Article Understanding teacher discourse around multiliteracies pedagogy

Menke, Mandy; Paesani, Kate
2019 PATHWAYS TO PARADIGM CHANGE: CRITICAL EXAMINATIONS OF PREVAILING DISCOURSES AND IDEOLOGIES IN SECOND LANGUAGE EDUCATION
2019-01-01
Cengage
10125/69793
Menke, M., Paesani, K. (2019). Understanding teacher discourse around multiliteracies pedagogy. The American Association of University Supervisors, Coordinators and Directors of Foreign Languages Programs (AAUSC), 83-107. http://hdl.handle.net/102015/69793
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Numerous scholars have called for a paradigm shift in lower-level postsecondary language programs from a focus on communicative language teaching and oral language development to curriculum and instruction grounded in text-based teaching and learning through multiliteracies pedagogy. Empirical research provides insights into the feasibility, linguistic outcomes, and perceptions of multiliteracies approaches, yet few studies have investigated how teachers learn about and implement multiliteracies pedagogy. This year-long case study examines the discourse of three nontenure-track Spanish faculty to understand the nature of their discourse around multiliteracies pedagogy and whether that discourse reflects prevailing ideologies (i.e., conventionalized ways of enacting beliefs and practices) about communicative language teaching. Through multi-cycle, descriptive coding of six course-level meetings and two sets of interviews with each participant, the concepts from communicative language teaching and multiliteracies pedagogy manifested in the data were identified and analyzed in relation to each participant’s personal history. Results reveal that prevailing ideologies from communicative language teaching were present in all three participants’ discourse around multiliteracies pedagogy, although in different ways that reflected their personal and formal learning experiences with both approaches. Findings are discussed in light of previous research on teacher development, and implications for language program direction are identified.