ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses multiliteracies pedagogy as a framework for sustainability education in foreign language curricula. It illustrates how to translate multiliteracies pedagogy to classroom practice in order to scaffold students’ development of sustainability literacies. The author references a unit about ecotourism in Costa Rica, designed for a fifth-semester Spanish course, as a theory-to-practice approach to multiliteracies in a content-based instruction course. The chapter shows how multiliteracies pedagogy is implemented in a sustainability-based instructional unit in order to support L2 learners through the interpretation of a challenging novel, empowering them to apply their expanding sustainability literacies via participation in real-world discourse communities. The chapter elucidates key decisions that must be made in the process of multiliteracies curriculum development: What types of texts prepare students to participate in real-world discourse communities committed to sustainability? What purpose does each text serve in a unit, and how do we adjust our instructional approach accordingly?
