Multimodality for Non-Language Specialists: Reconsidering the ESP Syllabus in a Multimodal Perspective

While it may be argued that multimodality is only for researchers or for students majoring in specific subjects, experience of teaching in Italian universities shows otherwise. This paper will demonstrate how multimodality, and multimodal text-based studies of English in particular, can be integrated into university syllabuses of faculties as varied as Medicine, Communication Studies and Political Science. In the light of the considerable success in the use of multimodal text-based studies of English and examoriented project work in the English classroom (Baldry, 2008 a/b; Rizzo, 2009; Baldry and Kantz, 2009; Coccetta, 2012), the paper will give a preliminary report of a one-year project involving students at the University of Padua. The project aims at training students to talk about multimodal meaning-making in texts similar to those they will encounter in their textbooks by equipping them with basic concepts on multimodality such as multimodal transcription and annotation, the resource integration principle, multimodal genres and so on. The paper will also include a description of the methods, resources and materials developed together with examples of work produced by students for their final exam.