Creolized texts as a tool for developing multimodal literacy of schoolchildren learning Russian in Kazakhstan

The rapid digitalization of modern society makes multimodal literacy a key skill in the 21st century. This set of competencies is based on reading literacy; its formation and development are among the most important goals of teaching Russian in Kazakhstan. The study characterizes the role of creolized texts as an important component of Kazakhstani Russian language textbooks for fostering multimodal literacy among “digital children”, who are characterized by a visual style of information perception, a desire to use as many channels of perception as possible, and a relatively low level of motivation for learning. Consequently, it is necessary to transform textbooks from polycode texts into multimodal objects with the enhanced creolized didactic material. The aim of the study is to determine the role of creolized texts in Russian language textbooks for developing key components of multimodal literacy, reading competence and visual literacy. The object of the analysis was the Kazakhstani Russian language textbook for the fifth grade written by Z.K. Sabitova and K.S. Sklyarenko. The authors analyzed the creolized components of the textbook and conducted a pedagogical experiment involving 110 students. Adapted PIRLS materials were used for diagnosing multimodal literacy. The results indicate that the optimized textbook layout, with an increased share of fully creolized texts, positively affects the level of students’ multimodal literacy. The experimental group showed significant improvement compared to the control group, confirming the effectiveness of using creolization tools such as schemes, infographics, and QR codes in Russian language textbooks. The authors highlight the need to improve creolized elements in Kazakhstani Russian language textbooks so that they correspond cognitive abilities of modern schoolchildren and develop their multimodal literacy.