Multiliteracies In International Educational Contexts

Multiliteracies in International Educational Contexts: Towards Education Justice examines how multiliteracies and Learning by Design have been taken up across international second-language instructional contexts, with a focus on inclusive practices and social justice. This edited collection brings together a team of international contributors to offer a global perspective on the application of multiliteracies in L2 education. Through the analysis of classroom-based qualitative and quantitative data on different aspects of the multiliteracies pedagogy, the book shows how the multiliteracies pedagogy can facilitate more inclusive practices while providing suggestions for pedagogical interventions and future research. This book will be a key resource for language educators, researchers, and practitioners interested in the multiliteracies pedagogy, as well as those interested in critical and social justice approaches to language teaching.

Putting a multiliteracies framework at the center of the world language curriculum, this volume brings together college-level curricular innovations and classroom projects that address differences in meaning and worldviews expressed in learners’ primary and target languages. Offering a rich understanding of languages, genres, and modalities as socioculturally situated semiotic systems, it advocates an effective pedagogy for developing learners’ abilities to operate between languages. Chapters showcase curricula that draw on a multiliteracies framework and present various classroom projects that develop aspects of multiliteracies for language learners. A discussion of the theoretical background and historical development of the pedagogy of multiliteracies and its relevance to the field of world language education positions this book within the broader literature on foreign language education. As developments in globalization, accountability, and austerity challenge contemporary academia and the current structure of world language programs, this book shows how the implementation of a multiliteracies-based approach brings coherence to language programs, and how the framework can help to accomplish the goals of higher education in general and of language education in particular.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Multiliteracies considers the future of literacy teaching in the context of the rapidly changing English language. Questions are raised about what constitutes appropriate literacy teaching in today's world: a world that is both a global village yet one which local diversity is increasingly important. This is a coherent and accessible overview of the work of the New London Group, with well-known international contributors bringing together their varying national experiences and differences of theoretical and political emphasis. The essays deal with issues such as: the fundamental premises of literacy pedagogy the effects of technological change multilingualism and cultual diversity social futures and their implications on language teaching. The book concludes with case studies of attempts to put the theories into practice and thereby provides a basis for dialogue with fellow educators around the world.

Bringing together renowned scholars in literacy education, this volume offers the first comprehensive account of the evolution and future of multiliteracies pedagogy. This groundbreaking collection examines the rich contributions of the New London Group (NLG)—an international gathering of noted scholars who met in 1996 and influenced the direction of literacy scholarship for decades to come. With a focus on design and multimodality as key concerns in literacy pedagogy, these ideas have become even more salient as literacy has become intertwined with digital technologies. The essays in this book not only provide an overview of the fundamental ideas of NLG and their importance across literacy, communications, and media studies, but also explore how these concepts have been adapted by today’s educators to better prepare students for a rapidly changing, globalized world. Contributors include Bill Cope, James Paul Gee, Carey Jewitt, Mary Kalantzis, Gunther Kress, Mary B. McVee, Sarah Michaels, Rebecca Rogers, Jennifer Rowsell, and Karen E. Wohlwend. “I’ve read a lot about the importance of new literacies, digital literacies, and multi-literacies—and now there is finally a book that moves this whole cluster into the world of curriculum and pedagogy! Bravo!” —P. David Pearson, University of California, Berkeley “This book warrants deep engagement by teachers, teacher educators, researchers, and all who are concerned with schooling and social justice in the ever-changing world of the 21st century.” —Len Unsworth, Learning Sciences Institute Australia “This collection showcases authors at the leading edge of multiliteracies research and scholarship. It provides a fascinating and accessible state-of-the art assessment of a major approach to understanding literacy practices in the digital era.” —Michele Knobel, Montclair State University

This volume introduces the reader to ongoing research on the study of biliteracy, and highlights recent trends in the promotion of biliteracy and multiliteracies in education. Literacy issues have come under the microscope of researchers in recent decades. The very concept of literacy includes skills such as understanding, interpreting, and managing different text types in different sociocultural environments. Therefore, the pioneers in the study of literacy characterize it as one multidimensional concept with social and cultural components, or go even further by talking about pluriliteracies/multiliteracies, which emerge through the complex linguistic and value practices adopted by speakers of multilingual societies in the 21st century. The contributions gathered here will give the reader a general idea of where research is heading in the areas of biliteracy and multiliteracies, especially in view of multilingualism and its ever-changing conditions. The authors situate their research within current debates in terms of theory and empirical data. In this volume, the reader will find several chapters discussing issues of biliteracy and multiliteracies in a wide variety of settings, countries, and orientations, including Brazil, Cyprus, Greece, Iceland, Malta, Portugal, and the USA.

"This book will help readers understand the ways in which literacy is changing around the world, and to keep up to date with literacy research and reporting techniques"--Provided by publisher.

Using a multiliteracies theoretical framework highlighting social diversity and multimodality as central in the process of meaning making, this book examines literacy teaching and learning as embedded in cultural, linguistic, racial, sexual, and gendered contexts and explores ways to foster learning and achievement for diverse students in various settings. Attending simultaneously to topics around two overarching and interrelated themes--languages and language variations, and cultures, ethnicities, and identities--the chapter authors examine the roles that multiliteracies play in students' lives in and out of classrooms. In Part I, readers are asked to examine beliefs and dispositions as related to different languages, language varieties, cultures, ethnicities, and identities. Part II engages readers in examining classroom and community practices related to different languages and language varieties, cultures, ethnicities, and identities.