Multimodal Literacy for Improving Presentation Quality

Riesky Riesky

English Education Department, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi 229, Bandung, Indonesia

riesky@upi.edu

Keywords: Multimodal literacy, Texts, Verbal, Visual, Presentation, Design.

Abstract: The advance of communication and information technology has significantly changed the way people

communicate in many areas of life. Ideas, which used to be shared “mostly by verbal texts”, have been

realized in a more “multimodal” form nowadays, further influencing the way knowledge is constructed and

meanings are created. This paper addresses the importance of developing multimodal literacy to improve the

quality of presentation, particularly in academic settings. Some important principles in how to design

multimodal presentation, particularly which composed of texts and visuals are proposed here.

1 INTRODUCTION

Being able to convey ideas and to share knowledge in

an effective and understandable way is something

desirable for many academics. Ways of teaching and

presenting ideas that once were dominated by the use

of spoken and written texts have been slowly and

gradually replaced by modern ways of conveying

ideas that utilize more audio-visual elements. The

rapid development of information and

communication technology (ICT) has triggered the

proliferation of communication channels and social

media that provide “multimodal” features that make

human interactions more alive. To some extent, it also

has influenced how teaching and learning are

practiced in the classroom.

However, despite the increasing use of high-tech

tools and softwares for information dan

communication in the classrooms and seminar

venues, such as laptop, LCDs, and presentation

softwares like Powerpoint and Keynote, what does

not seem to change significantly, particularly in

Indonesia, is the way the users communicate their

ideas: using texts dominantly while hoping that the

audience will understand every single sentence they

type in their slides.

To put an emphasis on why multimodal literacy is

important and how it can be applied in designing and

creating a good quality presentation, this paper

discusses four important things, namely (1)

Multimodality and meaning-making practices, (2)

Why multimodal literacy is important (3) How to

develop multimodal literacy for improving academic

presentation quality, and (4) Key principles in

designing a multimodal presentation.

2 MULTIMODALITY AND

MEANING-MAKING

PRACTICES

The term “multimodality” can be simply understood

as an approach to understand how meaning is created

through the use of a variety of semiotic modes in a

communication practices (see Van-Leeuwen, 2005;

Baldry and Thibault, 2006; Jewitt, 2013). A mode

itself in the word “multimodality” refers to “culturally

shaped resources for making meaning” (Bourne, et

al., 2004). These resources can appear in the forms of

verbal, visual, aural, spatial, and gestural shapes. The

meanings that are then produced by the combination

of these resources need to be understood by

considering the culturally specific contexts in which

they appear.

In the practice of communication, people utilize a

variety of modes, choosing and combining certain

modes to create meanings that a single mode alone

cannot do. While traditional ways of communication

have been for so long dominated by linguistic forms,

the rapid development of ICT has made the use of

multi-modes in conveying ideas a common practice

in people’s daily communication nowadays. That’s

why Bezemer and Kress (2008) once stated that in

this era multimodal texts have become significantly

prominent as the carriers of meaning.

554

Riesky, R.

Multimodal Literacy for Improving Presentation Quality.

DOI: 10.5220/0007170805540558

In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference

on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 554-558

ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2

The use of a variety of semiotic modes in

communication has made the practices of meaning-

making interesting to study. The unstoppable urge to

have adequate skills in using various kinds of digital

gadgets in nowadays’ world has forced people to

learn and use these gadgets for survival purposes, one

of which is for the purpose of sharing meaning and

ideas to others. This becomes obviously true

particularly in the fields of education. Teachers,

students, and presenters, for instance, utilize a variety

of modes with their own personal styles and strategies

in interacting and communicating with others for

academic purposes. What makes it interesting to

observe, regardless the massive use of multimodal

texts in informal communication practices, is that the

ways people communicate in academic setting do not

seem to change significantly. Verbal texts seem to

characterize the process of transferring ideas and

knowledge in many classes and seminar venues. Even

if some have made their sharing of ideas “so-called

multimodal”, the effectiveness of combining the

semiotic modes still needs improvement.

The advance of ICT and the extensive use of

audio-visual equipment in many educational

institutions have made it easier for many academics

to choose and to combine types of modes for

conveying ideas and messages. As suggested by

Jewitt (2013), “the features of technology (‘old’ and

‘new’ technologies) provide different kinds

of constraints and possibilities for meaning making

(p. 14).” Each of the modes that is chosen in the

process of delivering idea basically has what Kress,

et.al. (2014) call as “affordance”, which relates to the

ability of each mode to “get things done”. In Jewitt’s

(2008, p. 247) word, it has to do with what a certain

mode can “express and represent easily”. What

becomes the key here is the ability of people in

choosing and making use of the available modes to

effectively create and deliver the meaning they want

to share.

3 WHY MULTIMODAL

LITERACY IS IMPORTANT

Multimodal literacy encompasses not only the ability

to read and to write multimodal texts but also the

ability to operate technological sources to enable

someone to make meaning through the available

modes. This kind of literacy becomes essential in

nowadays’ communication due to the fact that there

has been a massive shift from a dominant use of

linguistic or verbal texts to a more digital form of

communication, which largely uses multimodal texts.

Borrowing Jewitt’s (2013) idea, there are at least

six important reasons why multimodal approach

needs to be taken into account, particularly in the

context of meaning making and understanding. First,

a multimodal approach provides a more holistic

understanding of meaning. By having a good degree

of multimodal literacy, one can have a framework to

describe more systematically how certain modes

represent and contribute to meaning. This framework

can also be used as a guide to construct meaning as

intended by its producers.

Second, a multimodal approach provides a new

lens to understanding the elements and the process of

communication and making meaning. In the context

of collecting and analysing data in communication

research, for instance, researchers will no longer

regard language as the only mode that contributes to

the construction of meaning. This is not to say that

language is no longer important, but to underline the

existence of other modes that also contributes to how

meaning is created and interpreted.

Third, a multimodal approach can be used to

identify power distribution in communication. It can

make the uneven distribution of semiotic resources

across different groups easier to see, and show how

the differences created say something about power

and power relation that are built.

Fourth, a multimodal approach can be used to

investigate how modes are taken up differently in

different contexts. It can trace the changes in modal

practices across time periods by different actors for

different purposes. It can also provide analysis of

types of semiotic resources available, how they are

used, and what they can and cannot do across

different eras. The comparison made by using a

multimodal approach like this can strengthen

people’s understanding on how technologies created

by human beings have significantly changed the

representation of knowledge and how knowledge is

represented.

Fifth, a multimodal approach particularly in its

application on digital technologies has made it

possible in creating new resources. For instance, the

innovation in digital synthesizers has been able to

reshape human voice into “other new forms of voice”

that can be further used for different purposes such as

music, announcement, and many others.

Sixth, a multimodal approach can contribute to

the development of new perspective in conducting

research. Through observing and analysing many

forms of modes and their application in teaching and

learning interactions, Jewitt, Kress and their research

Multimodal Literacy for Improving Presentation Quality

555

team members, for instance, can further develop an

innovative framework to explore issues surrounding

multimodal practices in classroom interaction.

Taking these six important reasons into account,

the need to develop multimodal literacy particularly

among academics becomes undeniable. Academics,

such as teachers, lecturers, and scholars who regularly

have to present ideas and have a critical contribution

to the representation and development of knowledge,

have to be aware of this expectation.

4 HOW TO DEVELOP

MULTIMODAL LITERACY

FOR IMPROVING ACADEMIC

PRESENTATION QUALITY

Presentation quality, particularly in academic

contexts, has a big influence on how knowledge is

represented, understood, and made into actions by

academic audience. What becomes the main concern

to address here is that many presentations conducted

in academic institutions, as observed in many

occasions, still lack the application of effective

multimodality. It is still common to find presenters

deliver their ideas or concepts by using Powerpoint

slides loaded with dense lines of texts, accompanied

by rigid and boring layout, decorated with dreary

colour schemes, and delivered with a monotonous

voice. What usually happens in this kind of

presentation is whether the presenters make their

audience easily bored or they make them go to sleep

quickly.

The ability to design and deliver a presentation in

an effective way is a skill that can be learned by

everyone. Multimodal literacy can play a huge role in

improving presentation quality for many academics,

particularly in the context of representing knowledge

to the audience.

To develop multimodal literacy among academics

for the purpose of improving their presentation

quality, several important steps can be taken into

consideration. First, an effort to build the awareness

of academics on the need to change the way of

communicating ideas into a more multimodal style

should be systematically and continuously carried

out. An emphasis on how technology has changed

many aspects of human’s life including interaction

and communication practices needs to be

foregrounded in many occasions, both through offline

and online channels.

Second, encouragement to utilize and combine a

variety of modes in presenting ideas should be given

to all academics. Supports realized in the forms of

providing relevant information and communication

facilities will be very helpful. Reminding teachers or

lecturers of how nowadays’ students have been used

to multimodal forms of communication and how they

can get bored easily with traditional ways of teaching

or presenting can psychologically trigger them to

improve.

Third, a specific training or a workshop on

technological literacy, such as how to design an

effective Powerpoint presentation, how to edit

pictures and videos using a certain software, or how

to create interesting teaching media, should be given

in a regular basis. This kind of training will be

particularly helpful for older generation, which is

often considered traditional and outdated in terms of

the ability to use recent high-tech facilities. By

following this activity, there is a hope that older

academics can catch up with younger generations in

terms of technological skills and find “similar

frequency” to communicate with the young more

easily.

Finally, an effort to strengthen understanding of

essential principles in multimodality that can be

effectively applied in the context of academic

presentation needs to be carried out. Encouraging

academics to apply frameworks proposed by some

scholars who have conducted research in

multimodality is one of the best ways to do.

These four steps need to be taken seriously if the

improvement of academic presentation quality

becomes the main concern. An elaboration on

important principles to be applied in designing

multimodal slide is to be presented in the ensuing

section.

5 KEY PRINCIPLES IN

DESIGNING A MULTIMODAL

PRESENTATION

Every lecture or presentation given in a classroom has

been basically multimodal. A lecturer or presenter

presenting a topic will almost certainly use their

voice, printed text, intonation, gestures, and

movements to represent their intended meaning.

However, the degree of being multimodal here has

not automatically fulfilled the criteria of effective

multimodality.

When related to designing an effective

multimodal presentation, there are several key

principles that need to consider. The key principles

presented here are adapted from different scholars

CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology

Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education

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and practitioners particularly in the fields of

multimodality and presentation.

First, simple is beautiful. Being multimodal does

not necessarily mean that we put as many modes as

possible as we wish in one slide. In designing a

presentation slide, for instance, it is highly

recommended that we present only one big idea at a

time in every single page. When texts are needed,

make sure that only key words or simple sentences

appear on the page (see Forsyth, 2009; Reynolds,

2012).

Second, building chemistry among modes is

important. Whenever, for instance, texts and images

are to be combined to create a multimodal

presentation slide, make sure that the relationship

between the texts and the images creates “chemistry”.

To understand about the relationship that texts and

images create in a multimodal text, Marsh and

White’s (2003) “taxonomy of functions of images to

the text” can become a valuable framework to adopt.

In their framework, Marsh and White (2003) provide

a taxonomy consisting of three main functions,

namely (A) functions expressing little relation to the

text, (B) functions expressing close relation to the

text, and (C) functions that go beyond the text. The

main point to underline here is that the combination

of texts and images created should be made with

dominant functions of (B), with occasional functions

of (C), and with minimal use of functions (A).

Third, compositions determine information

values, coherence and attention. By referring to the

framework of composition proposed by Kress and

Van Leeuwen (2006), which is closely related to the

idea of Halliday’s (1994) textual meaning, three

important related components are underlined, namely

(1) information value, which has to do with the

positioning of elements in certain areas that convey

specific values, (2) salience, which has to do with the

degree of importance, or worthiness, or attractiveness

and (3) framing, which is related to the sense of

connection and separation created by colour

composition, shapes, or lines. This composition

framework basically includes some important

understanding commonly expected from a graphic

designer, such as layout, typography, and colour

schemes. One important point to consider here is that

in composing a multimodal slide, the placement of

information or ideas (in the forms of texts or images),

the way the key information is emphasized, and the

way the texts and images put together should be based

on an understanding of how different compositions

can result in different interpretations of meaning from

the readers’ perspectives.

Fourth, orchestrating semiotic modes creates

harmony and effectiveness in delivering messages. A

study conducted by Bucher dan Niemann (2012)

found that a presenter’s ability in orchestrating

various available semiotic modes in his or her

presentation will play a determining role in the

success of delivering messages to the audience.

Regardless the quality of high-tech equipment

available, in the end the skills of the presenter in using

the equipment and his understanding on the

affordances of every single mode he or she uses will

determine the success of the presentation. Therefore,

training oneself to get used to operating with different

semiotic modes in communication becomes crucial

here.

6 CONCLUSIONS

Among many things elaborated in the sections above,

two important points deserve a special attention. First,

developing and strengthening academics’ awareness

on the strong impact of technology on human

communication is still a big homework to do. Many

academics are truly aware of this situation but seem

to close their ears and eyes and consider everything is

still the same in relation to teaching and presenting

ideas in the classroom or academic forums: in other

words, “no need to change”. Second, the proliferation

of multimodal texts in today’s digital world create

challenges for academics to improve the quality of

their multiliteracies, including technological and

multimodal literacies. By continuously improving

their multiliteracy capacity, the role of teachers and

lecturers as the main characters in education can

remain strong and influential.

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Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education

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