Reconsidering Literacy in the 21 st Century: Exploring the Role of Digital Stories in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

The call for an expanded, critical and socially-constructed view of literacy in response to contemporary semiotic and technological developments is not new. However, an under investigated area relates to the impact and influence of new media in the teaching and learning of English to speakers of other languages (ESOL). Following an overview of some key terms and concepts in the fields of Multimodal Composition and Communication, we describe and critique a number of the multimodal elements in ESOL textbooks. Subsequently, we present a case for cultivating a ‘personal’ sense of semiotic awareness and illustrate this with a brief analysis of an ESOL teacher’s exploration of meaning making through digital storytelling. Finally, we end by listing several benefits of introducing multimodality into ESOL supporting the irreducible viewpoint that envisages teachers as designers of apt learning environments in contrast to the static and immutable realms of content- and skills-based language instruction.