Investigating connections among reading, writing, and language development: A multiliteracies perspective

This study explores relationships among reading literature, creative writing, and language development in a university-level advanced French grammar course through the theoretical lens of the multiliteracies framework. The goal is to investigate reading-writing connections and whether these literacy practices facilitate students’ understanding and use of resources such as grammar, vocabulary, genre, and style. Qualitative and quantitative findings show that students recognize reading-writing connections and their contribution to language development; they perceive reading and writing as contributing to their understanding of language and text-based features; and they can apply to varying degrees textual resources learned through reading to creative writing tasks. The implications of these findings lend support to a growing body of research that explores the feasibility and outcomes of literacy-based approaches to teaching and learning in university-level foreign language contexts that have as their goal development of students’ advanced foreign language competencies

Teacher development and multiliteracies pedagogy: Challenges and opportunities for postsecondary language programs

Over the past two decades, postsecondary language programs have experienced a paradigm shift away from communicative approaches toward more text-based curricula and the development of students’ multiple literacies. Numerous curricular and course-level models exist, and empirical research has documented the feasibility, linguistic outcomes, and perceptions of multiliteracies approaches. Yet few studies have investigated how postsecondary language teachers learn about and implement multiliteracies pedagogy and limited professional development resources exist to support teachers in this endeavor. To respond to these gaps and to recent calls for increased research into multiliteracies pedagogy and language teacher development, this article has three aims. First, we summarize current knowledge about postsecondary language teachers’ understandings and implementation of the multiliteracies framework, beginning with the 2011 AAUSC volume and continuing to the present. Next, we identify gaps and unanswered questions in this scholarship and suggest directions for future research. Finally, we discuss professional development needs for language teachers and program directors implementing multiliteracies approaches in postsecondary language programs and suggest tools and practices that might facilitate this work

Redesigning an Introductory Language Curriculum: A Backward Design Approach

In response to calls for curricular change in foreign language programs and institutional requirements to evaluate programmatic effectiveness, this article presents a backward design approach to the redesign of an introductory French curriculum grounded in the framing concept of cultural literacy. In addition, data from student evaluations, written exams, and instructor feedback illustrate how program evaluation efforts have contributed to curricular fine-tuning, enhanced assessment practices, and informed instructors’ teaching and professional development experiences. The article concludes with a discussion of implications and future directions for curriculum design at all levels of undergraduate foreign language programs

A literacy-based approach to foreigh language teacher development

The purpose of this chapter is twofold: (1) to investigate connections between the reform of bifurcated foreign language (FL) programs, as proposed in the 2007 MLA Report, and FL teacher development; and (2) to explore what types of methods courses establish this connection. To meet these goals, the author first summarizes current limitations of collegiate FL teacher development in the bifurcated system and identifies key issues related to rethinking this development for the twenty-first century. Next, she presents an alternative to FL teacher development that addresses the recommendations of the MLA Report. Specifically, she argues in favor of training in literacy-based pedagogy and provides an example of a literacy- based methods course, supported by data that illustrate its efficacy. Finally, she discusses the benefits and limitations of the literacy-based methods course, its implications for FL teacher development, and its potential contribution to the reform of bifurcated programs

Redesigning an Introductory Language Curriculum: A Backward Design Approach

In response to calls for curricular change in foreign language programs and institutional requirements to evaluate programmatic effectiveness, this article presents a backward design approach to the redesign of an introductory French curriculum grounded in the framing concept of cultural literacy. In addition, data from student evaluations, written exams, and instructor feedback illustrate how program evaluation efforts have contributed to curricular fine-tuning, enhanced assessment practices, and informed instructors’ teaching and professional development experiences. The article concludes with a discussion of implications and future directions for curriculum design at all levels of undergraduate foreign language programs

Understanding teacher discourse around multiliteracies pedagogy

Numerous scholars have called for a paradigm shift in lower-level postsecondary language programs from a focus on communicative language teaching and oral language development to curriculum and instruction grounded in text-based teaching and learning through multiliteracies pedagogy. Empirical research provides insights into the feasibility, linguistic outcomes, and perceptions of multiliteracies approaches, yet few studies have investigated how teachers learn about and implement multiliteracies pedagogy. This year-long case study examines the discourse of three nontenure-track Spanish faculty to understand the nature of their discourse around multiliteracies pedagogy and whether that discourse reflects prevailing ideologies (i.e., conventionalized ways of enacting beliefs and practices) about communicative language teaching. Through multi-cycle, descriptive coding of six course-level meetings and two sets of interviews with each participant, the concepts from communicative language teaching and multiliteracies pedagogy manifested in the data were identified and analyzed in relation to each participant’s personal history. Results reveal that prevailing ideologies from communicative language teaching were present in all three participants’ discourse around multiliteracies pedagogy, although in different ways that reflected their personal and formal learning experiences with both approaches. Findings are discussed in light of previous research on teacher development, and implications for language program direction are identified

Exploring the Feasibility of a Pedagogy of Multiliteracies in Introductory Foreign Language Courses

The 2007 MLA Report calls for large-scale reform in university foreign language (FL) departments to integrate the study of language, literature, and culture and move beyond the the language-content dichotomy that has characterized the undergraduate curriculum for decades. This article explores the implications of these recommendations for introductory FL courses, arguing in favor of a pedagogy of multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996; Kern, 2000) as one pathway toward curricular reform. The adoption of a multiliteracies framework in response to calls for curricular change is not entirely novel, yet most scholarship to date has focused on the need for more explicit attention to students' linguistic development in advanced-level content courses rather than on pedagogical models for integrating textual content into introductory language courses. To support our position, three challenges to realizing curricular change and fostering literacy in introductory FL courses are discussed – pedagogy, course content, and departmental buy-in – and strategies to address each challenge are proposed. We conclude that in light of the changing landscape in U.S. higher education today, a pedagogy of multiliteracies represents a means of keeping the introductory FL curriculum relevant to students as well as the broader intellectual mission of the university