LANGUAGE AND NEW LITERACIES AT SCHOOL

Specific Foundation / Core

Upon completion of this course students will be able to: • know basic theoretical issues related to the visual and multimodal literacy, • reflect on the use and nature of semiotic systems (metasemiotic knowledge) as well as the ways in which their intesemiotic synergies involved in designing multimodal texts, • implement the principles of 'visual grammar' in order to critically analyze the explicit and underlying meanings in various multimodal ensembles, • utilize the principles of 'visual grammar' for teaching linguistic literacy into the classroom, • familiarize themselves with the way in which multimodality and new literacies may influence and transform literacy practices both within and outside school, • critically 'read' online information with a view to their use in the teaching of language.

The formation of a new semiotic landscape, as a consequence of social, economical, cultural and technological changes, which our planet suffered recently, in conjunction with an understanding of these changes for our society, result in the redefinition of the meaning of literacy, so as to incorporate all the potential semiotic modes for the meaning-making, representation and communication, which are even considered as equal. Therefore, literacy is a concept directly connected to people’s competency to interact successfully in different communicative situations, by critically comprehending, producing and facing a plethora of text types, not only written or oral, but also multimodal ones, which are suitably adapted to the requirements of contemporary communication demands. This transition from the ‘culture of language’ to the ‘culture of image’ and, consequently, the realization of existence of a variety of semiotic modes, apart from oral and written speech – that are used to be unique – for the processes of representation and communication, imposes as imperative the need for a visually oriented curriculum that aims at fostering literacy skills related to ‘consumption’, 'reading'/comprehension, critical appraisal and production of visual meanings. The exploration, however, and description of the ways in which image and language function both separately and in conjunction to construct meanings in multimodal ensembles, requires students and teachers to develop a common language – a metalanguage – for being able to talk and think about each semiotic/symbolic system separately as well as their meaning-making interactions. In this light, at a theoretical level, the course focuses on: (a) studying the concept of linguistic literacy in the emerging landscape of new literacies, (b) investigating the understanding of the ways in which linguistic resources, images and/or other modalities cooperate to construct representations of reality which highlight or suppress certain ways of viewing the world, (c) presenting, through the critical approach and analysis of visual/multimodal resources, the basic principles of ‘Kress & van Leeuwen’s ‘visual grammar’ concerning the description of intra- and inter-semiotic synergies intertwined to construct representational, Interpersonal and textual meanings in specific social and cultural contexts, (d) examining the way in which this metalanguage can be utilized in the classroom for the teaching of literacy, and, (e) emerging multimodality and new literacies as frameworks for the teaching of language. In addition, at a laboratory level, the course focuses on familiarizing students with ways to critically "read" online information with a view to their use in the teaching of language.

Literacy, linguistic literacy, visual literacy, web literacy, multimodality, ‘reading’ images, ‘visual grammar’

13-03-2021