The potential of Working with Students’ Reading Comprehension in Lower Secondary Danish

By Tina Hejsel

Abstract

This article presents an empirical study of which types of multimodal texts were used in 15 Danish L-1 classes and how the developed didactic questioning frameworks for these texts qualifies students’ critical understanding of communication. The empirical data includes teachers’ justifications for their choice of texts and the related didactical frameworks, which point towards institutional requirements and their uncertainty with knowledge of working with multimodal texts. The analyses show that the majority of the content in the didactical questioning frameworks does not pay much attention to a creative and expansive understanding of multimodal texts. The article argues for a shift towards thinking about teaching WITH multimodal texts, as opposed to ABOUT them, to realize the complex communication potentials of multimodal texts. This shows a potential in the practice of the Danish L-1 subject to work more deliberately with students’ critical stance and understanding of different types of texts.

This article is in Danish.