There is limited research concerning the use of visual materials for academic learning in Chinese undergraduate international students' experiences of studying in the United States. To help address this gap, drawing upon theoretical perspectives on multimodality and a literature review on using visual resources, this article discusses the ways in…

Writing about art is a complex task that differs considerably from other forms of writing because it requires detailed understanding and application of certain theoretical frameworks for visual analysis. This has proven to be a major challenge amongst university and college students in Nigeria who grapple with interpreting visuals into text. The…

University students are often expected to interpret and produce multimodal texts during their studies. However, their multimodal literacy is rarely developed explicitly and students often lack the language and the knowledge to talk and write about multimodal experiences. Such expectations demand knowledge and skills to approach multimodal texts in…

While multimodal composing has been systematically explored, there is hardly any research on how undergraduates use video and audio effects to communicate meanings. Effects are important because they facilitate the semiotic sculpting of the source visual and aural elements, making accessible an extra layer of semiotic potential. The present study…

This study begins with the assumption that visual and related literacies are essential frameworks to foster not only students' learning of visual communication principles, but also 21st century skills such as creative problem solving and self-directed learning. We focus on assignment directions as a particular instructional component. In contrast…

Mobile phones are a characteristic artefact of contemporary societies, transversally present in both public and private spheres, including the students' daily life. This paper showcases an innovative teaching activity that takes advantage of this fact by promoting and valuing the use of smart phones in the university classrooms, specifically when…

This article provides a practical guide for teaching visual analysis to university students. By adapting Serafini's curricular and pedagogical framework for teaching multimodal representations to incorporate self-reflection, I evince how visual analysis can be taught in a writing course and similar introductory courses. Using a photograph that…

In this photo elicitation assignment, each student must take, select, and interpret a picture about a social issue that he/she has learned about in class. The student must then craft either a sensory poem, or answer the SHOWeD questions as designed by Shaffer and modified by Wang, which facilitates the student's interpretation of the picture. As a…

Visual storytelling comes in many forms (e.g. films, comics, photographs, commercials) and is used for a range of purposes (e.g. to entertain, inform, persuade). Technological advances are enabling non-specialists to be consumers and producers of these works. Although many people are growing up surrounded by visual works, this does not mean that…

Interest in the role of visual literacy within education has grown significantly over the last 50 years. Many scholars maintain that living in an image-rich culture in the twenty-first century requires preparing visually literate graduates who are capable of a critical reading and understanding of visual texts, as well as constructing images…

This interpretive case study examines how undergraduate students enact visual literacies, focusing on transmediation from visual-embedded research papers into multimodal brochures, in an entry-level college writing course at a large research university in the U.S. Data sources included students' artifacts, interview transcripts, and field notes. A…

During the last few years, there has been an ongoing interest in applying multimodality in educational practice, while the need to develop future educators' multimodal literacy has become more than necessary. In this context, the present research aimed at exploring whether a multimodal literacy course could contribute to university student…

Visual literacy is an important skill for students to have in order to interpret embedded messages on signs and in advertisements successfully. As advertisements today tend to feature iconic people or events that shaped the modern world, it is crucial to develop students' visual literacy skills so they can comprehend the intended messages. This…

This paper describes the evolution of the "Cultural Image Literacy Assessment-USA"©. This assessment represents an important first step in measuring image literacy within a culture. Visual literacy is an integral part of all cultures. The framework used in creating an assessment of cultural image literacy in the United States could be…

A conceptualization of visual proficiency is offered. A survey is described which asked college students (N = 358) to identify five photographs, five symbols, and five paintings that are generally recognized to be "famous". About 27% of all respondents claimed to recognize all the photographs, 23% recognized all the symbols, and 3%…