“I represented Tybalt in straight red lines” developing a multimodal approach for teaching Shakespeare to lower secondary age pupils

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis qualitative Action Research study explores a group of lower secondary pupils’ use of social semiotic resources and traditional and digital tools to develop an understanding of Romeo and Juliet at a private trilingual school in Barcelona. Forming part of a wider study undertaken by an English language and literature teacher, it documents how learners engage in visual, linguistic, manual, and digital responses to the play. The results show the increased enjoyment and the agency of learners when a range of modes are introduced to facilitate a Shakespeare study. It demonstrates how integrating multimodality can encourage pupils to draw on their backgrounds and cultural experiences to access classic texts. Furthermore, it reveals how a multimodal approach can be part of a student-centred pedagogy and facilitate assessment methods that are alternative to traditional written assignments. Integrating multimodal composition processes gives learners opportunities to create texts for a specific audience, to think critically about the reading, make personal connections with the classical play, and increase their knowledge of English literature.KEYWORDS: Multimodal approachcompositionEnglish literaturesecondary educationShakespeare Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsRhiannon Julia O’GradyRhiannon Julia O’Grady hold a doctorate in Education. She has worked in the UK and internationally, teaching in secondary and tertiary education for over fifteen years in Europe and Asia. Her special interests are English literature and language teaching, teacher development, and pedagogical research for developing multimodal and interactive learning approaches.Daniel CassanyDaniel Cassany is an Associate Professor in Discourse Analysis at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. He has published more than 20 books about written communication and language teaching in Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese and more than 100 scientific papers, also in English and French. Website: https://portal.upf.edu/web/daniel_cassany/Janine KnightJanine Knight holds a doctorate in education and eLearning. She is currently a teacher of English and teacher trainer at the International University of Catalonia, Spain. Her research activities are focused on learner agency in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL); developing critical digital skills for pre-service teachers; task-based language learning scenarios to develop spoken interaction; developing plurilingual competencies in schools and teacher training programmes. She has taught within primary and secondary schools, universities, further education, and adult education scenarios.