Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine adult English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teachers’ use of multimodality in nonacademic settings. Specifically, the study was guided by three research questions: 1) What are adult ESOL teachers’ beliefs about using multimodality? 2) What are the adult ESOL teachers’ instructional practices related to multimodality? and 3) What are the contextual factors that influence the adult ESOL teachers’ use of multimodality in teaching? Individual interviews were conducted with 10 teachers following a semi-structured interview protocol. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2019). Findings revealed that teachers viewed multimodality as supportive of engagement, experiential learning, and inclusion in adult ESOL instruction. Additionally, the findings suggest that the implementation of multimodality is shaped by broader contextual factors within adult ESOL programs, including institutional, technological, and teacher and learner-related factors. Other influences on teachers’ use of multimodality included learners’ home languages and teachers’ own language-learning experiences. The findings suggest that there should be greater institutional and technological support for multimodal teaching practices in adult ESOL programs.
Policymakers, funding agencies, and adult ESOL program administrators could achieve this through policy reforms that (1) allow more flexible assessment procedures that supplement standardized testing with multimodal assessments, performance-based tasks, and learner portfolios to better capture adult ELs' language growth and communicative competencies, (2) support greater instructional autonomy for adult ESOL teachers to implement multimodal approaches, and (3) provide adequate technological infrastructure and support.