the class” said the student. Some other students had to write about study abroad experiences so they all pursued their own interest and they were required to use their own photographs so that was really neat to see them kind of showing off their experiences. I think one that sticks out of my mind is your class 1010 is the case study the logo assignment when I started that semester, the very first time, I wasn’t unsure of about that project and I didn’t know I like it but they loved it, they were so invested in creating these logos writing about their design process so in the end, that was one that I really enjoyed because it surprised me. I wasn’t sure it was going to work, but it did. 168

S: perfect, I had similar experience and it worked. I was interviewing one of the students whether he was also applying multimodal composing in his classes and he said, “You know what? It really helped me in my current GSW 1120 class. I used it the concept to write my essay and it was really good and I said really! Cool and I told him I was so happy to hear about his progress and I’m…

A: Yeah! It’s awesome!

S: Aright, so my last question for you is uh what is your take away from the use of this writing strategy, approach or concept?

A: I think my main take away is that is very worthwhile and also that the instructor should not be afraid of trying it that is possible to start slow and gradual maybe just a project in your course has this multimodal element maybe look for a genre that are already included and you can work it in uh or maybe requiring image, graph or table in an assignment that you already do uh so there are ways to kind of get started that aren’t so intimidating to students and you can grow from there and I think making sure we are always explaining to students out rationale so for the ones who are a little bit surprise or skeptical, if we can explain to them from the beginning why it’s important for us and how it might be useful to them in the future, helping them make that connection, I think for anything we do is really important and that includes uh multimodal writing.

S: Perfect, thank you very much, I knew you had a lot of things to talk about and I was right to come here so thank you for granting me the chance to interview you about the class and I am going to incorporate all the ideas into my dissertation.

Thank you once again.

A: You are welcome. 169

APPENDIX E. RECRUITMENT EMAILS

ESOL Director Recruitment Email

(This text will appear in an email to the current Director of ESOL at BGSU.)

Dear ESOL Director:

You are invited to participate in a research study I am conducting for my dissertation project.

You are not obligated to participate in this study. However, if you do agree to participate in this research, your participation will consist of completing an interview with me to share your teaching experiences of students using images, audio, and other visual design elements in writing.

In addition, after reading the informed consent document, you will indicate your consent to participate in the study, and by signing the document, you agree to participate in the study. The benefits of this study are an acknowledgement of your previous teaching of this course and your contribution would immensely improve teaching of this course in the future. Your participation in the study will also help you to understand the purpose of the study and how it will help you as an administrator to consider the implementation of the recommendations if necessary in ESOL writing classrooms at BGSU.

Participation in this interview is voluntary. If you agree to participate, you will be free to withdraw consent at any time. Your participation in this study― both the survey and any follow- up interview is voluntary and if you agree to participate, you will be free to withdraw consent at any time and this will have no impact on your standing with me as the researcher or Bowling

Green State University in any way.

Please if you have any questions or concerns; feel free to contact me Stephen Ohene-Larbi at email ([email protected]) phone # 419-973-1197, or my Advisors― Dr. Sue Carter Wood, 170 email ([email protected]) phone # 419-372-8107 and Dr. Daniel Bommarito, email

([email protected]) phone # 419-372-6833.

Thank you,

Stephen Ohene-Larbi

Graduate Student

English Department | Rhetoric and Writing [email protected]

419-973-1197 171

Student Recruitment Email

(This text will appear in an email to the past ESOL 1010 students at BGSU. I will distribute the email to all students using their student email address)

Dear past ESOL students:

You are invited to participate in a research study I am conducting for my dissertation project.

You are not obligated to participate in this study. However, if you do agree to participate in this research, your participation will consist of completing a paper survey. At the conclusion of the survey, you will have the opportunity to volunteer to participate in a follow-up interview to share with me your experiences of using images, audio, and other visual design elements in writing. I must state that participating in the survey does not obligate you to participate in the follow-up interview.

Also you are receiving this email because you are a past ESOL 1010 student and if you choose to participate, I will provide consent form for you to sign. It is my hope that this study will broaden student’s understanding of the use of multimodal composing tests in the writing classroom.

The benefits of this study will contribute to your own understanding of using multimodal text- images, audio, and other visual design elements in your writing. Your participation will also help me to make recommendation for the introduction of multimodal composing text for consideration in BGSU.

This survey is administered by Stephen Ohene-Larbi in Bowling Green at BGSU campus― student union. You will be asked to answer YES or NO questions, multiple choice questions, and in some cases, write a sentence to give reasons to support the answers. The questions will address participants’ use of images, audio, and other visual design elements in writing. The 172 survey will take about 15 minutes. The interview will also focus on use of images, audio, and other visual design elements in writing and it will take about 30 minutes to complete.

If you agree to participate, you will be free to withdraw consent at any time. Your participation in this study― both the survey and any follow-up interview is voluntary and if you agree to participate, you will be free to withdraw consent at any time and this will have no impact on your standing with me as the researcher or Bowling Green State University in any way.

Please if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at email

([email protected]) phone # 419-973-1197, or my Advisors― Dr. Sue Carter Wood, email

([email protected]) phone # 419-372-8107 and Dr. Daniel Bommarito, email

([email protected]) phone # 419-372-6833.

Thank you,

Stephen Ohene-Larbi

Graduate Student

English Department | Rhetoric and Writing [email protected]

419-973-1197