Teacher Practices of Multimodality in Swedish EFL Classrooms: A Quantitative Survey Study

Abstract

Multimodality is a concept that has been long associated with the rise of new technologies in English as a foreign language (EFL) learning. As the landscape of EFL classrooms changes, so does the demands of teachers. This quantitative survey study set out to investigate English teachers in Sweden’s own self-reported use of multimodality in their English classrooms, asking about their usage of modes and the combinations thereof. To do this, the study made use of a questionnaire to survey 17 English teachers in the Swedish upper secondary school. The results indicated that the most frequently reported modes among the teachers was text and body language. In addition, the study found that the surveyed teachers’ choice for combining these modes was to either make one mode support the other, or to make teaching engaging and interesting for the student. Accordingly, it was found that the teachers still largely rely on text as a mode in their EFL teaching. The results of the study also indicated that while Swedish EFL teachers are aware of their use of body language as a mode, they are not fully aware of its affordances. The study suggested teachers are allowed the opportunities to better understand the role multimodality plays in their English classrooms. Finally, the study also addressed a number of limitations and pedagogical implications.