Reasons to Let Multimodal Resources in: Multimodal Resources’ Contributions to Improving Adolescent English Language Learners’ In-Class Reading Comprehension

Abstract

With the development of modern technology and renewal of teaching approaches, although integrating multimodal resources into reading instruction has already occupied an important position, this present review is putting a specific eye on English Language Learners (ELL) in classroom settings, in particular the adolescent age group. This is a group of people worth noticing because adolescent ELLs not only have diverse cultural and family backgrounds, which require educators to take their cultural identity into consideration when creating classes, but also they have some unique characteristics different from monolingual adolescents when decoding and perceiving information. In this literature review, evidence from research is generated to support the main investigation of how multimodal resources assist adolescent ELL’s in-class reading comprehension. Various representations and functions of multiple modalities will be examined and connections will be built between the application of multimodalities and students’ progress in reading comprehension. Potential solutions will also be provided in order to guide future educators, policymakers and curriculum designers.