If teachers are to “find new forms of teaching and learning”, they must

TEXT IV

Throughout the last 15 years our society has undergone two major changes: Firstly, there has been a steady rise of cultural and linguistic diversity, due to migration, multiculturalism and global economic integration; secondly, there has been the rapid development of technological devices and the world-wide expansion of new communications media. These changes directly affect the lives of our pupils at home and at school and thus have an important impact on curricular development, teaching objectives, contents and methodologies – starting as early as in primary school.

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While traditionally being literate solely referred to the ability to read and write in a standardized form of one language, literate practices today incorporate multimodal, critical, cultural, and media competencies next to traditional-functional language skills, like reading, writing, speaking, mediating, and listening in many languages. 

One major aspect in this context is the changing nature of texts that has developed from advances in technology. Language learners today need to be able to cope with different kinds of texts, including multimodal, interactive, linear, and nonlinear texts, texts in different languages, texts with several possible meanings, texts being delivered on paper, screens, or live, and texts that comprise one or more semiotic system. 

In order to prepare students to actively engage in a socially diverse, globalized, and technological world, teachers need to find new forms of teaching and learning and provide opportunities for their pupils to explore, learn about, and critically engage with a broad variety of texts and differing literate practices. Still, the question remains open as to how these principles and objectives of a multiliteracies pedagogy translate into examples of good practice in school settings.

(Source: adapted from ELSNER, D. Developing multiliteracies, plurilingual awareness & critical thinking in the primary language classroom with multilingual virtual talking books. Encuentro 20, 2011, pp. 27- 38.https://archive.org/details/ERIC_ED530011)