Innovation in Language Learning

The widespread application of ICT has greatly changed the monotonous approach to EFL teaching and learning in China’s higher education, bringing about the multimodal innovation in the Postgraduate English teaching. Studies and reforms on EFL teaching in the universities of Science and Technology indicate that multimodal academic discourse construction is very necessary for postgraduates to engage in international academic communication, which effectively reflects the subject status of students and the interactive characteristics of language learning. Constructing multimodality based academic discourse can prove complex and dynamic. Participants should select and employ the easiest and most effective means of expression by considering variables such as field of discourse, mode of discourse and tenor of discourse, if the successful communication wants to be achieved. Students could construct their English discourses through the integrated use of a range of appropriate multimodal resources, which realizes the deepening from ideational meaning to interpersonal meaning, reducing academic aphasia and strengthening academic discourse power. This teaching approach helps postgraduates improve their English communicative abilities and cross-cultural communicative skills for academic purposes.

Key words: Multimodality; Academic Discourse; EFL Teaching