scholarly journals Multiple Literacies Theory: how it functions, what it produces

Perspectiva ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Masny
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Literacies ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
The World ◽  
The Moment

At the moment, there are two literacy theories that seem to dominate the research on literacies. They are known as the New Literacy Studies (NLS) (BARTON; HAMILTON; IVANIČ; 2002; STREET, 2003) and Multiliteracies (COPE; KALANTZIS, 2009). This article is about a different theory, Multiple Literacies Theory (MLT) that demarcates itself from them ontologically and epistemologically. It will also highlight aspects of NLS and Multiliteracies in order to point out the differences with MLT. This article aims to put forward the major concepts that underlie this theory and present vignettes from a study examining how perceptions of writing systems in multilingual children contribute to reading, reading the world and self as texts.

Lifestyle Diglossia and Mobile

2017 ◽  
pp. 2100-2112
Author(s):  
Mukul Saxena
Keyword(s):  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Personal Communication ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies

This chapter proposes to chart the development of understanding of literacy as a practice, which is now digital in nature and globally distributed, therefore digital literacy practices require new lenses and ways of research explorations. The notion of literacy has shifted from being autonomous to ideological during the last three decades. It is not seen anymore as a single unified competence, but as changing from place to place and varying in different social-cultural contexts. Despite the fact that there are different writing systems that are used in different ways in different contexts, the differences between them are no longer seen as primarily technical (Graff, 1979; Heath, 1983; Street, 1993). The differences that do exist between literacies are seen as being due to differences in cultural practices, values and ideologies. As a consequence, the methodological shift towards ethnographic research on literacy has arisen from a fundamental change in thinking about the nature of literacy and the development of the “new literacy studies” (Street, 1993: 4). Ethnographic approaches to literacy, such as those developed by Heath (1983), Street (1984), Barton (1991, 1994) and others are based on the everyday uses of written language(s) by specific groups and subgroups in a specific locality. According to Graff, these approaches to literacy provide “both new and better cases for study, opportunity for explanations, and approaches to literacy's variable historical meaning and contribution” (1986: 127). The ethnographic research on literacies in multilingual contexts (e.g. Saxena, 1994; Hartley, 1994) further contributed to the development of ‘new literacy studies' (NLS). However, with the development of mobile devices during the last decade and the allied software industries, digital literacy communication has become synonymous with globalisation and a divergence between the literacy practices in ‘regulated spaces' and ‘unregulated spaces' (Sebba, 2009) particularly among the youth is becoming a marked feature of inter-personal communication. Sebba defines ‘unregulated spaces' as places where the prescriptiveness of standardisation and monolingualism has not yet reached, or where it holds no power and practices may deviate from the prescribed norms. Such spaces open up opportunities for identity construction and group definition.

Lifestyle Diglossia and Mobile

2016 ◽  
pp. 49-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mukul Saxena
Keyword(s):  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Personal Communication ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies

This chapter proposes to chart the development of understanding of literacy as a practice, which is now digital in nature and globally distributed, therefore digital literacy practices require new lenses and ways of research explorations. The notion of literacy has shifted from being autonomous to ideological during the last three decades. It is not seen anymore as a single unified competence, but as changing from place to place and varying in different social-cultural contexts. Despite the fact that there are different writing systems that are used in different ways in different contexts, the differences between them are no longer seen as primarily technical (Graff, 1979; Heath, 1983; Street, 1993). The differences that do exist between literacies are seen as being due to differences in cultural practices, values and ideologies. As a consequence, the methodological shift towards ethnographic research on literacy has arisen from a fundamental change in thinking about the nature of literacy and the development of the “new literacy studies” (Street, 1993: 4). Ethnographic approaches to literacy, such as those developed by Heath (1983), Street (1984), Barton (1991, 1994) and others are based on the everyday uses of written language(s) by specific groups and subgroups in a specific locality. According to Graff, these approaches to literacy provide “both new and better cases for study, opportunity for explanations, and approaches to literacy's variable historical meaning and contribution” (1986: 127). The ethnographic research on literacies in multilingual contexts (e.g. Saxena, 1994; Hartley, 1994) further contributed to the development of ‘new literacy studies' (NLS). However, with the development of mobile devices during the last decade and the allied software industries, digital literacy communication has become synonymous with globalisation and a divergence between the literacy practices in ‘regulated spaces' and ‘unregulated spaces' (Sebba, 2009) particularly among the youth is becoming a marked feature of inter-personal communication. Sebba defines ‘unregulated spaces' as places where the prescriptiveness of standardisation and monolingualism has not yet reached, or where it holds no power and practices may deviate from the prescribed norms. Such spaces open up opportunities for identity construction and group definition.

scholarly journals Typing your way to technical identity

Pragmatics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia G. Lange
Keyword(s):  
Identity Performance ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
Online Environments ◽  
Creative Self

Informal, online environments facilitate creative self-expression through typographic and orthographic stylistics. Yet, ideologies of writing may be invoked to discourage written forms that are purportedly difficult to read. This paper analyzes how members of an online, text-based, gaming community negotiate appropriate, written communications as expressions of technical identity. These encounters may reify communities of technologists who are associated with using or avoiding forms such as abbreviations, capital letters, and “leet speak.” Amid the technologizing of the word, the paper argues that those who do not conform to assumed norms may be indexed as less technical than those who do. By examining troubled encounters, the paper explores how metapragmatic negotiations affect creativity and technical identity performance online. The paper argues that contrary to discourses that online interactants pay little attention to written stylistics, the present participants closely attended to subtle and small forms. Further, it discusses how ideologies may be idiosyncratically applied to assist in forming asymmetrical, technical identities. Finally, it argues that technical affiliations are just as important to study as other variables such as gender, ethnicity, age, and class that have traditionally received attention in analyses of ideologies of writing and New Literacy Studies.

What is visual-numeric literacy, and how does it work?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elise Seip Tønnessen
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
Science Classrooms ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
System Variables ◽  
Data Visualizations

This article explores the concept of literacy related to the use of data visualizations. Literacy is here understood as the ability to make sense from semiotic resources in an educational context. Theoretically the discussion is based in social semiotic theory on multimodality in the tradition of New Literacy Studies. Empirical examples are taken from observations in two Social Science classrooms in upper secondary school in Norway, where the students work with publicly available data visualizations to answer tasks designed by their teacher. The discussion sums up factors that affect reading and learning from such complex resources: taking time to explore axis system, variables, and digitally available options; questioning data; and contextualizing results.

scholarly journals Tracing interacting literacy practices in master's dissertation writing

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin Kaufhold
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
Business Partners ◽  
Dissertation Writing ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches

Academic literacy practices are increasingly varied, influenced by the diverse education and language backgrounds of students and staff, interdisciplinary approaches, and collaborations with non-university groups such as business partners. Completing a master's dissertation thus requires students to negotiate literacy practices associated with different domains. To enable an investigation of conditions for such negotiations, this article extends the concept of literacy practices by combining insights from Academic Literacies, New Literacy Studies and Schatzki's (1996) social practice ontology. The resulting framework is applied in a case study of a student who negotiates academic requirements and entrepreneurial goals in completing a master's dissertation.

scholarly journals Kid friendly? Constructions of comics literacy in the classroom

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-94
Author(s):  
Lars Wallner
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Comic Book ◽  
Psychological Approach ◽  
Literacy Studies ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
New Literacy Studies ◽  
Social Actions ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Grade 3 ◽  
Video Material

This article explores how teachers and pupils construct and negotiate discourses around comic books as part of interaction in the classroom from a New Literacy Studies perspective. The combination of imagery and text, the essence of comics, makes them relevant tools for exploring how literacy is constructed in social interaction in the classroom. The analysis is based on video material from two different Swedish schools, one class in Grade 3 and one class in Grade 8. Nine interactional sequences were initially found, and these have been analysed using a qualitative discursive psychological approach, investigating how assessments are utilized to perform social actions – how participants use assessments of comics as easy or difficult reading, or assessments of themselves or others as being or not being comic book readers – to make something happen in interaction. The results show that participants utilize discourses of personal, visual and textual literacy to construct a comics literacy in which image and text are both construed as important for, as well as a difficulty in, reading comics. This demonstrates constructions of comics literacy and readership, how personal experiences of reading comics are important and the importance of broadening the view of comics as school literature.

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