The E-Course Multimodal Content, Its Specific Structure and Teaching Affordances

The article presents the results obtained through the study of the multimodal segment within the Moodle-based training course in terms of its specific features and affordances for creating an innovative system of vocationally oriented foreign language teaching in nonlinguistic Master’s degree programmes. There is a need to research the functionality of the e-course semiotically different constituents when they co-occur and specify their contribution to the efficient presentation and perception of the learning content in digitally supported language classroom, which makes the research relevant. It envisaged identifying a set of multimodal resources and elements within the e-course, examining the image - text relations in terms of logico-semantics, specifying the teaching properties and affordances of such multicode combinations and assessing their learning effect through the students’ grade report as well as their feedback on the satisfaction with the multimedia learning content. The obtained results confirm that the e-course multimodal resources and elements derive their synergistic effect in terms of meaning and function from the complex interaction of the different modes constituting them. The digital nature of the multimodal learning content provides it with a set of specific properties such as multimedia, interactivity, nonlinear information flow, informativeness and gamification that when apply in teaching may contribute to creating effective online vocationally oriented foreign language learning environments. The specification of text - image combination patterns in formal and semantic terms and teaching affordances of their non-verbal constituents in online language classroom adds novelty to this paper.