From New Literacies to Multiliteracies: The Language Classroom as a Multilingual, Multicultural, and Multimodal Space

The contemporary communication landscape has evolved, giving rise to intercultural encounters that encompass a diverse range of discourses, modes of communication, and literacy practices. Consequently, literacy has undergone multiple transformations in connection with global socioeconomic, technological, political, and cultural dynamics. Concepts such as new literacies and multiliteracies have impacted education, including the teaching of foreign and second languages. In this paper, we explore how the concept of literacy has evolved in response to the contemporary communication landscape and examine the challenges and opportunities that Multiliteracies Pedagogy (mlp) presents in foreignlanguage teaching. In this research article, we analyze the complementary relationships among new literacies and the multilingual, multicultural, and multimodal perspectives of multiliteracies, along with the pedagogical approach of multiliteracies in English language teaching. By reflecting on these concepts from different perspectives, we explore how their contribution to language education may help conceptualize and advance their practical application in the field. We reflect that there is a need to go beyond the instructional dimension of a multiliteracies pedagogy by bridging the gap between classroom literacy practices and literacies outside of school. We found that many teachers in peripheral spaces have already bridged the gap between the classroom and their students’ funds of knowledge, creating opportunities for localized practices to flourish. Nonetheless, the road ahead shows the need to continue striving to build better meaning-making practices to suit the needs of current multimodal, multicultural, and multilingual societies.