In the 2010 article by Dr. Carol Westby entitled, Multiliteracies: The Changing World of Communication, she offers a very straight forward look at how the scholarship is defining multiliteracies in 2010. It provides a very good basic overview of the topic, and definently contributes to the growing lexicon surrounding multiliteracies.
The purpose of this article is to elaborate on the aspect of ‘multi-modal ways of making meaning’ as identified by the New London Group in their 1996 report A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures, and to ‘explain the implications of this aspect of multiliteracies for [Speech Language Pathologists] and educators.’ The author gives examples of what some of todays multiliteracy-dependent media looks like, and expounds on its relationship to the skill identified by the New London Group called design (which in turn has three aspects: available designs, designing, and redesigned). The author also gives educators and SLPs guidance on how they can promote multiliteracies in the classroom.
The article finishes with a short but interesting section on targeting multiliteracy skills for children with language disorders. In this section she explores the idea of creating a Multiliteracy Map as developed by Dr. Susan Hill, who completed the report Mapping multiliteracies: Children of the new millennium, a project funded by the Australian Research Council investigating the use of new literacies by children aged 4-8 years. She concludes by summarizing what is important about multiliteracies. The article is worth a read, especially for students unfamiliar with the topic, as a basic introduction to multiliteracies.
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