PowerPoint as a multimodal retelling tool: students’ slide design, collaboration, and goal-setting

ABSTRACT

This study engaged a group of Taiwanese English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) adolescent learners as multimodal composers who used PPT slides to retell important elements of Roald Dahl’s classic novel, Matilda (1988). A total of 158 slides were made by 9 groups of students, and a detailed analysis of the slides revealed that text was often accompanied by visual design and gestural design. The end-of-semester group interviews indicated that 8 out of 9 groups followed a composing in pieces model to finish their group slideshows. Only one group of students met in person to decide together what to put on each slide. Completing the PPT slides and presenting on stage propelled students to set various learning goals, ranging from practicing voice projection to managing time better. A few pedagogical implications and future research directions are offered to conclude the article.

KEYWORDS:

• Powerpoint
• retelling
• multimodal composing
• slide design
• learner collaboration
• goal setting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cheryl Wei-yu Chen

Cheryl Wei-yu Chen teaches English in National Taipei University of Business. She is interested in exploring the different ways for students to express their voices.