digital-multimodal-composing
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- PaperTESOL Quarterly9 Jul 2026
Exploring Digital Multimodal Ensembles and Monomodal Expository Essays: From Author Performance to Reader Perspectives
YouJin Kim, Diane Belcher, Carter Peyton
A study compared digital multimodal composing (DMC) and monomodal essay writing among 50 Korean EFL students, finding similar quality in both conditions. While reader perception of new knowledge did not differ significantly, DMC led to more new informational knowledge units gained by readers.
Original abstract
Although many teacher/researchers have expressed enthusiasm about the benefits of digital multimodal literacies, empirical evidence of the value of engagement with multimodal ensembles for L2 students as authors and readers is limited. This study compared the quality of digital multimodal composing (DMC) and monomodal writing and explored the impact of both on readers' new knowledge building. Fifty Korean university EFL students were assigned to two groups: DMC and monomodal writing. Both groups completed causal analyses and then reviewed their classmates' work, reporting on what they, as reader‐viewers, learned about the composers' topics, in addition to responding to a perception survey. Thus, students had the opportunity to be both producers and consumers of digital multimodal or monomodal texts depending on their group. Students' DMC and monomodal compositions were scored using a multitrait rubric. Survey responses were analyzed for perceptions of new knowledge gained, whereas comments on fellow students' projects were analyzed for the amount of new informational and issue‐oriented knowledge gained as DMC and monomodal essay readers. The findings indicated that the quality of DMC and monomodal writing conditions was similar. With respect to reader perspectives, there was also no significant difference in the perception of new knowledge gained and reports of new issue awareness for the two conditions; however, DMC outperformed monomodal writing regarding reader‐reported new informational knowledge units gained. The findings suggest that although the student‐participants did not perceive DMC as having an advantage over monomodal composing for conveying new information and issue awareness, the students did appear to be able to produce and consume (as reader‐viewers) multimodal ensembles in such a way that new knowledge, measured in information knowledge units, became more salient for them in DMC than in traditional monomodal texts.
- PaperTESOL Quarterly8 Jul 2026
GenAI ‐Assisted Digital Multimodal Composing in TESOL Teacher Education
Benjamin Luke Moorhouse, Christoph A. Hafner, Tsz Ying Ho
This study explored how pre-service TESOL teachers integrated GenAI tools into a digital multimodal composing (DMC) project, where they composed a website at a Hong Kong university. Teachers used GenAI selectively for content creation (e.g., images, videos) and as a partner in idea generation and feedback, which fostered creativity, digital literacy, and critical reflection. Concerns about AI reliability and contextual constraints highlight the need for experiential learning and ethical guidance in TESOL teacher education.
Original abstract
This study explored how pre‐service TESOL teachers integrated GenAI tools into a Digital Multimodal Composing (DMC) project, composing a website, at a Hong Kong university. Specifically, it explored their decision‐making and cognitive engagement in the DMC process when they had autonomy in the use of GenAI tools. Drawing on a social practice perspective of literacy, the research explores how GenAI supports or complicates multimodal composing and the professional learning outcomes for TESOL pre‐service teachers. Data were collected through group and individual interviews with stimulated recall and analysis of group project websites. Findings reveal that all ten participating groups used GenAI tools, though in selective and strategic ways influenced by perceptions of tool efficiency, capabilities, authenticity, meaning‐making, and desired degree of involvement. GenAI was employed both for creating multimodal content (e.g., images, videos, and summaries) and as a partner in the composing process (e.g., idea generation and feedback). The DMC project fostered creativity, digital literacy, and critical reflection, with participants reporting increased confidence in multimodal and AI‐assisted pedagogies. However, concerns about AI reliability and contextual constraints in future teaching environments were identified. The study highlights the importance of experiential learning, explicit guidance, and ethical awareness for integrating AI and DMC in TESOL teacher education, offering practical implications for curriculum design in the GenAI era.
- PaperTESOL Quarterly29 Jun 2026
Examining How Business Professionals Express Their Home Culture Through Digital Multimodal Composing
Lucas Peltonen
Chinese professionals creating video presentations about their home cities demonstrated high proficiency in expressing complex, localized cultural content in English, including colonial-era influences. This challenges prior research suggesting difficulty and implies a need to expand linguacultural competence to include multimodal resources.
Original abstract
Internationally operating professionals communicate with interlocutors from a variety of linguistic and cultural (linguacultural) backgrounds, making linguacultural competence essential. One component of linguacultural competence is the ability to express one's home culture, which is essential because such expression requires understanding of one's own perspectives as a way of understanding other cultures. However, research has shown that Chinese professionals often struggle with expressing their home culture in English. To address this issue pedagogically, job‐experienced Chinese professionals were tasked with creating video presentations introducing their home cities to overseas business guests to prompt home cultural expression through digital multimodal composing (DMC). Adopting an instrumental case study design, this investigation used thematic analysis and multimodal content analysis (MMCA) to examine 68 video presentations. Contrary to previous investigations, this study's participants showed great facility in using English to express their home cultures in ways that were complex, highly localized, and sometimes contradictory. Unexpectedly, some participants represented selected colonial‐era architectural, commercial, or cultural influences as distinctive, attractive, and locally meaningful, revealing interdependent epistemologies of understanding. In light of this study's findings, I call for a broadened understanding of linguacultural competence to incorporate multisemiotic resources beyond written or spoken language to convey cultural meanings, a conceptual evolution that accommodates contemporary communicative practices.