2. AIM TO PROVIDE AN UP-TO-DATE
ACCOUNT OF WHAT RESEARCH
LOOKS LIKE THAT SITS WITHIN
THE INTERSECTION OF NEW
LITERACY STUDIES AND
MULTIMODALITY
3. Research that merges New Literacy
Studies with multimodality takes equal
account of where, how, and by whom
a text is made as it does of the
physical features of a text as signifiers
of contextual meanings.
4. MULTIMODALITY
The text could be understood in relation
to the ideational, interpersonal and
textual functions of the sign;
Communication is multimodal
MULTIMODALITY, then, is an approach
to communication wherein textual modes
work in concert with each other without a
necessary privileging of one over
another (P. 2-3)
5. The role of ethnography
Ethnography as a methodology;
ADOPTING NA USING
DOING
ETHNOGRAPHIC ETHNOGRAPHIC
ETHNOGRAPHY
PERSPECTIVE TOOLS
Involves the framing,
conceptualizing, It is possible to take a
conducting, interpreting, more focused approach Refers to the use of
writing and reporting to study particular methods and techniques
associated with a broad, aspects of everyday life usually associated with
in depth, and long- and cultural practices of fieldwork.
termstudy of a social a social group
group
6. BRINGING THE 2 TRADiTIONS
TOGETHER
TWO TRADITIONS:
◦ Multimodality placed text making within a
tradition from social semiotics, and
understood signs as being multimodal,
imbued with intention and culturally shaped
and constituted.
◦ New Literacy Studies used ethnographic
methodologies to look at ways of being and
doing in communities and placed na
understanding of literacy within a wider
understanding of everyday life.
7. LITERACY PRACTICES
- Focus on social practices and
conceptions of reading and writing
- Regular repeated activities
LITERACY EVENTS
- Any occasion in which a piece of
writing is integral to the nature of the
participants’ interaction and
interpretative processes
- Activities where literacy has a role.
8. NOT TAKING ACCOUNT OF
MULTIMODALITY...
... Would de-privilege children who are
already drawing on a number of
semiotic modes to make meaning and
who are likely to be applying for jobs
where the employer is quite aware of
the importance of multiple modes in
meaning making and communication.
