Successes and struggles of EFL teachers adopting multiliteracies framework in the classroom

Year 2020, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 57 - 77, 26.11.2020

Rabia Damla Özyer , Eda Nur Özcan

https://doi.org/10.33400/kuje.729633

Abstract

The literacy growing beyond the traditional print medium has led to the new understandings, practices and pedagogies. New London Group (1996) called these practices ‘‘multiliteracies’’ which refers to the way of combining local diversity and global connectedness together to teach through multiple forms of communicative technologies. By using technoliteracies and multimodalities, the genuine interaction is boosted for the purpose of raising socially, culturally and historically aware students. Teaching English, henceforth, is gaining importance at an unprecedented speed as it is neither spoken by only a minority nor does it belong to a single community. With respect to this, English teachers must have the necessary skills in terms of teaching cultural and linguistic diversities besides the ability to benefit from and utilize technology adequately. This research article investigates the ways to better understand the experiences of Turkish teachers who adopt multiliteracies framework in their classrooms implementing its goals. Qualitative research design was implemented to get credible results from practices of the participants. First, an open ended-questionnaire (Boche, 2014) was applied to 14 English teachers regarding their use of technology in their classrooms. The teachers were then categorized based on their answers into two groups. Secondly, the teachers who used multiliteracies framework in their classrooms were interviewed in depth about whether they teach cultural and linguistic diversities in their classrooms. The results were analyzed in a detailed way pointing to the successes and struggles with the integration of multiliteracies into the classroom in order to better inform English teachers with their practices

Keywords

literacy pedagogy, multiliteracy pedagogy, multimodality, multilingualism, English language teaching, English teachers

Supporting Institution

Kocaeli University

Thanks

We thank Assoc. Prof. Dr. Doğan Yüksel for his constant support and encouragement.

Çoklu okuryazarlık sistemini benimseyen İngilizce öğretmenlerinin başarı ve mücadeleleri

Abstract

Geleneksel matbaa basımı kalıbından çıkarak gelişen okuryazarlık; yeni anlayışların, alıştırmaların ve pedagojilerin gelişmesine yol açmıştır. New LondonGroup (1996) bu alıştırmalara “çoklu okuryazarlık” adını vermiştir. Çoklu okuryazarlık, yerel, kültürel ve dilsel farklılıkları dünya bütünlüğünü savunarak çeşitli iletişim teknolojilerinin kullanımıyla öğretmektir. Sosyal, kültürel ve tarihsel farkındalığa sahip öğrenciler yetiştirmek amacıyla, teknolojik okuryazarlık ve çoklu modluluk ile gerçek iletişim zenginleştirilmektedir. İngilizce öğretimi bu sebeple önem kazanmaktadır çünkü İngilizce artık ne bir azınlık tarafından konuşulmaktadır ne de sadece bir topluma aittir. Buna ilişkin olarak, İngilizce öğretmenleri teknoloji kullanımının yanı sıra kültürel ve dilsel farklılıkları öğretmek için gereken beceriler açısından uygun imkânlara sahip olmalıdırlar. Bu makale çoklu okuryazarlık sistemini sınıflarında kullanan Türk öğretmenlerin deneyimlerini daha iyi çözümlemenin yollarını araştırmaktadır. Katılımcılardan güvenilir sonuçlar almak için nitel araştırma deseni kullanılmıştır. İlk olarak, öğretmenlerin teknoloji kullanımlarıyla ilgili yedi açık uçlu sorudan oluşan bir anket (Boche, 2014) 14 öğretmene uygulanmıştır. Daha sonra öğretmenler cevapları doğrultusunda iki gruba ayrılmıştır. İkinci aşamada, çoklu okuryazarlık sistemini sınıflarında kullanan öğretmenlerle, kültürel ve dilsel farklılıkları sınıflarında öğretip öğretmedikleri hakkında görüşmeler yapılmıştır. İngilizce öğretmenlerinin yaşadığı mücadelelere ve elde ettiği başarılara değinilerek, sonuçlar İngilizce öğretmenlerini sınıftaki aktiviteleri konusunda daha iyi aydınlatmak için detaylı bir şekilde incelenmiştir

Keywords

literacy pedagogy, multiliteracy pedagogy, multimodality, English language teaching, English teachers, multilingualism

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