Negotiating Polycentric Power Dynamics in China through Digital Multimodal Composing

Abstract Digital multimodal composing (DMC) has been receiving increasing attention in the research on English as an additional language (EAL) instruction in higher education. While this approach responds to students' changing writing practices in the digital world, it can create tension with mandated curricula and high‐stakes testing regimes that prioritize print‐based essay writing as in China. However, little research has explored the possibility of negotiating the tension and bridging DMC and print‐based writing through instructional design. This article reports an instrumental case study that investigates a university instructor's pedagogical approach of using DMC in an academic literacy classroom in China. Through qualitative inductive analysis and multimodal analysis, this study identifies five centers of polycentric power relations and explores how and why the instructor designed, implemented, and evaluated the DMC project to leverage students' digital literacy interests, meet the goals of the national English curriculum, and prepare students for the standardized tests. We argue that she served as a digital literacy broker who not only harnessed students' passion for digital communication but also fulfilled the requirements of different centers.