Before I am going to answer the question “What role do multiliteracies play for
writing in the 21st century?”, I want to go through – what for many of us probably was – the
typical process of working on this task.
The first point of reference for this writing task probably were the materials from our
seminar. So far, these materials include short lectures in the form of YouTube videos,
academic papers, learning units on VIGOR, and our own notes, mind maps, and big ideas
sheets. As you can see, we already have quite a variety of texts and modes to work with.
Let’s suppose you felt like you need more information to write something adequate on
the question given. Most people nowadays will search the internet for additional information.
(Let’s be honest, when was the last time you consulted a dictionary or went to a library?)
Using the world wide web for such a purpose is only reasonable since the web outperforms
your local library in almost every point of comparison. It offers a virtually unlimited amount
of content. This content comes in all imaginable forms, and it is accessible from wherever
you are whenever you need it. The worldwide web is perhaps the prime example of
multimodality. Besides verbal texts, you encounter websites with embedded videos and
graphics. Instead of a linear reading experience, you can jump from one website to the next
simply by clicking on a link. The only problem with this abundance of information is that you
have to decide for yourself whether a source is authentic, trustworthy, and useful for your
purpose.
Let’s imagine you were still not entirely sure what to write about. One option would
have been to send a quick text message to a fellow student and ask them what they are going
to write about or ask them for some feedback on your ideas. Maybe they would reply with a
voice message, yet another mode of communication, in which they outline what they’re
planning to write about. This way you could have a (time-delayed) exchange of ideas from
which both sides could benefit.
If you then decide you have acquired all the information you need, you can start the
actual writing. Most likely, you’ll use a word-processing program such as MS Word for this.
Now you’ll express your knowledge of the topic through your knowledge of the language. You’ll
use specific words of your vocabulary and put them in a specific order to create new
sentences, sentences that you have oftentimes neither heard/ read nor said/ written before. In
short, you will express ideas through writing. The writing process, just as the process of
searching for information online, is not linear. Since we are not writing on typewriters
anymore, you can go back and forth in the document. You can skip a paragraph you are
struggling with, and go back to it in five minutes. Once you are finished, you upload your
work to VIGOR.
After having finished this writing task you will have used several of the literacies
described by the New London Group. For example, you have practised your visual literacy
when you watched a Youtube video or looked at your big ideas sheet. Digital literacy was at
work when you used search engines like Google, the learning platform VIGOR, or MS Word.
Critical-reflexive literacy was needed when you assessed the authenticity of your additional
online sources. And it all came down to functional literacy when you sat down to express
your thoughts and ideas through writing a text.
So, what role do multiliteracies play for writing in the 21st century? By going through
an exemplary writing process for this assignment, I tried to point out that multiliteracies are
not just a theoretical construct. They are a reality. Whether you want it or not, multiliteracies
are a fundamental part of the entire writing process, from start to finish. Therefore, this
concept should be implemented in language teaching.
-Philipp