Multiliteracies in the teaching of English language: multimodal discursive genres and reading practices

Abstract

The present study aims at analyzing reading practices necessary for the comprehension of texts that contemplate verbal-visual languages, especially in the infographic genre, considering the multimodal aspects that require (multi) literacy. The guiding question of this study is this: the reading practices in English language teaching need to consider multilevels to encompass the senses produced in texts of multimodal discursive genres. As the presence of these genres considered multimodal becomes more pronounced, we must recognize the importance of the study about the variability of its appropriation in the school environment. For this, we rely in particular on Bakhtin's (2016) contributions on discourse genres, on Lemke's (2010) remarks on reading, and on Rojo’s (2012) remarks on multilevels and multimodality, as well as other references. To make such an analysis, we chose an infographic, since it promotes interaction not only between corpus and reader, but also between texts and contexts, as well as intratextual meanings. The present study presents exploratory and bibliographical research, with a qualitative approach. As a result, we reinforce the importance of multimodal discursive genres in the classroom, because it is intended to provide reader and teaching practices of English language that cherish the discursive development of individuals.