Multimodal interpretations of foreign language learning textbooks : two case studies from Maltese and Greek learning contexts

Abstract

The paper opens with an outline of the role multimodality plays in the Maltese and Greek curricula. This is followed by a detailed presentation of an original multimodal text analysis framework proposed as a tool through which the representations of the ‘foreign’ country where the target language is spoken as L1 may be interpreted in a multimodal socio-cultural way. Using the MIRROR framework, the authors analyze various sections from the Foreign Language (FL) textbooks used within the two selected FL learning contexts. For the sake of comparison, sections related to one topic (i.e. food and drink) have been included in the discussion. Because of the application of a multimodal framework, this is an innovative way of approaching foreign language textbooks and their analysis. In response to the outcomes of the interpretations of the sections analyzed from the selected textbooks, the authors propose video-making as a multimodal tool through which the representations of the FL contexts could benefit. They suggest, and it remains to be tested in the continuation of their research, that video-making should involve the FL students directly and actively. Through the authors’ proposal, the rather limited representations of food and drink featuring in the textbooks in both contexts may possibly become more inclusive, less essentialist and less judgmental.