Universal Journal of Educational Research Vol. 7(7), pp. 1580 - 1589
DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2019.070712
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Multimodality – The Driving Force for Engineering Undergraduates in a Course of Technical English

Arancha G. Pinar ^*
University Center of Defense, Polytechnic University of Cartagena (CUD-UPCT), Spain

ABSTRACT

Multimodality, as an inter-disciplinary approach that understands communication and representation to be about more than language, and where the coexistence of traditional and new modes and media acquires great relevance, is likely to be one of the focuses of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) research. Regarding one central component of ESP, namely learner's needs, a multimodal approach appears optimal, as it prioritises the technological preferences of learners who might be intrinsically motivated to learn English. Teachers, therefore, need to be attentive to this fact and incorporate technology and the affordances of the Internet as important component in any L2 classroom. The ESP curriculum could benefit from a learning environment with a diverse deployment of teaching and learning modes which lead the English lecturer to constantly reappraise the suitability of one mode over another and carry out some type of 'gain and loss' analysis. There is now an increasing number of studies that focus on this analysis to explore what might be gained and what might be lost if the design of an ESP curriculum moves from representation through writing to representation mainly through image. Incorporating digital technologies within the ESP classroom without ignoring the importance of more traditional pedagogies that place the book at the core of the language learning process might turn to be the most suitable ESP approach in a course of English for undergraduates of Engineering.

KEYWORDS
Multimodality, Mode, Need Analysis, Affordance, Aptness, Gain and Loss

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Arancha G. Pinar , "Multimodality – The Driving Force for Engineering Undergraduates in a Course of Technical English," Universal Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 7, No. 7, pp. 1580 - 1589, 2019. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2019.070712.

(b). APA Format:
Arancha G. Pinar (2019). Multimodality – The Driving Force for Engineering Undergraduates in a Course of Technical English. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 7(7), 1580 - 1589. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2019.070712.