Composition Forum 39 - Embodied Captions in Multimodal Pedagogies

Oct 15, 2026

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This article, authored by a Deaf instructor, examines how embodied captioning can reshape multimodal pedagogy. It asks hearing students to challenge conventional, static caption practices by designing videos that use dynamic visual text—captions positioned and animated across the screen and interacting with bodies, faces, and sound. Student reflective letters and group video analyses reveal how caption design choices create meaning and influence viewers, supporting reconsideration of captions as integral rhetorical elements rather than mere accommodations.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time28 min

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Composition Forum 39, Summer 2018

Embodied Captions in Multimodal Pedagogies

Embodied Captions as Dynamic Visual Text

Current Issue From the Editors Weblog Editorial Board Editorial Policy Submissions Archives Accessibility Search Composition Forum 39, Summer 2018 Embodied Captions in Multimodal Pedagogies Janine Butler Abstract: Informed by my embodiment as a Deaf instructor asking hearing students to challenge captioning conventions, this article shows how hearing composers can reimagine the design of their captioned videos, and appreciate students’ embodied responses to new rhetorical situations. The embodied methodology and methods in this article incorporate embodied differences and are directly influenced by the fields of disability studies, cultural rhetorics, and embodiment. This article foregrounds students’ embodied responses—their individual reactions to the videos and activities—in the form of their reflective letters on the process of designing and analyzing videos with dynamic visual text, or captions that move around the screen in interaction with other modes of communication. In addition to discussing their written responses and the skills they developed, I assess their group videos to show how student composers interpret the process of infusing captions with meaning. “I feel as if this class has made a difference in the way I view captions. Now when I am watching videos or even movies with the subtitles on, I think to myself, they could have made this more visually appealing and conveyed the message in a more visual way versus just putting the text on the screen.” -Marissa Embodied Captions as Dynamic Visual Text When I ask students in my composition courses to define the term “captions,” they have often described captions asa tool for those who cannot hear or as two lines of text at the bottom of the screen that can be turned on and off. Their statements reflect the assumptions that we first create videos and then add captions after the fact to accommodate certain viewers. As a Deaf instructor of hearing students, I directly challenge such static and conventional assumptions by asking students to create captioned videos in various composition courses. Often, I give them the option to create conventional captions—two lines of text at the bottom of the screen that can be turned on and off on YouTube—or to integrate open captions that are burned into the screen of their videos. In a first-year composition course that is the focus of this article, however, I explicitly asked students to analyze and design videos that integrate what these students and I defined as “dynamic visual text,” or embodied captions that are designed to move around the space of the screen in interaction with other modes of communication: bodies, faces, and sound. With the rise of digital and online video media and programs, captions and subtitles are no longer technologically restricted to the bottom of the screen. New media technologies such as iMovie, Movie Maker, and other video editing software provide the tools for embedding dynamic visual text—including captions and subtitles—in different locations of our videos. We can manipulate this visual text to fade in and out, expand in size, and interact around the screen during the video design and editing process. The technology exists for integrating captions in our videos—but the captioning conventions remain largely unchallenged, particularly in the composition classroom. Despite pedagogical arguments in multimodal scholarship for the importance of using multiple modes, the affordances of captions as a valuable mode in embodying multimodal communication have been largely unexplored. When publications and textbooks for students discuss captioning—if they do at all—they tend to focus on adding captions to completed videos (For instance, the first edition of Writer/Designer provides students with a sidebar on access that does not mention captions [Arola, Sheppard, and Ball 14]) . Discussions of captioning too often have been restrained to adding captions to completed videos.

FAQs

What does the article argue about conventional captions in composition classrooms?

The article challenges the assumption that captions are static elements added after video production, encouraging instructors to integrate captions into the video’s design and meaning.

What are “embodied captions” in this article?

Embodied captions are dynamic visual text designed to move and interact with other communicative modes such as bodies, faces, and sound, reflecting the video’s rhetorical message.

How does the author assess students’ learning and interpretation?

The author uses students’ reflective letters about designing and analyzing videos and evaluates group videos to show how student composers infuse captions with meaning.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by jay