What is Multiliteracies?

The pedagogies of multiliteracies aim to address the variability of meaning making in different cultural, social or domain specific contexts as well as the characteristics of the new information and communications media (Cope & Kalantzis, 2015).

Cope and Kalantzis (2015) identified two "multis" dimensions of "literacies"

Multiliteracies

Multilingualism

Multiple variety of language

"The burgeoning variety of 'social languages' in professional, national, ethnic, subcultural, interest, or affinity group contexts"

(Cope & Kalantzis, 2015, p. 166)

Multimodality

"the study of how meanings can be made, and actually are made in specific contexts, with different means of expression or ‘semiotic modes’ whether these are articulated with the body (speech, facial expressions, gestures, and so on) or with the help of tools and materials (writing, drawing, making music, and so on)."

(Van Leeuwen, 2017, p.18)

Multimodal Literacy

Multimodal literacy is "the ability to use and combine different semiotic modes in ways that are appropriate to the given context, both in the sense of the context-bound rules and conventions that may apply and in the sense of the unique demands made by each specific situation" (Van Leeuwen, 2017, p. 18).

Transmedia Literacy

Transmedia Literacy focuses on what young people are doing with the media outside educational institutions and proposes bringing this knowledge into the classroom (Scolari, 2018).

Transmedia Narratives

Jenkins (2006) defines transmedia storytelling as a “story [that] unfolds across multiple media platforms, with each new text making a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole.” (p. 95)

Transmedia narratives offer richer meaning-making potential, new possibilities of visualisation, interactions and a more intense engagement relative to print texts through spin-offs such as games, animations, etc. (Scolari, 2009; Saldre & Torop, 2009).

Why teach multiliteracies?

It is becoming increasingly common for students to encounter texts that are multimodal in nature in today’s digital age as compared to monomodal texts. Multimodal texts are texts that effectively integrate multiple semiotic modes to create meaning and coherence (van Leeuwen, 2017).

Living in a visually rich environment, whereby students' everyday lives involve interaction with new digital technologies that greatly expanded the ways meanings are expressed, literacy is no longer merely about reading and writing of print-based texts (Lim, Towndrow & Tan, 2021). It is essential that students develop knowledge, a sense of semiotic awareness and skills to interpret, engage with and create multimodal texts (Lim. 2018).

Additionally, research has found that while pupils (at a younger age) are utilising and participating in digital spaces, they are not digital natives in the sense that they may not (1) be confident in using digital technology or (2) have the skills required to navigating these spaces critically (Djonov, Tseng & Lim, 2021; Scolari, 2018).