ABSTRACT
Since the mid-1980s, ideas of literacy and what it means to be literate have expanded considerably (see, for example, Heath 1983, Kress 1997, Lankshear and Knobel 2003, New London Group 2000, Street 1984). But how do these debates and ideas translate into English studies? With the recognition that we communicate through modalities that are visual, aural, spatial, and linguistic (Kress 2000, Kress 2003, New London Group 2000, Stein 2008), and that different modalities are combined in complex ways to make meaning (Jewitt and Kress 2003), literacy is substantially different from what it has been. New literacy practices require the ability to “read” and “write” texts comprising these multiple modes; however, pedagogical designs have not yet elaborated a robust theoretical and practical account of how a range of modalities might contribute to literacy learning alongside, and interrelated with, language. That is, these modes are not subordinated to language, but they work in concert with language.
