Writing video essays: fostering a multimodal academy

Abstract

In this paper, I highlight the experiences of additional language students learning through writing essays and creating video essays in the course Texto e Discurso em Inglês in the Additional Languages Teacher Education Program: English, Spanish and Literatures (Licenciatura em Letras - Línguas Adicionais: Inglês, Espanhol e Respectivas Literaturas), at Universidade Federal do Pampa - UNIPAMPA, campus Bagé. In order to do that, I define video essay along with making a case for process writing and multimodality. Then, I discuss if, how, and why video essays may be useful in the acquisition of English as an Additional Language (EAL) as I identify the digital technologies that have been useful in the process. I also discuss the possibility of using multimodal tools, along with process writing, helping students to develop their linguistic skills. Using a qualitative approach for data collection, participants had to respond to an online questionnaire containing fifteen questions related to their experiences in the course. The participants of this survey are students, who had already attended the course along different semesters. Three participants of different semesters were selected for the oral interview, in order to obtain more detailed answers and to find relevant themes and ideas about the composition and production of video essays. In the results, it was possible to notice that the video essays enhanced students' knowledge, although, for this production to happen, the use of digital technologies can be a challenge for some students.