Interplay among assessment practices, legitimacy of multimodality and learner identity: The case of embodied multimodal composing in L2 writing classes

This study investigates assessment tensions in multimodal pedagogies via a case study of an under-researched embodied multimodal composing activity (in the form of drama) in a writing curriculum for English majors in China. It uncovers tensions related to the focus of assessment criteria in multimodal composing through a thematic analysis of the data, which includes interviews with instructors and students, students' reflective journals, and researchers' field notes. During the assessment, which was based on a general rubric, the students expected a stronger emphasis on language, whereas the instructors implicitly prioritized audience awareness, expecting students to engage their audience through embodied and multimodal resources. These tensions led to the students feeling ambivalent about the legitimacy of multimodal composing, with some perceiving it as a threat to their disciplinary identity as language learners. We propose a framework to illustrate the interplay among assessment practices, the legitimacy of multimodality in language classes, and learner identity, while also exploring how such dynamics may generate tensions between teachers and students. We argue that instructors need to be equipped with the metalanguage of multimodality. Addressing these tensions and legitimizing multimodality requires both genre-based multimodal assessment that emphasizes multimodal affordance, orchestration and audience awareness, and support for learners' disciplinary identity.