New Literacies pedagogy for language learning Session 5

New Literacies and criticality Everyday texts Shopping carts Critique of texts Text + Text critique adbusters the context, the text type, modes of meaning making the social purpose of the text the author/creator of the text the “ideal” reader/viewer/user: roles and positions discourses operating in the text assumptions about/ representations of the social world the context, the text type, modes of meaning making the social purpose of the text the author/creator of the text the “ideal” reader/viewer/user: roles and positions discourses operating in the text discourses being challenged assumptions about/ representations of the social world being challenged

Are you a fan? What are your favourite…..  Movies?  TV programmes (soaps, sit com/drama or cartoons)?  novels/stories?

Fan fiction

Types of fan fiction In-canon: stories within the original story Alternate universe: characters in different time zones and locations Self insert: you write yourself into the story Crossover: characters from two or more stories meet each other

Fan fiction Affinity spaces “Specially designed spaces (physical & virtual) constructed to resource people who are tied together…by a shared interest or endeavour.” (Gee, 2004, p. 9)

Writing fan fiction Find someone who likes the same stories, TV programme or movie as you to work with. With your partner write a fan fiction story of words, give it a title and put your names as authors Choose the type of fan fiction story Post your story on the Fanfiction blog.blog  Username: literacies  Password: 0810project

Reading and reviewing fan fiction Read each others’ stories Write a review for 2 or 3 stories Read reviews of your story Reviewers’ comments - supportive - constructive - helpful

New literacies and ELT in Hong Kong Critically examine the two excerpts from recent Hong Kong secondary coursebooks. S1MacauS1Macau S3CharityS3Charity Compare the literacy practices in these two excerpts with the new literacies practices you have experienced, in particular, creating a photostory, and writing fanfiction. Post your comments on the wikispace discussion board

The New in New Literacies after Lankshear and Knobel, 2006:38 and 60 Mindset 1Mindset 2 Publishing Centralized expertise Individual intelligence Individual authorship Ownership Value from scarcity Stability and fixity Participation Distributed expertise Collective intelligence Collaboration Sharing Value from dispersion Innovation, creative rule- breaking

We want English language learners to… interpret, use, and create texts in multimodal representational forms for a range of purposes in socially and culturally diverse contexts in informed and socially responsible ways (Anstey and Bull 2006)

New literacies pedagogy in L2 learning: Core principles Aligns with literacy practices in the 21 st century Involves new digital/electronic forms of communication and interaction Draws on popular culture Connects to students’ social and cultural practices Engages students’ social identities Is meaningful and purposeful to students Explores multimodality in texts Examines texts & text production critically Has clear language learning outcomes

Challenges How would you respond to the following (typical) comments:  “Popular culture involves ‘dumbing down’.”  “Popular culture only teaches kids about sex and violence.”  “Video-games are antisocial and addictive.”  “Mobile phones & mp3 players should be left at home.”  “If we get our students to blog it won’t help them to pass the HKCEE and UE exams.”

The “digital divide” between home &school

Why ‘digital media’? Digital media and ‘convergence’  Computing, other information technologies, and media communication networks are increasingly interlinked The internet, computer games, digital video, mobile phones, PDAs provide  New ways of mediating and representing the world  New forms of communication and expression Not ‘information’, not ‘technology’ but ‘media’ that mediate our lives and our world in terms of  Knowledge  Social relationships  Identities

Critical and creative engagement Outside school, young people engage with digital media not as ‘technologies’ but as ‘cultural forms’ Inside school, students need opportunities to be producers as well as consumers of media texts, so as to 1.Create and communicate messages For self-expression To influence others To interact with others 2.Engage in critical analysis of media texts in terms of The visual and verbal ‘languages’ they employ The representations of the world they make available The positions, or roles, they invite readers to adopt

Developing critical media literacy As teachers we need to begin from, and build on, students’ experiences and knowledge of media texts and technologies To take students beyond this beginning involves developing knowledge of four aspects  Representation: How is the world being represented?  Language: What codes, conventions, and genres are involved?  Production: Who is communicating to whom and why?  Audience: How are audiences targeted and how do they respond? Buckingham, D. (2007). Beyond technology: Children’s learning in the age of digital culture. Cambridge: Polity Press

Critical Reflective Analysis

Infusing new literacies into the English language curriculum How could you enhance the textbook units you just examined to embody new literacies pedagogic principles and practices?

Reading