Role of Visuals and Multimodal Learning in Multilingual Literacy - Minju Kim

Literacy is more than just the ability to read and write; it is a fundamental skill for navigating modern life. As children enter school, literacy becomes essential for learning and effective communication. Therefore, building strong emergent literacy skills from an early stage is crucial. For multilingual children, literacy instruction should extend beyond traditional reading and writing. Incorporating visuals and multimodal strategies enhances comprehension and communication, fostering an inclusive and engaging learning environment.  

What is Multimodal? 

“Multimodal literacy” means that two or more means or types of communication are being used and aims to utilize multiple senses or modalities (e.g., speech, music, images and gestures) during the learning process. The purpose is to engage all students with all learning styles (King, A., n.d.).

How to Encourage Multimodal Learning for Multicultural Literacy with Your Children

1. Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is a teaching method that helps children develop critical thinking, communication, and visual literacy using images. A picture or artwork is presented, followed by three open-ended questions to guide discussion: 

• What’s happening in this image? 
• What do you see that makes you say that?
• What else can we find?

By discussing the image without a single “right” answer, children learn to observe closely, think deeply, and explain their ideas. VTS is especially helpful for multilingual learners as it reduces reliance on written text and encourages expression through pictures, gestures, and storytelling. Over time, it helps build vocabulary, improve sentence structure, and strengthen storytelling skills, all of which support multilingual literacy (Barton, 2023).

2. Talking Drawings is a literacy strategy that helps children, especially multilingual learners, visually express their understanding of a topic. It involves two main steps: First, students create an initial drawing before learning about a concept, and then they revise and expand it after gaining new knowledge. This process allows students to reflect on their learning and visually represent their understanding in a way that goes beyond just reading and writing. 

This strategy is particularly beneficial for multilingual children, providing a visual and low-pressure way to process and communicate ideas. It supports comprehension across languages, helps them connect their home and school languages, and builds confidence in expressing ideas through multiple modes of communication (Barton, 2023). 

3. Using songs, movement, and games related to a book supports multilingual literacy by making learning more engaging and accessible. These activities enhance comprehension, build vocabulary, and strengthen phonological awareness through repetition and interaction. Acting out stories and singing familiar songs make it easier for children to grasp new concepts. 

• Sing the Song: If the book has an associated song (e.g., Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?), singing it helps reinforce language patterns and rhythm, supporting phonological awareness. 
• Act It Out: Have your child act out parts of the story! Pretending to be the characters and re-enacting scenes helps them understand the story better and remember the order of events. 
• Play a Memory or Matching Game: Using characters or key elements from the book in a matching or memory game helps strengthen recall, vocabulary, and story connections. 

Supporting Multilingual Literacy: Storytelling, Reading, and Writing Across Cultures 

1. Storytelling Styles 

• Different cultures have unique storytelling traditions. Some encourage creativity and imagination, while others focus on facts. In many communities, stories are passed down through spoken word, shared through conversation, songs, or performances instead of books.   
• Try This: Share family stories, traditions, and folktales. Encourage your child to tell stories through drawing, acting, or using digital tools like storytelling apps. 

2. Story Structure 

• Different cultures tell stories in different ways. Some follow a clear order with a beginning, middle, and end, like many storybooks. Others share stories by connecting ideas or experiences without a set order. For example, some cultures use storytelling to teach lessons or share real-life experiences instead of following a strict storyline. 
• Try This: Read books in both languages and discuss how stories are structured. Encourage your child to create their own stories using different styles. 

 3. Reading Direction and Letter Order 

• Languages are read in different directions. English and most European languages go left to right, but Arabic and Hebrew are read right to left. Traditional East Asian books are sometimes written top to bottom.  
• Try This: Read books in different formats with your child. Use your finger to guide them along the words and help them get used to different reading directions. This builds their awareness of different writing systems! 

References 

King, A. (n.d.). What is multimodal literacy? Ellevation Education. Retrieved from https://ellevationeducation.com/blog/what-multimodal-literacy 

Heo, S. (2023). Promoting multimodal literacy pedagogies in elementary immersion classrooms with refugee-background students. University Digital Conservancy. https://hdl.handle.net/11299/258751 

Taylor, S.V., Leung, C.B. Multimodal Literacy and Social Interaction: Young Children’s Literacy Learning. Early Childhood Educ J 48, 1–10 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-019-00974-0 

Barton, R. C. (2023). Beyond the label: Multimodal strategies for working with multilingual learners. The Montana English Journal, 44(2). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umt.edu/mej/vol44/iss2023/2