Announcement of Ph.D. Dissertation Defense Juliane Bilotta: “Using Multimodality to Support Culturally Responsive Learning and Writing Instruction in the College EAP Classroom”

This dissertation explores the challenges and affordances of multimodal pedagogy in the context of an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classroom. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted during the Spring 2022 academic semester, this study offers three separate analyses to examine how integrating multimodal texts and frameworks into the design and instruction of an EAP writing class fostered deeper learning, opened new spaces for critical thinking, and helped students develop greater metalinguistic awareness. Each article uses a different framework to consider the challenges and affordances of multimodality as well as the ways in which multimodality supports culturally responsive learning for students in higher education. The first article uses discourse analysis to demonstrate how engaging with multimodal texts enacted students deeper learning and critical thinking around the writing process. The second article use third space theory (Gutiérrez, 2008) to demonstrate how students co-constructed meaning in ways that challenged traditional norms and expectations of classroom by drawing on their own experiences and knowledge. Finally, the third article looks at peer-review sessions and classroom interactions across the semester to show how students developed stronger metalinguistic awareness by engaging with multimodal frameworks. This work contributes to EAP research on multimodal learning and instruction and culturally relevant pedagogy in higher education.

Gutiérrez, K. D. (2008). Developing a Sociocritical Literacy in the Third Space. Reading Research Quarterly, 43(2), 148–164. https://doi.org/10.1598/rrq.43.2.3

To access the Zoom link required to attend this defense, please contact academic.services@gse.rutgers.edu.