Multimodality as a form of developing literacy in children’s museums

Multimodality as a form of developing literacy in children’s museums

Aleah N. Edwards 

Children’s museums are informal learning environments. In recent years, there has been an increase in “hands-on,” multimodal, or multisensory exhibits. These exhibits allow museum patrons to interact with the museum’s content in unique ways and facilitate literacy and language acquisition by allowing the patron to play and explore. This paper reviews literature to examine how multimodal design encourages engagement and learning in the museum setting. Many topics will be discussed in relation to multimodal design including literacy, play, serious games, and interactions. Some aspects of multimodality are brought into the museum by patrons, such as translanguaging. Translanguaging is seen in museums when multilingual families flow between languages to best communicate with one another or describe things more fully. Multimodality, as well as translanguaging, can allow for an exhibit to provide a chance for knowledge scaffolding to occur. This is because both multimodality and translanguaging give an individual the ability to use past knowledge to confront a new problem. Multimodal exhibits create a learning environment that encourages novel experiences, which promotes lasting knowledge.