Preparing learners for digitally mediated academic communication: Digital multimodal practice in students’ knowledge dissemination videos

Abstract

The advancement of digital technologies requires English for Academic Purposes (EAP) education to incorporate digital-multimodal approaches in curriculum development to prepare learners for academic communication in this digital era. One such effort is the integration of digital multimodal composition (DMC). While the existing studies have investigated pedagogical practice involving DMC, there is still a lack of a systematic identification of the multi-semiotic communicative patterns in students' DMC performance. Using a systemic functional approach to multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA) and social semiotics approach to multimodality, the study aims to explore the patterns and characteristics of student-generated knowledge dissemination videos, a kind of DMC specifically pertaining to disciplinary communication targeting non-specialists. The analysis displays students' discursive patterns in the creation of interpersonal, ideational, and textual meanings. It is found that students excel in creating interpersonal meaning through configuring embodied and filmic modes and using popular visuals. However, their performance in conveying ideational and textual meaning needs improvement. Some students rely on technical language with unclear visuals, while others use a limited range of semiotics. Textual meaning created in the videos shows intermodal and intramodal incoherence. These findings can inform EAP course development and enhance students’ digital multimodal proficiency in academic communication.