In light of widespread recognition of the need to explore new forms of literacy brought by the contemporary semiotic world, this study explores the potential Critical Thinking (CT) may offer in developing learners' critical literacy in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) context enhanced with the use of technology. Drawing on research in…

Actively engaged in online media, learners today are surrounded by texts overtly and covertly transmitted by visual images, sound effects, and voices as well as the written word. Language learning portfolios can engage students in the literacy-oriented learning processes of interpretation, collaboration, and problem solving as outlined by Kern…

This article offers approaches to the topic of the First World War at the intermediate and advanced levels of the German curriculum through thematically diverse WWI-era cultural texts. By situating the texts within a multiliteracies framework, the authors demonstrate how this historical and literary content can provide authentic material for…

Information literacy (IL) research tends to fall into one of two spaces. In the conceptual space the research concern rests with understanding the experience and core elements of the practice and how it emerges. In the practical space the execution and outcome of the practice as markers of successful teaching and learning are the focus. The…

The current paper presents data from a social literacy programme implemented in the prison school in Cyprus for 18 months. The programme was theoretically informed by critical literacy, genre pedagogy, multimodality and non-formal education and it aimed to opt away from skill-based, autonomous and corrective models of literacy education that are…

As a unique literary genre, science fiction can serve as a motivating text to develop students' critical analytical skills and to promote critical thinking about new technology and its societal controversies under proper guidance. In the field of English as Foreign Language (EFL) learning, using science fiction films in the classroom affords EFL…

In this article, we examine how assessment is enacted and negotiated in a school project that involves multimodal composition. The case is a project on advertisement in which lower secondary students collaboratively composed multimodal commercials about various products and topics. The theoretical framework is based on sociocultural perspectives…

This qualitative study, based on data from an ongoing after-school literacy and songwriting initiative, examines the multiliteracy practices of Noriah Rose and Koral, Black adolescent girls, and their socially situated meaning-making and sharing about loss. Specifically, we asked, "In what ways do youth grapple with complicated meanings of…

Educators and researchers are finding that students are more motivated and engaged when using mobile devices such as an iPad. Yet research describing powerful and effective iPad-mediated teaching and learning and how it supports the development of multiliteracies is limited. This article reports on a qualitative study that was designed to capture…

Increased emphasis on standardization in primary grades can stifle spontaneous literacy play. The authors argue that allowing playful, collaborative, multimodal literacies into primary classrooms and specifically in writers' workshop can expand and enliven the way we see students' literacy strengths. The authors look closely at the unique…

Drawing on a study of children's musical games in urban South Africa, this article employs two theoretical frames: that of multimodality and the multiliteracies pedagogy. These are applied to a contextual analysis of the forms of musicality that musical games embody and to ways of incorporating children's play into pedagogy. Based on ethnographic…

Graphic novels, which tell real and fictional stories using a combination of words and images, are often sophisticated, and involve intriguing topics. There has been an increasing interest in teaching with graphic novels to promote literacy as one alternative to traditional literacy pedagogy (e.g., Gorman, 2003; Schwarz, 2002). A pedagogy of…

The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed-methods study was to investigate school librarians' self-efficacy in the multiple literacies. This study was conducted to develop an understanding of the role of librarians in the multiple literacies, and what they feel has an impact on their capacity to implement multiple literacies practices.…

In this article the authors propose that biliteracy is a more challenging and rigorous form of literacy than the English-only orientation of the Common Core State Standards. Because learning to read and write in two languages differs from learning to read and write in one, they argue that biliteracy requires its own pedagogies, methodologies, and…

The world is increasingly interconnected through technology. In order to live and work in a global village our students need to develop global literacy. Global literacy incorporates a range of overlapping concepts including an advocacy dimension, global citizenship responsibility, and cultural and linguistic awareness. Further, global literacy…