Multimodality as an alternative pedagogy in the english language classroom

This article discusses the various dimensions of multimodality and its growing acceptance as an alternative pedagogy in the English language classroom. The responsibility to decipher, accept, decode and ultimately present the gamut of multimodal discourse before the students lies with the educators. This in turn, leads the students not only to understand the existing forms of communication but go ahead and form coherent and whole meanings from all the available multiple modes. The importance of multimodal literacy necessitates an awareness of this aspect in education. An increasing awareness of and identification with the multiple meanings derived from the various modes of communication results in multisemiotics. Reading material has undergone a sea-change. The printed pages have now become web pages where the child reader is subjected to a plethora of information by way of hyperlinks and pop-up-images. The unassuming reader constructs newer meanings of texts from these extra bits of information. Stories with pictures have always proven to hold child attention better. Graphic novels, which initially had been relegated to the status of comics, therefore help to intrigue, interest, and ultimately motivate children, of this technical age to take up serious reading. They have the ability to add layers of meaning by way of colour, expressions and images to kindle child imagination, and thereby prove to be an effective tool for multimodality. This article therefore advocates an innovative implementation of graphic novels along with regular college/school syllabi for effective education apt for the present.