Only 25% to 38% of secondary education graduates in the United States are proficient readers or writers but many continue to postsecondary education, where they take developmental education courses designed to help them improve their basic academic skills. However, outcomes are poor for this population, and one problem may be that approaches to…

As higher education has shifted from an elite to an internationalised and massified system, we can no longer assume that students entering Western universities are familiar with the multiple literacy expectations of the university and professional worlds. Students are required to negotiate between different literacy practices, imbued with…

The easy accessibility, ubiquity, and plurilingualism of popular SNSs such as Facebook have inspired many scholars and practitioners of second language teaching and learning to integrate networked forms of communication into educational contexts such as language classrooms and study abroad programs (e.g., Blattner & Fiori, 2011; Lamy &…

This article examines multimodal texts created by a cohort of academically marginalized secondary school students in Singapore as part of a language arts unit on persuasive composition. Using an interpretivist qualitative approach, we examine students' multimodal designs to highlight opportunities taken up for expanding literacy practices…

Research on academic literacy within higher education has focused almost exclusively on the development of academic literacy in English. This book is unique in showing how students use other languages when they engage with written academic content--whether in reading, discussing, or writing--and how increasingly multilingual higher education…

This study is framed from a theoretical perspective that values the incorporation of reflection and multimodal products in service-learning that engage ELLs in "real-time" language learning. Using a pedagogical framework that is translingual and culturally sustaining, the author examines a community project in which the ELLs in a…

In this article, I draw on theories of generativity and multiliteracies pedagogy, as well as research on youths' language and literacy practices and development that are framed by a multiliteracies lens, to outline approaches to literacy education that draw upon, as well as strengthen, students' existing language, literacy, and cultural…

This article presents a conversation about the nature of multimodal inquiry and composing between Lalitha Vasudevan and Mary Ann Reilly. The authors draw on their Twitter exchanges, blog posts, art, photography, and reflections as they consider what literacy education is and can be in a world that offers multiple means of expression. The…

Literacy teachers in schools and universities share a common goal: to prepare students with the "literacies" they need to succeed in and beyond educational settings. In a "widening-participation" era universities must increase and expand their literacy offerings to help students make the most of their university experiences. At…

This article explores how an English teacher, students, and administrators at a public high school in Chicago participated in a multimodal writing project that negotiated the space between hope and critique, ultimately placing the community at the center of the curriculum. This project aims to illuminate how narrative renderings of possibility--or…

Digital competence is an evolving concept related to the development of digital technology and the political aims and expectations of citizenship in a knowledge society. It is regarded as a core competence in policy papers; in educational research it is not yet a standardized concept. We suggest that it is a useful boundary concept, which can be…

This article presents partial results of a multi-sited ethnographic study about the role of multiple literacies in young people's learning in and outside school. In one of the five participant secondary schools, fourth grade students were segregated in groups according to their special needs. We start with a critical review on segregated and…

In this article, the authors report on what began as a series of rather desperate English teacher acts: The authors implemented a youth participatory action research photovoice research project with adolescents in a range of diverse communities that were united by young adults' detachment from their writing processes and products and from their…

Journalism programs working to stay current with industry practice often struggle to do so without forgoing traditional journalism skills and attributes. This longitudinal study involves content analysis of more than 1,800 jobs posted in either 2010 or 2015 by companies listed among the top 10 newspaper and broadcast journalism companies in the…

Integrating computer-mediated intercultural communication (CMIC) activities into language curricula has been discussed as an innovative approach. Despite the increasing number of successful examples reporting positive outcomes of adopting CMIC activities in language-learning environments, it has also been noted that there are significant…