The Dynamics of Multimodal Literacy Development: The Tunisian EAP Context as a Case Study

The present study aims to explore the dynamics of multimodal literacy development in English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Ten Tunisian PhD students from the field of management participated in the present study. They displayed disparate features (visual proficiency, background knowledge and attitudes to verbal and visual modes). The participants were requested to perform three tasks based on a research article (RA) gauging visual comprehension and design skills. The present study demonstrates that, while performing the tasks, the participants construe meaning out of the multimodal text from purely visual data and from the combination of modes. The participants are also required to cope with the divergence in the realization of meaning across the verbal and visual modes. Therefore, the present study argues for the combined use of the theories of functionalism, genre analysis and the social semiotic theory of the grammar of graphical design for the identification and classification of these skills that enabled the study participants to perform the tasks. The results of the study have revealed that multimodal literacy in EAP is an interactive process involving a dynamic dialogue between the participants and the multimodal RA. Participants with different features (background knowledge, visual proficiency, attitudes to the modes) displayed distinct abilities at coping with the cognitive requirements imposed by the multimodal text.