1st Edition

Multiliteracies in World Language Education

Edited By Yuri Kumagai, Ana López-Sánchez, Sujane Wu Copyright 2016
    262 Pages 19 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    262 Pages 19 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Putting a multiliteracies framework at the center of the world language curriculum, this volume brings together college-level curricular innovations and classroom projects that address differences in meaning and worldviews expressed in learners’ primary and target languages. Offering a rich understanding of languages, genres, and modalities as socioculturally situated semiotic systems, it advocates an effective pedagogy for developing learners’ abilities to operate between languages. Chapters showcase curricula that draw on a multiliteracies framework and present various classroom projects that develop aspects of multiliteracies for language learners.

    A discussion of the theoretical background and historical development of the pedagogy of multiliteracies and its relevance to the field of world language education positions this book within the broader literature on foreign language education. As developments in globalization, accountability, and austerity challenge contemporary academia and the current structure of world language programs, this book shows how the implementation of a multiliteracies-based approach brings coherence to language programs, and how the framework can help to accomplish the goals of higher education in general and of language education in particular.

    Foreword

    Hilary Janks

    Preface

    Chapter 1: Advancing Multiliteracies in World Language Education

    Yuri Kumagai and Ana López-Sánchez

    Part I: Designing Multiliteracies Curricula

    Chapter 2: Developing Multiliteracies through Genre in the Beginner German Classroom Mackenzie Warren and Claudia Winkler

    Chapter 3: Redesigning the Intermediate Level of the Spanish Curriculum through a Multiliteracies Lens

    Ana López-Sánchez

     

    Chapter 4: Multiliteracies and Multimodal Discourses in the Foreign Language Classroom

    Christine Sagnier

     

    Chpater 5: Reading Words to Read Worlds: A Genre-based Critical Multiliteracies Curriculum in Intermediate/Advanced Japanese Language Education

    Yuri Kumagai and Noriko Iwasaki

    Part II: Implementing Multiliteracies-based Projects

    Chapter 6: Fostering Multimodal Literacies in the Japanese Language Classrooms: Digital Video Projects

    Yuri Kumagai, Keiko Konoeda, Miyuki Nishimata (Fukai), and Shinji Sato

    Chapter 7: Implementing Multiliteracies in the Korean Classroom through Visual Media Lucien Brown, Noriko Iwasaki, and Keunyoung Lee

    Chapter 8: Empowering Students in the Italian Classroom to Learn Vocabulary through a Multiliteracies Framework

    Barbara Spinelli

    Chapter 9: Creating an Effective Learning Environment in an Advanced Chinese Language Course through Film, Poster Presentation, and Multiliteracies

    Sujane Wu

    Afterword

    Ana López-Sánchez and Yuri Kumagai

    List of Contributors

    Index

    Biography

    Yuri Kumagai is Senior Lecturer of Japanese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, Smith College, Massachusetts, USA.

    Ana López-Sánchez is Assistant Professor of Spanish, Haverford College, USA.

    Sujane Wu is Associate Professor of Chinese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, Smith College, Massachusetts, USA.