Project Abstract
The use of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) has grown in lockstep with the internationalization of higher education globally. However, for students whose first language is not English, listening to academic lectures in a second/foreign language (L2) often impedes their understanding of content. As knowledge building in university classrooms is often multimodal, students may combine multiple semiotic modes such as teachers' speech, gestures, and visual aids to support comprehension. The successful use of such information would require students' strategic awareness and competence to guide them in knowing when and how to use different modes for improving comprehension outcomes.
This study aims to understand students' multimodal strategic listening in EMI university lectures, and to explore the predictors and outcomes of their strategy use. Extant multimodal research has focused on how teachers mobilize diverse modes for meaning making, yet students' perceptions and use of multimodal resources are not readily understood. Years of L2 listening strategy research has also primarily explored how listeners handle aural input without sufficiently addressing the multimodal nature of comprehension that is typical in university classrooms. Hence, drawing on a metacognitive framework of strategic listening, this study conceptualizes learners as agentic meaning makers. It investigates if and how they strategize to improve comprehension of diverse semiotic modes of information in EMI university lectures.
The study is guided by a two-stage, mixed-methods research design that triangulates findings from diverse sources of quantitative and qualitative data. Stage 1 explores students' multimodal listening strategy use and their underlying metacognitive knowledge. It comprises a literature review and real-time data generated by 24 purposively selected students via an innovative idiodynamic method. An EMI multimodal listening strategy questionnaire will be drafted based on the data collected. Stage 2 will validate the questionnaire with two cohorts of students (N = 400, N = 800) based on stratified random sampling. Structural equation modelling will be used to examine if students' multimodal strategy use is shaped by contextual and/or learner-related factors, and whether it predicts lecture comprehension success. Semi-structured interviews with 18 purposively selected students will further expound on the statistical results. Findings will extend academic knowledge for theorizing multimodal strategic listening, develop new research instruments for its measurement, and inform evidence-based strategy training programs. The study will also inform the 'bigger picture' of cultivating students' multimodal literacy and strategic listening competence in EMI higher education.