From Literacy to Multiliteracies in ELT

Abstract

The conceptual and epistemological grounds of literacy are being stretched as the encoded worlds we navigate increasingly interpenetrate multicultural, multilingual, and multimodal contexts. The twenty-first century finds us at a critical juncture for reevaluating English language and literacy teaching agendas. The technological revolution has facilitated and augmented human communication such that everyday interactions now essentially include digital interfaces. Language, text, and discourse norms and practices are being rapidly expanded and reinvented in response to new media and global networks. The language driving the majority of intercultural web traffic is English, which reinforces its position as a global language and adds an insidious dimension of cybercolonialism. Teachers are in crisis: domains for English language socialization now extend from known geographical and social contexts to the global panorama of the virtual world in which we, too, are learners. Information and communication technologies (ICT) have created new literacies that are required by learners of all ages if they are to fairly contend for academic and economic success. This chapter examines the evolution of literacy into multiliteracies and considers how this epistemological shift affects ELT. Digitally responsive, pedagogically strategic, ecologically sensitive English language and literacy teaching and learning practices are discussed in conclusion. INTRODUCTION