Multimodal Learning in Early Childhood Studies - Essay Example

MULTI-MODAL LEARNING IN EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDIES Affiliation: MULTI-MODAL LEARNING IN EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDIES Introduction Literacy development occurs across a person’s lifespan; from womb to tomb, since learning is a continuous process. Literacy should be viewed across a lifespan developmental framework. Literacy is defined from a wide and comprehensive viewpoint while appreciating and giving cognisance to the critical early years of literacy development. In a broader sense, literacy is defined as the ability to comprehend and use written language forms required by societies or valued by individuals. Students can gain meaning from different texts, participate in reading in school, in everyday life and enjoy the reading process as they learn from it. Literacy development is meant to empower people to develop reflection, critique and empathy. These attributes enables a student gain a sense of self-efficacy, identity and full participation in the community (Pramling and Samuelsson 2011). This paper seeks to discuss the theories and practices of literacy development and modality. It will also discuss theories of incorporating play in the learning process and importance of play in developing a child’s education and improving their learning experiences. The Multimodality Theory/Concepts Multimodality is a theory of communication and social semiotics. It describes the practices of communication in terms of textual, linguistic, aural and modes used to create messages. Multimodality is an inter-disciplinary approach that appreciates communication and representation to be concerned with more than language. The concept of multimodality has been developed over the last decade to address in a systematically manner, the debates questions concerning changes in the communities. For example, changes related to technological and media technologies. The multimodal concepts provide concepts, methods and frameworks for the collection, analysis and interpretation of aural, visual, embodies and spatial concepts of interaction with the environment (Smith 2007). Multimodality has three theoretical assumptions that are interconnected to form the full meaning of the multimodality concept. The first assumption argues that communication and representation draw from many modes. These modes contribute to meaning of multimodality. The assumption focuses on describing and analysing the entire meaning-making resources that people make (spoken, visual, gestural, written, three dimensional) in differing contexts, and on developing ways that display how the concepts are organized to form meaning. Therefore, the assumption seeks to understand how different modes are used to form meaningful words/texts. For example use of written texts to form meaning (Mercer & Littleton 2000). How to form the texts, the words to use, Channels of presentation i.e. oral or written, which are appropriate to the intended audience. Therefore, this assumption describes how different modes are used to show how different aspects of communication are often used to attach meaning to texts or words. The assumption states that resources are shaped socially over time to become meaning-making resources which articulate the (social/ individual/affective) meanings required by different communities. These organized of set semiotic resources used to make meanings are called mode. Modes ensures that communication works in different in distinguished ways i.e. using the mode as the central aspect to make interactions meaningful (Smith 2001). Using a set of semiotic resource often in the social life of a specific community makes it more articulated. In order for something to be a mode, there should be a shared cultural sense within the community of a set of resources and how they are organized to form meaning. The third assumption argues that individuals orchestrate meanings through selecting and configuring modes, foregrounding the importance of interactions between modes. Therefore, all communication acts are shaped by rules and norms operating at the moment of sign making and are influenced by people’s interest and motivation in particular social contexts. The core concepts of multimodality include modes, semiotic resources, modal affordance and inter-semiotic relations. Modes are understood as outcomes of cultural shaping of materials via ways in which individuals use in their daily social interactions. The semiotic resources of the mode display regularities through the ways in which the societal members use them and do with them. Modal affordance describes material and cultural aspects of modes (Clark & Moss 2011). It describes what is possible to express and represent easily with modes. The modal affordance concept is connected to the material, cultural and social historical use of modes. Modal affordance raises the question of what mode is appropriate for different aspects and situations. It relates to inter-semiotic relationships and how modes are configured to in specific contexts. The four concepts normally form the foundation for multimodal analysis. There are numerous uses of the multimodal concept. Multimodality is used to build inventory of the semiotic resources, organizing principles and cultural references that modes avail to people in particular places and times, the actions, materials and artefacts that people use to communicate. This contributes to mapping the semiotic resources of visual communication and colour, gesture and movement, gaze, voice and music. Studies on multimodal concept aim at establishing how semiotic resources are used to articulate discourses in different contexts and media such as schools, textbooks, and online environments. The relationships across and between modes in multimodal texts and interaction are central areas of multimodal concepts (Pramling and Samuelsson 2011). Multimodal concept makes a significance contribution in research for methods of collecting and analysing digital data and environments within social research. Multimodality provides novel methods for collection and analysis of visual data, video data and innovative methods of multimodal transcription and digital data management. Multimodality has contributed to development of medium, which is the substance in which meaning is realized and through which it becomes available to other people. They include, videos, images, texts and audios. Within the social context, medium includes semiotic, sociocultural and technological practices such as films classrooms and theatre. Multimodality uses the electronic medium to create digital modes that includes interlace of images, writings, speeches and video to teach classroom concepts to students. Digital medium is currently used to teach classroom context to students. This new way of teaching allows interaction, ensure that students focus on the context and make learning more enjoyable. Digital media such as videos and images are very engaging and easy to memorise. They complement the print modes of teaching and learning that have been used to develop literature for a long time. These new methods engage the students fully, making the context and content easy to understand and remember for future reference (Smith 2001). Theories of Developing Literacy Cognitive theories generally have had a great impact on literacy development especially in structuring expository text, story grammar of narratives and the schema theory. The schema theory has had a large influence on reading research that emphasized the individual cognitive process that readers use while reading. According to the theory, meaning is basically stored in mental structures which are activated and organized during the reading process. The view holds the assertions that readers and listeners often construct meaning to texts that they encounter, rather than just receive the meaning from texts (Hallet & Marsh 2008). The schema theory influences a student’s reading perception. It presents a model that represents knowledge and organize experiences in relation to reading comprehension. The schema theory is criticized for largely concentrating on top-down tightly controlled models. They represent a broader construction-integration model of comprehension that incorporates schema and other important literacy concepts. A broader, less controlled learning model, allows for flexibility that ensures learning needs for different students are addressed to facilitate learning and understanding for all students. A recent Cambridge review, ‘Children’s Cognitive Development and Learning’ (Goswami & Bryant 2010) did a survey to establish children’s cognitive development. The survey mainly concentrated on children’s major aspects of development, thinking and learning. The survey results contradicted the Piaget’s theory that states that there are developmental stages in learning to think, but emphasizes on the crucial parts played by social and motivational factors in a child’s learning process. The report asserts the cognitive prerequisites for reading. These prerequisites includes language development, the development of perceptions and spatial development. These concepts can be enhanced using oral rhymes and rhyme games. For example, the fundamental cognitive prerequisite for reading is phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is defined as the ability of a child to reflect on the sound patterns of words and phrases in his mind such as syllables /rhymes. Teaching through rhymes help develop a child’s development of phonological awareness. Psycholinguistic theories focus on reading to gain meaning. The student learns to read through reading while the teacher facilitate the student to read rather than teach them. The theory focus on reading as a constructive process where the reader uses their prior knowledge to make meaning of texts and readings. The theory’s major impact is on making readers to make use of authentic literature using texts with natural language patterns. This makes it possible for new readers to use their prior knowledge to make predictions to words and meanings. The reader samples the text with the aim of getting meaning to it. Reading is seen as a constructive process that is based on prior knowledge (Rowe 2007). The psycholinguistic theories minimises the role played by coding in learning how to reading. Learning literacy is perceived to depend on knowledge of the world and language context rather than orthographic knowledge of conventional printed texts. The psycholinguistic concept teaching of reading literature by focusing on quality of children literature and how well the children respond to the literature, especially how it influences their imagination. Teachers use texts with natural language patterns to enable beginning readers to use their prior language knowledge and take risks in reading (Routman 2000) Psycholinguistics also see a child’s errors in reading not as mistakes but as means to further understand the strategies used to understand the reading process. The reading strategies include phonic knowledge, which translates to understanding meaning of sounds within texts and appreciate how the sounds contribute in developing the literature. Context knowledge aims at understanding the major themes of the literature especially the writer’s main points. Graphic knowledge includes gaining the ability to understand images and pictures in the texts and literature. Word recognition strategy aims at enabling a student to recognise words and find their meaning through prior knowledge and relating them to what the entire sentence talks about. These strategies ensure that the reader makes sense of texts. The major criticism for the theory is that over-reliance on contexts to gain clues as a word identification strategy slows the reading process and makes the reader experience difficulty in understanding context when he is pressed by time. Therefore, overuse of context clues leads to inefficient reading. These inefficiencies affect the readers learning ability since reading is the most basic way of acquiring knowledge. A slow reader experiences difficulty in understanding and executing simple instruction. Slow reading slows down his thinking process, making him learn at a slower pace than his peers. Metacognitive theory recognizes the role played by metacognitive processes in reading, writing and word spelling. Readers who use metacognitive strategies understand the cognitive resources needed to achieve their goals. The readers monitor the outcomes of their attempt to find solution to problems, they test, revise and evaluate their strategies and use compensatory strategies when reading is broken down. Metacognitive strategies develop hand in hand with strategy instructions (whether in identifying word/spelling, reading comprehension, and writing). The strategic reading is described as declarative because the child is aware and can identify the reading strategy used (Cohen & Waite-Stupiansky 2013). Metacognitive theory calls for children to select the right strategy in a given text/literature and apply it independently. Flexibility in how a child uses the reading strategies promotes independence in reading. This is because development of strategic reading relies on personal motivation in selecting and applying appropriate strategies to the reading tasks. The major criticism of the metacognitive theory is that students especially beginning readers may not be able to select the appropriate strategies to reading. Allowing the beginners to figure out the right strategies poses a challenge since they don’t understand how these strategies work or what strategies are suitable to their limited experience in reading (Hallet & Marsh 2008). Therefore, the theory may not facilitate learning for beginners because it confuses them and make learning more difficult. For example, a beginning reader who chooses a reading strategy that is inappropriate for him will find it difficult to understand context. The theory is more appropriate for advanced readers who understand their reading patterns and can therefore choose a strategy that complements these patterns. Social-cultural theories of literacy lay emphasis on the role of culture in developing and practicing literacy. Literacy learning is seen as a social practice that is embedded in particular contexts of culture and are mediated by socio-cultural tools. The theory uses Vygotsky’s (1978) notion that learning a language is influenced by social contexts in which children develop in. Children as perceived to use a range of tools to construct meaning to words and texts. Within the social context, literacy is not just a personal cognitive activity, rather, it is a communicative tool for different social groups with social rules about who makes specific literacies for a given social purpose. The theory contributes in identifying how a person’s literacy practices are shaped by contexts of culture and history in which people operate and how learning draws from the learner’s out of school experiences. The theory demonstrates how parents can us scaffolding the way children learn literacy by apprenticeship models. The theories help understand how children are immersed in literacies practices from birth and develop a variety of skills, knowledge and comprehension concerning literacy. Critical literacy theory argues that critical literacy empower children to obtain meaning from texts. It empowers children to see how texts try to influence and change them to be better society members. There are two perspectives that relate to this theory. First is the neo-Marxist perspective that focus on using literacy to empower weak members in the community (Goswami & Bryant 1990). Second, the Australian perspective that lay emphasis on the interpretation of language and text as a social construct and a text is not neutral, rather, it is constructed to inform, entertain persuade or manipulate. The implication of this theory to literacy learning and practices is that students read a text from a ‘resistant perspective’ i.e. they confront the stereotypes promoted by texts and deconstruct the meaning being promoted, thereby providing counter-texts. This provides children with choice of texts with the provision of follow up critical analysis of the texts. Social-linguistic theory focuses on cognitive aspects of language and literacy, social and linguistic perspectives. The theory’s social aspects relate to the use of language and literacy to develop, structure and maintain social relationships among society members (Neaum 2012). The linguistic aspect on communicating intentions and meanings among language and users of literacy. A socio-linguistic perspective entails an examination of how language is used to establish social contexts, and how the social contexts influence use of language and communication of meaning. The Approaches of Developing Literacy The bottom-up model approach to literacy development presented a detailed letter-by-letter approach to understanding literacy. The flow of information in the reading process is a sequentially-ordered set of transformation from letter to phoneme deeply structural representation. The cognitive process of understanding literacy involves three systems i.e. visual memory, phonological memory and semantic memory systems (Puckett & Black 2001). The information in these systems feeds into a process that establish a student’s understanding of texts. The individual processes/flow charts take account of perceptual processes that are involved in literacy development. Major criticism of the bottom-up models is that they don’t explain how the reading processes interact with each other. For example, it is assumed that a fluent reader automatically acquires the ability to decode while most of his attention is focussed on comprehending the text. The beginners are assumed to have difficulty in decoding and interpret the meaning of words by establishing clues within the texts. This slows down the learning process and reduces efficiency in literacy learning. The top down models of literacy development lay emphasis on the role of context in identifying words and phrases that a student has prior knowledge of. Reader Therefore, a student/reader with semantic and syntactic knowledge can sample words from text that confirm meaning. The major criticism that questions the validity of these model argue that the model is only useful to confirm meanings of new words but cannot operate on its own to identify words. The interactive models involve four processors which interact and cooperate with each other to deliver information to readers. These processors include: meaning, orthographic, context ad phonological processors (Dombey 1999). For all the processors, knowledge interacts with each other to construe meaning to sounds, images and texts. The interactive model aims to explain how the perceptual and cognitive processes interact in the reading process. The model achieves this by incorporating the aspects of top down ad bottom up models. Therefore, literacy development relies on interactions with both linguistic and conceptual contexts in which words occur. Valuing children’s home experience is another approach that help children understand literature more easily. The home experiences help develop and form a child’s learning experience. Children learn by the experiences they go through and home interactions form a good basis for the learning process (Pinker 1994). Therefore, in literacy development, focus should be given to children’s home experiences to develop curricula that is student friendly and enhances a child’s ability to learn. Home experiences can be studied by finding out an average of hoe children interact at home and their learning patterns. These aspects are incorporated to the curricula to from a child’s prior knowledge, which influences the understanding of new concepts. Theories and Concepts of Play-Based Learning Learning via play is a term employed in early childhood education and psychology to describe how children learn to interpret the world around them. Children use play to develop social and cognitive skills, emotional maturity and gain self-confidence that is required to participate in new experiences and interact with new environments (Hall 1988). Children learn through playing, interacting with others, active exploration and talking to themselves. The concept of play allows children to make sense of their environment. Children have a natural curiosity for exploration and play allows them to do so. The elements of play that facilitate learning include: play being pleasurable and enjoyable, paly has no extrinsic goals (play must not result in learning), it is spontaneous and voluntary, involvement of active engagement of other players and the element of make believe. The role of play in children literacy development is developing creativity in children. For example, role plays and pretend plays involves creative activities such as making props or finding the objects to use as props. Play also develops creativity when a participant constructs building blocks, use paints or a variety of materials to make an object (Wilkinson 20110. In the play, creativity is not an end process, rather, it is the process that develop paly scenarios. Play also develop imagination which is critical literacy development. Imagination in a play is used when a participant creates mental images concerning their feelings, ideas and thoughts. He then incorporates the images in the play. The seven characteristics of play that influence learning include: play being an active process, child-initiated, process oriented, intrinsic, episodic, symbolic and governed by rules. There are three groups of play theories. The classical theories of play mainly focus on play from the perspective of burning off excess energy, recreation and relaxation. Other aspects include replenishing energy after working hard. Focus is also five to how play assists in developing future a child’s roles. Classical theories also draw from the recapitulation theory (passing through successive ancestral stages). Therefore, paly is seem as a way of expelling excess energy that is not needed for survival. The theory influences learning by facilitating burning off excess energy and facilitating relaxation. This enables a child to remain sharp and focus on the learning process (Pufpaff 2007). Child who doesn’t paly remains dull and slow in gaining new concepts and relating them to his prior knowledge, gained by interacting with the environment. Modern theories of play focus on the impact of plays no children development. The theories view the learner as an active participant in the learning process and construction of knowledge. The child is not regarded as a passive recipient of knowledge, rather, he actively participates in finding meanings to words, texts/phrases in attempts to gaining knowledge (Narey 2008). The active learning process learnt through play is emphasized by the constructionist theory that argues that children learn through their experience. Through paly, children gain experiences that later help them to interpret their world around them and learn from their environment. According to modern theories, children learn best through physical and intellectual activities. Therefore, children need to take active roles in a play for them to develop learning. Contemporary theories focus on how plays relate to diversity and social justice in daily life and knowledge. Children’s daily living experiences influences hoe they learn cultural and social contexts. The zone of proximal development concept, established by Lev Vygotsky state that children that support past learning and encourage learning at new more challenging levels. Vygotsky believed that social engagement and collaboration with others to be powerful attributes used to transform how a child thinks. Contemporary theories therefore assert that a child’s learning process is influenced by interaction with his environment i.e. family, community, culture and the broader society (Smith 2007). References Clark, A. and Moss, P. 2011. “Listening to young children: the Mosaic approach”. 2nd Classrooms”. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cohen, L., Waite-Stupiansky, S. W. 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