A Scoping Review on the Impact of Multimodal Pedagogic Discourse on Student Engagement

Abstract

Multimodal pedagogic discourse deeply affects the construction of classroom meaning and student engagement by integrating a variety of symbolic resources such as language, gestures, vision and spaces. In order to systematically sort out the research progress in this field, this article reviews 71 empirical studies published between 2010 and the first half of 2025. It is found that multimodal pedagogic discourse can effectively promote students' engagement in the three dimensions of behavior, emotion and cognition through the coordination of various modes and dynamic interaction in the classroom. The existing researches are mostly based on theoretical frameworks such as social semiotics and multimodal discourse analysis, and mainly adopts qualitative or mixed research methods, but there are still obvious shortcomings in the consistency of measuring tools, subject situation coverage, depth of technical integration, and the mechanism of teachers' multimodal arrangement ability. This article suggests that future research should strengthen interdisciplinary comparison, develop dynamic engagement measurement tools, and focus on technology-supported multimodal interactions and teacher professional development to deepen theoretical construction and provide effective references for classroom practice.