Multimodal Composing in a Multilingual Classroom: Design-Based Research and Embodied Systemic Functional Linguistics

Informed by design-based research (DBR) and an embodied systemic functional linguistics (SFL) approach, this chapter details how three university educators and an ESOL teacher worked collaboratively to design and implement an embodied multimodal curriculum in a mixed level high school ESL classroom. Data analysis includes intertextual exploration and SFL- informed ideational analysis and logico-semantic analysis of classroom activities and students’ final written and artwork. Findings focus on the strengths and challenges in using an SFL-informed embodied curriculum to support multilingual learners in multimodal composing and grappling with globalization and immigration issues. Implications point to the affordances of DBR for bringing high-level theories such as SFL and multimodality into practice and the need for continued refinement in developing an embodied teaching/learning approach with multilingual learners.