Multimodality in the English language classroom: A systematic review of literature

A number of systematic reviews on multimodal pedagogies in English language classrooms were conducted from the 1990s to early 2010s. However, there is no recent review examining the thematic issues related to multimodal pedagogies in the English language classroom. This systematic review addresses this gap by examining research articles published from 2010 to 2021 on multimodal pedagogies in the primary and secondary English language classrooms. A qualitative thematic analysis of 98 articles gathered from the search uncovered five common themes including engagement with multimodal texts from students' lifeworld, the use of critical, creative and culturally responsive multimodal pedagogies, explicit teaching of multimodal literacy, affect in multimodal learning, and concerns over multimodal assessment. The article discusses these themes in relation to the thematic findings of existing review studies with the same focus of multimodality in the English language classroom, and proposes directions for future research.