1。2 Purpose and Significance of the Research

With the world globalization and modernization, English is playing an essential role in our daily communication。 It is not just a kind of subject or a tool, but an important skill for modern people to live a better life。 Meanwhile, as for language learning, especially second language learning, primary school education is the crucial period。 Grasping the skills of correct pronunciation and mastering fluent spoken English should start at a very young age。 How can teachers inspire students and how help them cultivate the motivation to learn English is the major task for teachers。 This research will explore the effective teaching methods to better accomplish the objective of the curriculum through experiments, questionnaires and interviews。

Multimodal theory, which has been introduced into China in recent years, is gradually accepted and applied in many fields, especially in language teaching。 It emphasizes the use of several semiotic modes in the design of a semiotic product or event, together with the particular way in which these modes are combined (Kress＆Van Leeuwen, 2001:20)。 With the assistance of multimedia, such as the new instant messaging tools, the application of the multimodal teaching is really meaningful to spoken English learning in primary school。 On the one hand, these new tools are efficient and immediate, which will facilitate effective communication between the teachers and students; on the other hand, various forms of presentation of words, sounds and pictures can attract students’ attention in spoken English learning。 

1。3 The Framework of the Thesis论文网

The thesis is pided into six parts。 In the first part, it mainly presents background, purpose and significance of the research and the framework of the thesis。 In the second part, it briefly reviews multimodal theory and previous research related to the application of multimodal theory in English language teaching and on spoken English teaching in primary school, and introduces the instant messaging tools and the current situation of the application of the instant messaging tools in the teaching of spoken English in primary school。 In the third part, it mainly describes the research questions; methodology employed in the experiment, research procedure and data collections。 In the fourth part, the analysis of the questionnaires, experiment and interviews are presented。 In the fifth part, the impact of the Multimodal Theory on students’ spoken English improving is discussed。 In the last part, it concludes the major findings, pedagogical implications, limitations and suggestions for the further study。

II Literature Review

2。1 Multimodal Theory

2。1。1 Mode

Mode refers to a kind of symbols resource that can achieve the synchronization of discourse and communication。 (Kress G。, 2000) It can be actualized by one or several media。 Here, Media refers to the use of materials resources, including tools and materials used in the production of symbolic products。 (Kress ＆ Leeuween,2006) For instance, what we feel about the outside world is a kind of sensation mode, which includes visual sense, auditory sense and tactile sense。 And the objective tools, such as eyes, ears and hands that we used in this process are media。 Multimodal discourse involves the use of a variety of senses, images, sounds, language, action, expression and other means that are carried out in the communication。 In addition, Gu (2007) distinguished that compared with “Multimedia”, multimodality focused more on the interaction among different modes。

2。1。2 Modality

The word of “Multimodality” is combined with two parts: “multi” and “modality”。 Here, “multi” is a prefix, which means” many, much”。 It is opposite to “mono”, which means” single, alone, and sole”。 Therefore, from the word “multimodality”, itself, we can easily understand “multimodality”。 In the 1990s, “Multimodality” came into linguist’ eyes, and scholars paid more and more attention to this new theory recent years。 Now, multimodality has been widely used by linguists and semioticians in China and foreign countries。