An Action Research On The Impact Of The Multimodal Teaching Method On Students’ English Writing Strategies In Junior High School

English writing is a comprehensive embodiment of students’ English ability,which occupies a crucial position in English learning.However,surveys show that English writing has always been a difficult part of teaching and learning.Many teachers neglect to teach writing strategies,so that students have limited knowledge of them,resulting in difficulty in improving their English writing level.This situation has been broken by the emergence of the multimodal teaching method,which uses video,audio,pictures and other modal resources to mobilize students’ multiple senses to participate in learning.Therefore,under the guidance of the multimodal discourse analysis theory,this 4-month action research explores the impact of the multimodal teaching method on students’ English writing strategies(e.g.planning strategies,formulation strategies,and revision strategies)in junior high school using the instruments of questionnaires,interviews,tests and classroom observations.The research subjects are 46 seventh-grade students of a junior high school in Hefei,Anhui Province.The research shows that the multimodal teaching method has a positive impact on students’ English writing strategies.(1)It promotes students’ mastery of planning strategies,such as helping them formulate appropriate topics,identify writing needs,collect and organize materials,collect words,phrases and sentences related to the topic,use photos or portraits to describe salient features,and write outlines.(2)It plays a useful role in students’ mastery of formulation strategies,such as inspiring them to organize their own compositions,imitate beautiful sentences,use metaphors and contrasts to describe,and elaborate ideas.(3)It is conducive to students’ understanding and mastery of revision strategies,such as prompting them to check whether the contents are in line with the writing requirements,check and correct clerical errors,spelling errors,punctuation errors,capitalization errors,and grammatical errors,revise inappropriate words and erroneous sentences,etc.Based on the findings,some suggestions are put forward:(1)Teachers should update the traditional concept of writing teaching and apply the multimodal teaching method to writing teaching.(2)When using the multimodal teaching method,teachers should pay attention to the selection and use of modalities.(3)Teachers should pay attention to students’ mastery of basic English knowledge.