This is a Master of Arts Project

1. Multimodal Learning in a Mandarin Immersion Classroom
A Case Study on the Influences of Multimodal Pedagogy
on a Chinese Heritage Bilingual Child
Man Su
Teachers College, Columbia University
February, 2017

2. Introduction
Background Information
Identification of the Problems
Research Purpose
Research Questions
1

3. Background Information
(Research Context)
Classroom Layout
Student Make-up
Alternative Teaching
Classroom Norm

4. Problems (Facts)
Teacher-Student (T dominant)
Student-Student ( English )
Lack of learning materials
Limited technology accesses
The Interaction Pattern:
Teaching Resources:

5. Research Motivation & Purpose
Academic Motivation
The purpose of the study is
to investigate how the implementation of multimodal pedagogical approach
will impact an eighth grade middle school student’s performances in a 21st
century mandarin immersion classroom. This qualitative case study will
follow the traditional-progressive model.

6. Research Questions
The research questions that will guide this study are:
1. How does a Chinese heritage student perform in a
multimodal learning environment in terms of the
collaboration mode?
1. How does a Chinese heritage student perform in a
multimodal learning environment in terms of the
learning style?
1. How does a Chinese heritage student perform in a
multimodal learning environment in terms of teacher
student power dynamics?

7. Theoretical Frameworks
Definition
Causes & Challenges of Implementing Multimodal Pedagogy
Strengths and Weaknesses of Multimodal Pedagogy
2

8. Definition
Multimodal pedagogical approach, by definition, refers to a
pedagogical method utilizing both traditional print material and
dynamic digital content, including fixed and moving images to
assist students to construct and comprehend information and
knowledge conveyed (Jewitt & Kress, 2003).

9. Causes & Challenges
Cause 1: Gee (2003) - language is
not the only important
communicational system
Cause 2: Picciano (2009) -
different cultural and linguistic
backgrounds, different
personality types, and different
learning styles.
Cause 3: the relationship between
teachers and bilingual learners
reshapes. Lotherington & Jenson,
2011).
Challenge 1: Some dynamic and
multimodal pedagogical practices have
been at odds with school policies and
dominant classroom pedagogies
(Marsh, 2007)
Challenge 2: the trends to standardize
education is still the biggest challenge
of implementing multimodal pedagogy
(Marsh, 2007).

10. Strengths
&
Weaknesses
it encouraged those
emergent bilinguals to
become the producers of
digital media (Carmen,
2011).
Emergent bilinguals take
ownership of their learning and
utilize their cultural and
linguistic resources (Ghiso and
Martinez-Alvares, 2014).
the bilingual children
mobilized the academic
discourses of school (Ghiso,
Martinez-Alvares, and
Dernikos, 2013).
Current case studies are largely
dependent on technologies,
The complexity of relationship
between digital native students and
digital immigrant teachers (Prensky,
2001).
The students in previous case studies
were mostly emergent bilinguals with
Latino heritage.

11. Research Design & Methods
Participants
Data Collection
Data Analysis
3

12. Participant
Annie
◇ 8th grade student at a local Chinese-English Immersion School
◇ Attend this after school program since 1st Grade
◇ Chinese-American (born and raised)
◇ Speaks Cantonese at home with parents
◇ Has two siblings, one sister, one brother both at college level
Other participants to this study in addition to Annie include her friend Lee, an
Anglo-heritage eighth grader who always gets the highest score in Chinese tests and
speaks Chinese with highest proficiency within the group. Besides, their student
teacher and teacher researcher, their head teacher Ms. Dong and the program
supervisor Dr. Fan are also included in this research.

13. Data Collection
As a traditional progressive case study research design, the data
was collected primarily through observation and interviews.
Data Collection Period: (7-8 weeks)
1. 3:40-4:00 pm, the participants were in group study with other eighth
graders.
2. 4:00-4:30 pm, they would reunite with grade six and join Ms. Dong’s lesson
on Chinese culture.
3. 4:30-5:00 pm, Playtime
4. 5:00-5:30 pm, Homework, Math Club on every Tuesday.

14. Data Analysis
-Review my observation notes and works of my focal child.
-Reflect on any patterns which are self-evidently emerged from
observation and interview.
-Translate or transcribe some of the audio-recorded interviews and
teaching videos

15. Findings & Discussion
Multimodal Pedagogy Raises Communication and Collaboration
Multimodal Pedagogy Leads to Co-construction of Knowledge
Multimodal Pedagogy Reverses Student & Teacher Roles
4

16. Raises Communication and Collaboration
Observation Daily Logs
Student
Interview
Head
Teacher
Feedback

17. Annie: “How do you speak Antarctic in Chinese?”
Teacher-Researcher(TR): “南极洲 (Antarctic)”
Annie: “南极洲 (Antarctic), GREAT! 我在南极洲 explore (I am
exploring Antarctic).”
Annie: “How do you say seagull? How to say whale? What about
iceberg?”
Daily Logs 09/27
Communication

18. - Group Work
- Communicate in Chinese
- Strategic thinking
- Decoding

19. Dialogue Code Observer Comments
Me: 你們互相認識有多長時間?
( How long have you guys been knowing each
other? )
Annie: Since first grade.
Wait, were you at Ms. Lauren’s class?
How about Ms. Han? Ms. Grace?
Lee: No, no no. Ms. Helen.
Annie: Maybe from third grade.
Lee: Third grade.
Annie: 三年級 (Third grade)
Annie: I really care about you.Annie says this to Lee
Me: 安妮，你喜歡這個遊戲嘛？
(Annie, do you like this game?)
Annie: I guess yes.
Me: 為什麼? (Why?)
Annie: I guess it sort of makes us work together.
Me: 你喜歡與Lee合作? (You like to cooperate with
Lee?)
Annie: What is 合作? (What is cooperation?)
Me: 意味著你們作為一個團隊一起工作. (It means
you guys work together as a team.)
Annie: Yeah. I guess so.
Collaboration
Peer
Relationship
Annie feels happy when she and
Lee could cooperate with each
other well in this activity. She
perceives herself as contributor
to the team when she earns a
point.
Before the interview, she once
mentioned that she thought Lee
was smarter than her. The reason
she would like to work with Lee
might because Lee would offer
her cool ideas to solve the
problem.
When students were doing a task
individually, Lee would disturb
Annie from doing it however
when they were in the same
boat, Annie and Lee started to be
considerate to each other in
order to fulfil the task and win
the game.
Student
Interview

20. Head Teacher
Feedback
Ms. Dong: Su Laoshi (Ms. Su), I really appreciate what you are doing
to engage Annie and other students into the classroom activity. They
told me they really enjoyed the games and kept asking me where they
can get the VR cardboard the other day when you were not here.

21. Leads to Co-construction of Knowledge
Formal Observation Fieldnotes
Literature Supervisor
Interview

22. Evidences
Annie was intrinsically motivated to participate and co-construct her
learning when she was exposed to a playful and challenging
environment.
At this point, Annie’s response to the competition mode of learning
reflected the play and intrinsic motivation theory which proposed by
Ryan and Deci (2000).
Chinese Culture Competition

23. Supervisor Interview
“Thanks to the buzzers, our
students could stand in the front of
the classroom as opposed to staying
separately at the back. We have to
create a competition learning
environment in order to engage
these middle school students. They
love challenges and teamworks.”
said Dr. Fan (Supervisor Interview
Summary).

24. Reverses Student & Teacher Roles
Formal Observation Fieldnotes
Head Teacher
Interview
Student
Works

25. According to the head teacher Ms. Dong, the project not only
aims to encourage students to develop ideas for writing an
essay but also for the purpose of practicing student teacher to
provide individualized instruction for students of different
language writing proficiency levels. (Head Teacher Interview)
Essay
Writing
Teacher-Student Power Dynamics Analysis
(Fieldnotes)

26. Step 1: Developing Writing Theme Teacher Power > Student Power
Step 2: Developing Scenarios
Student Power >= Teacher Power
Step 3: Essay Writing: Student
Independent Work
Student Power
Step 4: Digital Storytelling (DST)
Annie: I think we need to connect the
writing with pictures and find strong visual
representations.
TR: Yes, you are right.
Annie: We should use “focus” to animate
the subtitles.
TR: Wow, that’s beautiful!
Student Power > Teacher Power

27. According to the head teacher Ms. Dong, the project not only
aims to encourage students to develop ideas for writing an
essay but also for the purpose of practicing student teacher to
provide individualized instruction for students of different
language writing proficiency levels. (Head Teacher Interview)
Essay
Writing
Teacher-Student Power Dynamics Analysis
(Fieldnotes)

28. Step 1: Developing Writing Theme Teacher Power > Student Power
Step 2: Developing Scenarios
Student Power >= Teacher Power
Step 3: Essay Writing: Student
Independent Work
Student Power
Step 4: Digital Storytelling (DST)
Annie: I think we need to connect the
writing with pictures and find strong visual
representations.
TR: Yes, you are right.
Annie: We should use “focus” to animate
the subtitles.
TR: Wow, that’s beautiful!
Student Power > Teacher Power

29. Conclusions
Chinese Heritage Student Teacher
-Through experiencing learning with various
digital tools and games, heritage students will
improve their language skills and expand their
cultural knowledge as well.
-Students’ collaboration mode was strengthened
through meaningful interactions, engaging
discussions and contextualized learning.
-Team-based, project-based learning turn
students into co-constructors of their knowledge
from isolated and uni-modal styles of learning.
- Teacher researcher confirms the idea that what
is needed today for twenty-first century
bilingual education are practices firmly rooted
in the multilingual and multimodal language
and literacy practices.
- Multimodal pedagogy also leads to the
reversal of roles between teacher and students.

30. Thank You
The best bilingual pedagogical approaches and methodologies will not
work unless instruction is mindful of social justice and social
interaction. (Garcia, 2011).