What are Multiliteracies?
Definition |
Multiliteracies is a term coined by the New London Group (NLG, 1996) that expands the definition of literacy beyond reading and writing. It refers to the ability to understand and communicate meaning through images, symbols, songs, dance, gestures, sounds, and sometimes spoken or written words. Multiliteracies allow for Funds of Knowledge to be drawn out through two aspects: the “multilingual” and the “multimodal.”
|
Multilingual Communication |
Multilingual Communication refers to using more than one language, or in my project, using more than one variety of English. The NLG expanded the definition of literacy in hopes of accessing language in the context of work and social communities. They saw that the world was getting smaller with the use of technology (1996). My project incorporates the multilingual with my intention to not replace one language system, Village English (VE), with another, Standard American English (SAE), but to see these two linguistic varieties as beneficial resources for students as they engage in community life in the village (using VE) and academic and professional life outside of rural Alaska (SAE).
|
Multi-Modal Communication |
Multiliteracies access multi-modal communication by incorporating different modes of meaning making including linguistic, visual, aural, gestural and spatial modes of meaning with language (New London Group, 1996). Later “tactile” was added to the list of modalities (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009).
|
Examples from the Elder Storytelling |
My project included the multimodal aspects of multiliteracies. Listening to the elder’s story, students combined linguistic, audio, visual, and gestural multiliteracies. As students listened to the meaning, they took in the story in the form of words (linguistic) as they listened (aural). They watched the elder (visual) as the elder pretended she was the little boy singing to the grandmother in the story. The storyteller used gestures to communicate that the boy in the story went away, tried to squeeze through the window, and huddled close to the fire in a way that conveyed how cold he was without using additional words to explain what he did or looked like (gestural).
|
Examples from the Student Project |
When students used the elder’s oral story to create a digital story on StoryKit the project integrated written words (linguistic), pictures (visual), and their recorded voices (aural). Students typed their story (tactile) and arranged the picture, words and icons on each page in a way that made sense to them (spatial). Multiliteracies offer students more ways to access and express their current Funds of Knowledge while offering many different ways to connect with, create, and retain new meaning and knowledge.
|