An Empirical Study On College Students’ Multiliteracies

Taking a university’s College English students’PPT presentations as its analysis materials, this paper investigates both the level and the use of students’multiliteracy abilities in the making and presentation of English PPT discourses.It is found that direct perspective multimodal texts are the most frequently used genre in freshmen’s presentations and natural language and image are chief modes used in the construction of meaning and also some students in this study begin to realize the function of auditory modes in the construction of meaning.The analysis of students’specific use of multiliteracies has shown that students’ recognition literacy abilities are relatively high and their representation and critical literacy abilities need to be further cultivated.The study also discovers that language proficiency, as well as students’ knowledge of multiliteracy and information channels, is the factor affecting the use of multiliteracy abilities. Affected by these factors, their use of multiliteracy abilities in the making of English PPT discourses has its own characteristics.All the results generated from the study show that the freshmen are poor in using semiotic modes, PPT making technology and information channels to construct and express meaning in their PPT presentations, which indicates that college freshmen’s awareness and ability of multiliteracies are comparatively poor.Major findings of this study can offer specific information of college students’ current level of multiliteracies to teachers and call for their attention on students’ multiliteracy abilities and awareness. These findings of students’specific use of multiliteracy abilities and factors affecting their use can also draw teachers’attention to some other aspects of students’cultivation of multiliteracy.