How the Multi-modality Teaching Mode Benefits Our Students

○ Hou Hongge

(Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, Inner Mongolia, 014010)



How the Multi-modality Teaching Mode Benefits Our Students

○ Hou Hongge

(InnerMongoliaUniversityofScienceandTechnology,Baotou,InnerMongolia, 014010)

This paper illustrates how the multi-modality teaching mode functions in a traditional English teaching course. It aims to provide a general outlook to the benefits the new mode brings about，thus making us further recognize its practical purpose and usefulness.

multi-modality, benefits, teaching mode

There have always been a lot of commonly believed but false ideas about how the normal class will be operated. It has been noted that anything will become boring because of the teaching methods of laying down the law. The so-called “multi-modality” is usually presented as a means by which a variety of modern teaching resources such as audio-video teaching, RPG (roll playing games), educational software, animated materials and other non-paper displaying methods are integrated in the process of education and further development. It suits with the new situation and changes the traditional teaching mode. Discourse analysis, the very origin of multi-modality, was firstly invented by American linguist Harris who holds that the traditional teaching activities should be integrated with other means of teaching such as images, sounds, colors and flashes.

The goals of teachers who use the multi-modality mode:

Teachers who adopt the multi-modality mode want their students to learn knowledge overlaying multiple perspectives. In addition, they want their students to learn more independently and proactively. Under the framework of multi-modality, both of the two tasks have been accomplished, and the results are very obvious:

1) To meet the students’ needs, the teacher has managed to keep the students’ interests in mind and opened up a completely new horizon for both the teacher and the students to make them prepared to enter a real world of teaching and learning.

2) Multi-modality provides us with such an opportunity to avoid spending most of the time guiding students how to perform and learn well. As a result, they have no obvious improvement in the students’ ability with their initiative ignored. Required teaching tasks have never been finished.

3) Initially the students are very dependent on their teachers, however, under the theory of multi-modality, they become ahead of the teaching task, that is, they are more willing to take responsibility for their learning and their motivation will

increase. By integrating all the resources together, the students learn to cooperate better. As soon as the bell rings, they will become energetic instead of being passive learners.

4) The full classroom involvements are achieved. In the past, under the rigid and tight schedule, the students used to find it difficult to plan and carry out their task. As one of my students wrote: “I like English, but I feel bored during each class. Thanks to the new mode, a new language learning setting is established.” Now under the guidance of such theory, the students can give their real and subjective response to the lesson instead of being passive receivers of the flowing teaching materials, which means that the teachers are capable of consciously and instantly modifying and rearranging their next teaching activities.

5) Because the students are fully involved in the teaching and learning activities, the distance between the teacher and the students is shortened, thus the relationship harmonized.

6) Under multi-modality, the teachers can organize class activities in various ways, which can all bring vigor and energy to the classroom atmosphere. All the teaching participants can cooperate well with each other and the teacher-student relationship has been harmonized dramatically.

7) Learning becomes dynamic and creative, which means that the students are not wholly dependent upon their teachers, so the outcome of multi-modality seems to be effective and productive. During the process, the students used to be compelled, that is, in a “threatening” or “force-feeding” way, instead, students feel more active because under the new method, they will improve English and help fulfill the teaching tasks more subconsciously.

8) Teaching methods become more concrete, and teaching can be used as a basis for further classroom activities. More importantly, it is combined with a variety of resources to ensure the students have more confidence, enthusiasm and interest.

9) Multi-modality sparks the further self-regulation by which our students can easily take charge of their own learning, determining the objectives, defining the contents, selecting the corresponding techniques, resources to be used and evaluating what has been achieved simultaneously. All the data seem to suggest that multi-modality can make our students well-

equipped.

It should be admitted that there’s still a lot behind this new teaching theory and its practical implications and usefulness need to be further assessed and explored.Of course, multi-modality does not mean that the responsibility may be shifted from classroom teachers to the students themselves. Sometimes when the teachers lose control of the classroom activities, they may still get frustrated and resort to their previous traditional teaching ways. As a result, their students soon get fed up with them.

In order to successfully and effectively bring multi-modality into the classroom, our teachers need to be trained in not only the teaching efficiency but the mechanics of how to integrate all the relevant teaching resources into the classroom. Also, the teachers should be aware of the various functions of the different resources especially internet-related ones, which can provide unlimited prospects for the classroom teaching.

Multi-modality-oriented teaching is of great significance in getting students fully involved in teaching practice. It is easier and more acceptable for them to deal with learning tasks since then. Teachers have to equip themselves with the new skills to further support their teaching career. Just from the teaching practice, we can learn from the theory of multi-modality: Learning is achieved not only by individuals or one single resource. Finally what draws our attention is that the making of multimedia source material (MSM) and the exploit of software has increasingly become a major obstacle to our frontline teachers especially to those 50’s or 60’s generations. And the preparations will take time and most of the work. Moreover, the corresponding topic resources selections, material acquisition should be further approached. Difficult as it is, multi-modality is a very helpful means to stimulate the students and it is worth our efforts.

本文为内蒙古科技大学教学(教改)研究项目(JY2014070)的阶段性成果。

侯洪革，男，内蒙古科技大学外国语学院副教授，文学硕士，研究方向：英语语言文学。

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如何使我们受益于多模态教学模式

侯洪革

(内蒙古科技大学 外国语学院，内蒙古 包头 014010)

本文通过在大学英语课堂进行的多次教学体验，探讨了多模态方法在教学和学习过程中的特点及其收益,并进一步介绍了多模态下新的教学模式所反映出的新趋势和新动向。

多模态； 受益； 教学模式