Teachers' feedback receives a growing attention in the multimodal studies of second language teaching. Previous literature focuses on the positive role of teachers' body language and video in error correction (Mokarrameh et al.2020, etc.). These research revealed that non-verbal and video feedback can improve content understanding and strengthen the bond between teachers and students. Meanwhile, efficient use of multimodal resources can resolve existing problems such as low efficiency of feedback among teachers. However, the increasing use of technology-driven multimodal ways in second language writing has not been widely explored (Elola & Oskoz, 2016), especially for classroom languages other than English. In higher education, Gen Z learners with multilingual resources are accustomed to receiving information in multimodal ways, it is thus important to conceive constructive feedback based on a multimodal discourse analysis framework.
To address aforementioned gap, this paper poses two following questions:
(1) How can technology-driven multimodal feedback be conceived and implemented in French second language writing?
(2) To what extent, if any, does providing technology-driven multimodal feedback influence French second language writing?
In response to the first question, this paper adopts the multimodal discourse analysis theory (Zhang& Huang, 2018) as framework, in an attempt to effectively establish multimodal feedbackanalysisframework by integrating multiple symbol resources such as words, pictures and graphs, colors and emojis (Kress & Leeuwen，1996). As for the second question, this paper reports on the use of technology-driven multimodal feedback in French L2 classroom by demonstrating the effects on students' achievement, learning engagement, and self-efficiency as well as teachers' attitudes towards multimodal feedback in a Chinese university. The data consist of 216 drafts of 58 students from two classes, including one control group, semi-structured interviews with eight students and one teacher, 58 questionnaire responses, and the teacher's self-reflective journal.
Quantitative and qualitative analysis of data suggests that students receiving technology-driven multimodal feedback strongly preferred the new kind of feedback. They also improved learning engagement and self-efficiency compared to the traditional feedback they once received. Such improvement could be confirmed by their affective and cognitive changes engendered by the multimodal feedback. However, the results also reveal that they did not display statistically significant academic achievement. Given that the improvement of second language writing proficiency takes a long process, feedback through only one semester may not be sufficient to bring apparent results, the long-term effect of multimodal feedback in supporting second language writing needs further investigation. In addition, several educational implications could be generated from the present study.
References
Zhang, D. &Huang, L. (2018). Multimodal and Foreign Language Education Research, Shanghai: Tongji University Press.
Bayat, Mokarrameh et al. (2020).A Teacher's Multimodal Corrective Feedback: Exploring its Enjoyment Building Capacity. Polish Psychological Bulletin. Vol. 51(2) 71–88.
Elola, I., & Oskoz, A. (2016). Supporting second language writing using multimodal feedback. Foreign Language Annals, 49(1), 58–74.
Kress, G. & Van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. New York: Routledge.
