Visual accounts of Finnish and Greek teenagers’ perceptions of their multilingual language and literacy practices

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 333-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Pitkänen-Huhta ◽  
Anastasia Rothoni
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
First Language ◽  
Visual Methods ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Personal Meanings ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Common

AbstractThis paper uses visual methods to explore how teenagers in two different European countries (Finland and Greece) personally relate to their first language and to English, which is widely used in the everyday lives of young people in both countries. Our data comprise sets of self-made visualizations in which 14- to 16-year-old teenagers depict their personal relationship to their first language (Finnish/Greek) and to English. Theoretically and methodologically, we subscribe to socio-culturally oriented research on (foreign language) literacy and language learning and recent studies on multilingualism. Overall, by offering a detailed account of the variety of representation forms and meaning-making symbols employed by our participants in their visual products, our analysis in this paper highlights the common but also diverse perceptions, values and attitudes that young people from two different European contexts bring to their practices and their encounters with English and other languages in their lives. By revealing the personal meanings and values attached by teenagers to English, our analysis also provides indirect insights into the multiple ways English is locally encountered, appropriated and drawn upon by young people in two different countries to serve their own purposes.

Multimodal Literacy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy A. Mills ◽  
Len Unsworth
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Digital Images ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Multimodal Literacy ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Making Meaning

Multimodal literacy is a term that originates in social semiotics, and refers to the study of language that combines two or more modes of meaning. The related term, multimodality, refers to the constitution of multiple modes in semiosis or meaning making. Modes are defined differently across schools of thought, and the classification of modes is somewhat contested. However, from a social semiotic approach, modes are the socially and culturally shaped resources or semiotic structure for making meaning. Specific examples of modes from a social semiotic perspective include speech, gesture, written language, music, mathematical notation, drawings, photographic images, or moving digital images. Language and literacy practices have always been multimodal, because communication requires attending to diverse kinds of meanings, whether of spoken or written words, visual images, gestures, posture, movement, sound, or silence. Yet, undeniably, the affordances of people-driven digital media and textual production have given rise to an exponential increase in the circulation of multimodal texts in networked digital environments. Multimodal text production has become a central part of everyday life for many people throughout the life course, and across cultures and societies. This has been enabled by the ease of producing and sharing digital images, music, video games, apps, and other digital media via the Internet and mobile technologies. The increasing significance of multimodal literacy for communication has led to a growing body of research and theory to address the differing potentials of modes and their intermodality for making meaning. The study of multimodal literacy learning in schools and society is an emergent field of research, which begins with the important recognition that reading and writing are rarely practiced as discrete skills, but are intimately connected to the use of multimodal texts, often in digital contexts of use. The implications of multimodal literacy for pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment in education is an expanding field of multimodal research. In addition, there is a growing attention to multimodal literacy practices that are practiced in informal social contexts, from early childhood to adolescence and adulthood, such as in homes, recreational sites, communities, and workplaces.

scholarly journals Understanding the importance of ethos in composing the “everyday” new literacies classroom

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 74 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Nahachewsky
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
New Literacies ◽  
Reciprocal Relationship ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Classroom Context ◽  
Paradigm Case ◽  
Literacy Events ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Senior English ◽  
The Impact

This article examines the impact of a senior English teacher’s ethos in composing, with her students, a new literacies classroom.  This is a paradigm case where ever-changing technical stuff and a new ethos are encouraged in the literacy events of the classroom context.  Utilizing a metaphor of ‘classroom as text’, we better understand the importance of the teacher’s own literacies, and her role as co-author of new, situated classroom literacies.  In this case, language and literacy teaching becomes tangential through multi-textual readings and compositions that enact an ellipsis where certain previously privileged texts and approaches are omitted.  In this way, through a reciprocal relationship, the teacher fosters rather than defines her students’ emergent literacies and critical thinking development.  In turn, the students influence their teacher’s conceptions of what it means to be literate; what textual readings and compositions are meaningful to their situated language learning in digital times.

scholarly journals Completing the English Vocabulary Profile: C1 and C2 vocabulary

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Capel
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Use ◽  
First Language ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Validation Phase ◽  
Extensive Information ◽  
The Common ◽  
Polysemous Words

AbstractThe English Vocabulary Profile is an online vocabulary resource for teachers, teacher trainers, exam setters, materials writers and syllabus designers. It offers extensive information about the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) levels of words, phrases, phrasal verbs and idioms, and currently includes just under 7,000 headwords. This article reports on the trialling and validation phase of the A1−B2 levels of the resource, as well as outlining the research and completion of the C1 and C2 levels. The project has followed a ‘can-do’ rationale, focusing on what learners actually know rather than prescribing what they should know, and is underpinned by up-to-date corpus evidence, including the 50-million word Cambridge Learner Corpus and the 1.2-billion word Cambridge English Corpus of first language use. At C1 and C2 levels, the English Vocabulary Profile describes both General and Academic English, and the additional sources used to research this area of language learning are described in the article. Polysemous words are treated in depth and the project has sought to determine which meanings of these important words appear to be acquired first; new, less frequent meanings often continue to be learned across all six CEFR levels. Phrases form another substantial part of the resource and this aspect has been guided by expert research (see Martínez 2011).

scholarly journals Language and Literacy Practices in Teacher Education: Contributions from a Local Agenda

HOW ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-61
Author(s):  
Amparo Clavijo-Olarte
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
University School Partnerships

Language and literacy practices in teacher education are decisive in the education of future language teachers. In this article, I share my beliefs as a teacher educator about language and literacy practices constructed with teachers in Bogota. Thus, my intention is to weave my professional narrative through the connections I can make from theory and praxis to explain teachers´ understandings of language and literacy through their life and literacy experiences and the way they organize their practice as language teachers. My research trajectory of thirty years documenting the local literacy practices within the research area of literacy studies and local pedagogies for social transformation has significantly informed my practice. University-school partnerships and international collaborations for research and teaching in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Manchester, in the USA, and Dundee, in the UK, have nurtured me personally and professionally. My understanding of literacy as a social practice evolved to critical literacies and I developed knowledge in community pedagogies and city semiotic landscapes through reflections and collaborations via working with teachers. Community-based pedagogies (CBPs) invite teachers to see their life and work in relation to places they live and teach as meaningful content for linguistic, social, cultural, ecological, and economic resources to inspire students´ inquiries and teachers´ transformative practices. The city semiotic landscapes are powerful literacies for language learning; therefore, they currently adhere to the research group´s agenda (2019-2021). I describe my understandings, contributions, and suggestions as concerns in the field of teacher education in Colombia. My conclusions raise awareness about the need to address these topics in teacher education programs in Colombia.

New Literacies in 21st Century Classrooms

2017 ◽  
pp. 22-42
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Social Semiotics ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Insight Into

Understanding 21st century communication requires an acknowledgement of the increasing role technology plays in the everyday lives of children. At home, children routinely engage in techno-literate environments where they use multiple modes for playing and learning. In order to build a bridge between theory and practice, it is helpful to draw upon the field of multiliteracies, New Literacy Studies, and social semiotics. Applying these theories to the language and literacy practices of elementary students provides insight into text making and the design process or fit between modes and affordances. This chapter helps the reader gain the necessary background for grasping the complexities involved in producing coherent and cohesive texts.

scholarly journals Engaging ‘Future Generations’ in Meaning Making through Visual Methods: An Alternative Approach to Defining City-Regions

2021 ◽  
pp. 391-416
Author(s):  
Lorena Axinte
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Visual Methods ◽  
Youth Engagement ◽  
City Region ◽  
City Regions ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The City

AbstractCity-regional planning has gained significant attention and funding in the UK, as national and local authorities decided that an intermediary level—the city-region—would be the appropriate one to drive economic development. Nonetheless, city-regions have long been criticized for their undemocratic and closed structures, enlarging the engagement barriers especially for young people. Encouraged by Wales’ innovative legislation, The Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, this research tried to fill the gap in the city-regional youth engagement literature. Specifically, it asked: How could a research project stimulate a conversation with the future generations about the areas where they live, and how could it encourage meaningful reflections on previously unfamiliar concepts, such as city-regions? Two creative participatory research methods, web-mapping and Photovoice, helped explore young people’s lived experience within a newly created administrative layer—Cardiff Capital Region. Results show that despite failing to emancipate the participants’ voices and needs, the two methods employed helped to attract participants, facilitated the understanding of the city-region concept and enabled young people to reflect on their surrounding environment.

scholarly journals Transnational Literacies as Social Remittances: The Role of Language Ideologies in Shaping Migrants’ Online Literacies

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-319
Author(s):  
Tony Capstick
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Social Remittances ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Similar Vein ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract It is now twenty years since the term ‘social remittances’ was taken up to capture the notion that migration involves the circulation of ideas, practices, identities, and social capital between destination and origin countries, in addition to the more tangible circulation of money. In a similar vein, a social theory of literacy sees practices not as observable units of behaviour but rather as social processes which connect people. To identify how literacy practices can be seen as social remittances, I identify how Usman, the key respondent in this study, goes about describing his first six months in the UK by tracing the meaning-making trajectories in our interviews together. I then explore the language and literacy choices that his family and friends make on Facebook as they remit ideas, beliefs, and practices in their transnational literacies. I examine how these practices are shaped by beliefs about language. The article seeks to understand the relationship between migrants’ literacy practices before and after their migrations and how these practices remit ideas and beliefs which maintain transnational migration.

Languages and Literacies in Translocation

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 364-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison Skerrett
Keyword(s):  
Adolescent Girl ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
The World ◽  
Multiple Languages

Transnational youth represent an increasing demographic in societies around the world. This circumstance has amplified the need to understand how youths’ language and literacy repertoires are shaped by transnational life. In response, this article presents a case study of a Mexican adolescent girl who immigrated to the United States and continued to participate in life in Mexico. It examines shifts in her multiple language and literacy practices that she attributed to transnational life and the knowledge she acquired from transnational engagements with languages and literacies. Data include interviews of the young woman, observations of her in a variety of social contexts, and literacy artifacts that she produced. Research on transnational youths’ language and literacy practices and theories of multiliteracies and border crossing facilitate analysis. Findings include that language and multiliteracy practices shift in interconnected ways in response to transnational life and engagements with multiple languages and literacies foster transnational understandings. Accordingly, attending to transnational youths’ multilingual as well as multiliterate practices can deepen understandings of how people recruit multiple languages, literacies, and lifeworlds for meaning making. Implications of this work are offered concerning the features of a transnational curriculum that can both draw from and build up the language and literacy reservoirs of transnational youth.

‘This Is the View When I Walk into My House’

Young ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Kennelly
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Visual Methods ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Spatial Perspective ◽  
Spatial Methods ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Web

This article argues for the utility of phenomenology in accounting for the manner in which spatial methods yield insights into the everyday lived experiences of young people that are not as easily accessible through more traditional qualitative methods such as interviewing. Spatial methods, defined as methods that focus on the everyday spatial experiences of young people and methods that ask youth to position themselves in space, have been used by the author in a variety of research projects, and also incorporate certain visual methods. Phenomenological concepts such as the spatial perspective, the web of relations and opaque subjectivity are helpful in understanding not only that these methods work well but why they are so effective. The article also addresses Pierre Bourdieu’s critique of phenomenology, responding to his concern that phenomenology might be susceptible to ignoring or overlooking the social and political contexts that shape experiences.

scholarly journals Introducing Everyday Digital Literacy Practices into the Classroom: An Analysis of Multi-layered Media, Modes and their Affordances

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adele Creer
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Layered Media ◽  
Major Conclusion ◽  
Assessment Tasks

Integrating digital media into classroom practice requires consideration on many levels, how young people access and engage with digital media at the level of media, mode and genre is complex and may redefine how literacy practices in the classroom are perceived. Young people use digital media in their everyday literacy practices and a failure to embrace new technologies in the classroom may lead to a disjuncture between their everyday and college-assessed literacy practices.  Following an analysis of communicative interactions that looked at multi-layered media, modes and their affordances, this paper offers insights from recent research.  It looks carefully at the congruence and incongruences that exists between the two literacy practices with the aim to offer rich insights into meaning making in what are comparatively new, digital literacy practices.  A major conclusion is that some assessment tasks do have congruence with young people’s everyday literacy practices but at times they either do not take account of the students ‘funds of knowledge’ (Moll et al.,1992) to the full which is likely to cause confusion and possible under performance.

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