An Investigation Into The Multiliteracies Of Undergraduates Of English Major

Since the late 1990s, with the rapid development of information technology,dramatic changes have taken place in the field of communication. People slowly came to realize that the traditional way to construct meaning only with language should be combined with other semiotic symbols like image, color, video, audio, music, animation,sound, body language, font, movement, etc.,to better construct meaning and communicate ideas. The changes happen to the way of communication and of meaning construction putting forwards more and higher requirements on learners' literacy, in which context researches of "multimodality and multiliteracies" emerged and boomed.Studies on multiliteracies have already been carried out in full swing in western world several decades ago. However, domestic exploration and research of this fascinating area started relatively late in the year 2006, with a short developing history only about 10 years so far. Among the available researches, it is rare to see studies focus on the status quo of English majors' multiliteracies. Against this background, taking English undergraduates' multimodal PPT products as research materials, the present study attempts to find some truth about English majors' multiliteracies, to investigate their awareness and specific abilities. In addition, the study also intends to probe into the differentiation, problems demonstrated in students' specific use of multiliteracies as well as the possible affecting factors. The approach adopted in the present study is a both qualitative and quantitative one, with three research instruments, i.e., product analysis,interview and questionnaire borrowed. By providing specific information about English majors' multiliteracies, the present study mainly aims to help students better develop their multiliteracy abilities in order to cope with the opportunities and challenges posed by globalization, and by diversification in both culture and communication.The study finds that students have certain tendencies and preferences in utilizing genre and mode. In the choice of genres, students prefer to choose prompting genre and visualizing genre, while in terms of modes, they tend to use visual mode most, mainly including language and image. However, unlike other studies, the present study also discovers that a considerable number of other semiotic symbols like video, audio,animation, fonts, layout, color, etc., have being used by students to co-construct meaning.Apart from that, it is also found that there is significant difference between Grade 1 and Grade 3 in two design elements, i.e., linguistic and visual, in other words, juniors perform much better than freshmen in linguistic literacy and visual literacy. Besides,there is significant difference between Grade 2 and Grade 3 in the multimodal design element, and the same result goes to the comparison between Grade 2 and Grade 3 in cohesion design. All these shows upper-grade undergraduates of English major are much more proficient in designing multimodal products, in other words, they develop much better in multiliteracies, and which also shows multiliteracy evolves with grades.In addition, the results also show that students have generally weak awareness on multiliteracies and their performance on utilizing modes appropriately and effectively is far from satisfactory. In their multimodal products, it is not uncommon to see designing problems, like overuse of a single mode, improper mode collocation and coordination,irrelevance between mode and topic, and chaos in mode cohesion and so on. All these shows that there is a big room for improvement in students' multiliteracy development.Besides, in terms of the affecting factors of students' multiliteracy development, the present study finds that language proficiency, channels to acquire information,knowledge on multiliteracies, ability to utilize new medium, overt instruction from teachers, practice chances, as well as support from college and department matter most.