Multimodal Literacy in ESP/EAP. Implications for Professional Development Programs

Abstract

It is widely recognized that English for specific/academic purposes (ESP/EAP) courses are intended to prepare students for effective communication within particular discourse contexts (Räisänen & Fortanet-Gómez, 2008). Communication is shown to be inherently multimodal and, therefore, there is an increasing need to improve the multimodal literacy of students in ESP/EAP classrooms. However, until recently, ESP/EAP pedagogy has generally adopted a monomodal approach focused primarily on traditional literacy and skills (Prior, 2013). In this study, we aim to discuss the contribution of multimodality to ESP/EAP teaching. For this purpose, we review specific literature that supports the implementation of multimodality in the ESP/EAP classroom to better prepare students for effective communication. Then, as a case in point, we present and discuss an already implemented EAP course in which multimodality comes to the forefront. This EAP course is devised to develop doctoral students’ communicative skills from a multimodal lens. Throughout this course, we engage doctoral students in the construction of a range of academic genres to foster their multimodal literacy. Implementing multimodality in ESP/EAP courses requires a profound pedagogical reflection on the approaches adopted to teach and assess students. This chapter also presents a concept for a professional development program that can be implemented in university settings to support ESP/EAP teachers’ inclusion of multimodality.