Changing dimensions of school literacies.

Changing dimensions of school literacies. Change, continuity and complementarity: Reconfiguring literacyrepertoires While many of the fundamentals of established, language-basedliteracy pedagogies will endure in the foreseeable future, they are byno means sufficient for the development of the kinds of literacypractices that already characterise the continuously evolvinginformation age of the new millennium. We know that before many youngchildren start school, they have already functionally and criticallyengaged with electronic and conventional format texts in ways that arenot usually a part of classroom experience (Green & Bigum 1993,Mackey 1994, Smith et al. 1996). We also know that many childrencontinue to be intensely involved in multimodal textual practicesoutside their school experience. For example, as Davidson reports, Maxand James, when in fifth grade, were avid users of the animation programMicrosoft 3D Movie Maker. As well as making their own thirty-minutemovies, they downloaded from the Internet similar movies made by otherchildren, sent both finished cartoons and `work-in-progress'internationally, swapped ideas and communicated by email about style andeffect (Davidson 2000). Also while in fifth grade, Christian wasdescribed (Wilson 2000) as a studious stu��di��ous?adj.1. a. Given to diligent study: a quiet, studious child.b. Conducive to study.2. reader of his prolific collectionof N64 (Nintendo 64) magazines. The computer-based literacy practicesthese children are engaged in represent a significant change fromliteracy activities most adults experienced in their childhood. Butthere is a complementarity between new computer-based literacies andconventional book-based literacies as evidenced in Christian'sreading and collecting his N64 magazines. This complementarity is alsoreflected in the phenomenon of burgeoning bookstore shelves of computermagazines (often with CD-ROM included), manuals, enhanced practiceguides, etc., and serves to remind us that the advent of the digitaldatasphere does not necessarily mean the extinction of page-basedliteracies. As well as this change and complementarity, there iscontinuity among some contemporary and longstanding literacy practicesof school age children. For example, Christian revealed that, as well ashis Nintendo magazines, he was also reading a recent novel by well-knownAustralian children's author, Victor Kelleher Victor Kelleher (born 1939) is an Australian author. Victor was born in London and moved to Africa with his parents, at the age of fifteen. He spent the next twenty years travelling and studying in Africa, before moving to New Zealand. . The continuingappeal of reading novels for children like Christian is more generallyreflected in the phenomenal success of J.K. Rowling's `HarryPotter' books (Rowling 1997, Rowling 1998, Rowling 1999, Rowling2000) in the age of screen-based texts. Although there is no doubt that multimedia, electronic informationsources are quickly taking up the communication of much informationpreviously presented solely in traditional text formats, rather thanbeing displaced by computer text, conventional literacies aremaintaining a complementary role as well as being both co-opted andadapted in the evolution of our textual habitat (Goodwyn 1998,Lankshear, Snyder & Green 2000, Leu Leuleucine. Leuabbr.leucineLeuleucine. & Kinzer 2000, Rassool1999). In the twenty-first century the notion of literacy needs to bereconceived as a plurality The opinion of an appellate court in which more justices join than in any concurring opinion.The excess of votes cast for one candidate over those votes cast for any other candidate.Appellate panels are made up of three or more justices. of literacies and being literate must be seenas anachronistic a��nach��ro��nism?n.1. The representation of someone as existing or something as happening in other than chronological, proper, or historical order.2. . As emerging technologies continue to impact on thesocial construction of these multiple literacies, becoming literate isthe more apposite ap��po��site?adj.Strikingly appropriate and relevant. See Synonyms at relevant.[Latin appositus, past participle of app description. If schools are to foster the developmentof these changing multiple literacies, it is first necessary tounderstand the bases of their diversity. These include not only theaffordances of computer technology but also the increasing prominence ofimages in both electronic and conventional formats. In addition, thedistinctive literacy demands of different school curriculum areas arenow well recognised, as is the distinction between literacy practicesthat are reproductive of existing knowledge and prevailing social ordersand values, and critically reflective literacy practices that questionand challenge the status quo [Latin, The existing state of things at any given date.] Status quo ante bellum means the state of things before the war. The status quo to be preserved by a preliminary injunction is the last actual, peaceable, uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy. . The first part of this paper outlinesthese parameters of diversity and their interactive effects, which willbe characterised as producing multi-dimensional, multiple literacies orwhat many are calling multiliteracies. In order to develop effective practices in emergingmultiliteracies, students need to understand how the resources oflanguage, image and digital rhetorics (e.g. hyperlinks and windows) canbe deployed independently and interactively to construct different kindsof meanings. This means developing knowledge about linguistic, visualand digital meaning-making systems. This kind of knowledge requiresmetalanguage--language for describing language, images andmeaning-making inter-modal interactions. Metalanguage, in the form of arange of different types of grammar and descriptions of text structure,is not new. Various forms of metalanguage describing technical aspectsof images and their production are well known. But what is needed is ametalanguage that describes the `grammar', or structural elements Structural elements are used in structural analysis to simplify the structure which is to be analysed.Structural elements can be linear, surfaces or volumes.Linear elements: Rod - axial loads Beam - axial and bending loads and. their relationships, of images and language in terms of thefunctions or meaning-making roles of such elements and relationships.This means a metalanguage in which meaning-making in social contexts isfundamental to its technical description of language and image. Thesecond part of this paper outlines the contribution of such descriptionsof visual and verbal grammar and discourse, deriving from systemicfunctional lingusitics (SFL SFL - System Function Language. Assembly language for the ICL2900. "SFL Language Definition Manual", TR 6413, Intl Computers Ltd. ), as the basis of a functional andaccessible metalanguage of multiliteracies (New London New London,city (1990 pop. 24,540), New London co., SE Conn., on the Thames River near its mouth on Long Island Sound; laid out 1646 by John Winthrop, inc. 1784. Group 2000). Multiliteracies: Multi-dimensional, multiple literacies The relationships between visual and verbal representations--visualliteracies Written texts have always been multimodal. They are produced usinga particular script or typeface The design of a set of printed characters, such as Courier, Helvetica and Times Roman. The terms "typeface" and "font" are used interchangeably, but the typeface is the primary design, while the font is the particular implementation and variation of the typeface, such as bold or italics , of a particular size or in varyingsizes, laid out in a particular way and on certain types and quality ofpaper or other materials. On the whole we have been taught to overlookthis kind of multimodality, except in cases where students have beenchided for `untidy' work on `scrappy' paper or rewarded for`excellent presentation' of an essay (Kress 1995b, p.26). But todaythe multimodality of print is being exploited in a wide range of texts.In her discussion of `visual English' Sharon Goodman illustratesthe role of typographic See typography. variation in representing multiple voices intexts and the increasing use of what she calls visual puns, which relyon the interaction of visual and verbal elements to bring their meaningto the fore (Goodman & Graddol 1996). Computer technologyfacilitates not only effortless ef��fort��less?adj.Calling for, requiring, or showing little or no effort. See Synonyms at easy.effort��less��ly adv. use of wide typographic variation interms of font, colour, size etc, but also the use of dynamic text whichcan `appear', `fly' across the screen, `rotate', `flashon and off', etc. The verbal forms of the computer screen also havea strong intertextual in��ter��tex��tu��al?adj.Relating to or deriving meaning from the interdependent ways in which texts stand in relation to each other.in function (alluding to or echoing other texts) whenthey appear in other contexts such as signs on shopfronts identifyingbusinesses like `Newtown.freshfruit@Georges.com'. The graphology gra��phol��o��gy?n.The study of handwriting, especially when employed as a means of analyzing character.[Greek graph ofwritten language needs to be read multimodally. In so doing the ways inwhich these multimodal features of written language make different kindsof meanings need to be understood because they are fundamental to atext's influence on its interpretive in��ter��pre��tive? also in��ter��pre��ta��tiveadj.Relating to or marked by interpretation; explanatory.in��terpre��tive��ly adv. possibilities. Texts are also becoming increasingly multimodal in theirincorporation of images with written language. This is apparent incontemporary newspapers, although there is some variation acrossdifferent types of publications (Kress 1997). Even in the case ofpicture story books the nature and the role of images have undergonemajor changes with the advent of the postmodern post��mod��ern?adj.Of or relating to art, architecture, or literature that reacts against earlier modernist principles, as by reintroducing traditional or classical elements of style or by carrying modernist styles or practices to extremes: picture book (Hollindale1995, Lonsdale 1993, Prain 1998, Stephens & Watson 1994, Watson1997). In the case of school textbooks the latter part of the twentiethcentury has seen a significant shift to the prominence of images (Kress1995a, Kress 1997). The situation has changed from one where language aswriting was dominant as the vehicle for all of the information deemedimportant, to the current situation where writing is far from dominant.In contemporary texts the majority of the space is given to images andthey have a significant role together with language in communicating theessential information about the topic (Kress 2000). Kress has argued that the contemporary integrative use of thevisual and the verbal has produced a new code of writing and image, inwhich information is carried differently by the two modes (Kress 1997).Information that displays what the world is like is carried by theimage, consistent with the logic of the visual as arrangement anddisplay. Written language on the other hand, tends to follow the logicof speech in being oriented to action and event, and is thus oriented tothe recording/reporting of actions and events and the ordering ofprocedures. Lemke has also pointed out that in scientific texts, imageslike abstract graphs and diagrams on the one hand, and written text onthe other hand, contribute differentially to the construction of meaning(Lemke 1998). He argues that in these texts meanings are made `by thejoint co-deployment of two or more semiotic semiotic/se��mi��ot��ic/ (se?me-ot��ik)1. pertaining to signs or symptoms.2. pathognomonic. modalities' suggestingfurther that It is the nature of scientific concepts that they are semiotically multimodal in this sense, and this may well be true in other systems of semiotic practices as well. (Lemke 1998, p.111) As well as recognising that all texts need to be read multimodally,we need to understand how these different modalities ModalitiesThe factors and circumstances that cause a patient's symptoms to improve or worsen, including weather, time of day, effects of food, and similar factors. separately andinteractively construct different dimensions of meaning. Thesedimensions include the `ideational' dimension, concerning thepeople, animals, objects, events and circumstances involved; the`interpersonal' dimension, concerning the issues of relative power,attitude, affect, etc. defining the relations among the participants inthe communication; and the textual dimension, concerning the channel ofcommunication and the relative emphasis and information value of aspectsof what is being communicated. To understand how these dimensions ofmeaning are constructed by the elements and structures of language andimage requires knowledge of the kind of visual and verbal grammar thatrelates such elements and structures to meanings and ultimately to thenature of the context in which the visual and verbal texts function.Such a metalanguage of multiliteracies is addressed in the latter partof this paper. The differentiation of subject-specific literacydemands--curriculum literacies Multiple literacies can be differentiated not only on the basis ofthe channel and medium of communication (print, image, page, screen),but also according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. field or subject area (history, geography,science, maths, etc). Research from a variety of theoreticalperspectives has shown that school subject areas have their owncharacteristic language forms and hence entail distinctive literatepractices (Applebee 1981, Davies & Greene 1984, Gee 1990, Martin1993, Richards 1978, Street 1984). A recent study of the literacydemands of the enacted curriculum in the secondary school (Wyatt-Smith& Cumming 1999) showed that the literacy demands were dynamic,varying significantly both within lessons and across school subjectareas. The researchers concluded that it is no longer appropriate totalk about `literacy across the curriculum'. Instead there is aneed to delineate `curriculum literacies', specifying the interfacebetween a specific curriculum and its literacies rather than imaginingthere is a singular literacy that could be spread homogenously acrossthe curriculum. Descriptions of differentiated curriculum literacies in a range ofschool subject areas has resulted from systemic functional linguisticresearch (Coffin 1996, Coffin 1997, Halliday & Martin 1993, Humphrey1996, Martin & Veel 1998, Rothery 1996, Unsworth 1999a, Veel 1999,Veel & Coffin 1996). This work has identified the genres (types oftexts like explanations, reports, procedures, narratives, etc.) that areprominent in the reading materials and writing demands of differentsubject areas, specifying the organisational structures of such texttypes. For example, explanations and procedures are very frequent inscience but rare in the discipline area of English and, whileexplanations also occur in history, procedures are much less frequent.The schematic A graphical representation of a system. It often refers to electronic circuits on a printed circuit board or in an integrated circuit (chip). See logic gate and HDL. structures of these genres are quite different. Forexample, a report begins with a general statement that classifies theobject of the report, then describes it, then details its behaviours oruses. An explanation begins with an identification of the phenomenon tobe explained and then proceeds through a series of implication sequencesshowing how or why something is the way it is. What has also beendocumented is the variation in the deployment of grammatical resourcesin different genres and in the language of different subject areas. Oneexample is the use of nominalisation. That is the formation of a noun noun[Lat.,=name], in English, part of speech of vast semantic range. It can be used to name a person, place, thing, idea, or time. It generally functions as subject, object, or indirect object of the verb in the sentence, and may be distinguished by a number of from the verb form, like `compress' [right arrow]`compression'. In sequential science explanations (which show howsomething came to be through a sequence of events) like the formation ofcoal, there is negligible use of nominalisation. On the other hand inexplanations where cause is also linked to increasing levels oftechnicality like how sound travels, nominalisations like`compression', `rarefaction', `series', etc. are integral(Unsworth 1997). In history nominalisations also occur, but rarely toconstruct subject-specific technical terms like `rarefaction', etc.In history nominalisations are prominent in explanatory genres, but theyare usually abstract nouns that are not `history-specific' like`widespread unemployment' and `intolerance of religiousdissent' (Coffin 1996, Martin 1993, Veel & Coffin 1996). Understanding the grammatical forms of written English and howthese are characteristically deployed in the genres of school subjectareas is a crucial resource for enhancing students' comprehensionand composition of the distinctive discourse forms of different schoolsubject areas. What is required to mobilise this resource is ametalanguage shared by students and teachers. A number of professionaldevelopment programs for teachers have incorporated the explicitteaching of functional grammar and genre to provide such a metalanguage(National Professional Development Program 1997, Polias 1998). This kindof metalinguistic understanding positions students not only tocomprehend and compose the text forms of their school subjects but alsoto critique the perspectives on knowledge they construct (Martin 2000). The affordances of computer technologies--technoliteracies Some of the affordances of computer-based and networkedtechnologies for information and communication are exclusive to thisdigital datasphere. These include hypertext hypertext,technique for organizing computer databases or documents to facilitate the nonsequential retrieval of information. Related pieces of information are connected by preestablished or user-created links that allow a user to follow associative trails across the and hypermedia hypermedia:see hypertext. The use of hyperlinks, regular text, graphics, audio and video to provide an interactive, multimedia presentation. All the various elements are linked, enabling the user to move from one to another. links,windows or frames, `chat rooms' of various kinds, email and certain`search' capabilities. Such features have generated new kinds ofliteracy practices. Multimodality is not an exclusive feature ofelectronic texts, but the range of modalities, the extent of their use,and the nature and quality of their articulation have significantlyincreased in electronic formats. The interaction of the peculiaraffordances of computer-based and networked technologies and themultimodality of electronic format texts has the effect of multiplyingpotentially new literacy practices. Because of the digital dimension ofthese new practices and growing access to multimodal authoring software,individuals are now more likely to be able to be equally engaged asconstructors and consumers of textual materials, closely articulating,comprehending and composing behaviours. Clearly the impact of the new technologies cannot be understood asan add-on tool for learning and teaching literacies. Therefore ratherthan trying to `squeeze' new technologies into familiar literacyeducation procedures, we need to attend to the reality of new andemerging literacies. As in the case of curriculum literacies, central tounderstanding the new dimensions of multiliteracies afforded byinformation technology is metasemiotic knowledge, i.e., understandingthe systematic nature of the digital rhetorical resources that areavailable to make meanings and having the metalanguage to describe them.Although theoretical descriptions of digital rhetorical systems remainin their infancy, brief comment will be made about the nature andpotential of hypertext links and windows and the relative significanceof multimodal features of cyber-texts. Then, having noted the need toattend to the reality of new and emerging literacies, it will beimportant to acknowledge that the conventional, hard-copy forms of`linear' texts will continue to co-exist with the textual matricesof electronic hypertext for some time, and that in many electronictexts, less than optimal use is made of the potential of digitalrhetorics. The rhetorical role of the hypertextual link is routinely regardedas a kind of neutral `connection', which facilitates readers beingable to choose among various permutations and combinations permutations and combinations:see probability. permutations and combinationsNumber of ways a subset of objects can be selected from a given set of objects. In a permutation, order is important; in a combination, it is not. of`non-linear' pathways through one or more texts. But attention hasbeen drawn to the need to problematise this view and develop a moresophisticated account of the meaning-making potential of links (Burbules1997, Foltz 1996, Kamil & Lane 1998). The use and placement of linksis one of the vital ways in which the tacit assumptions and values ofthe designer/author are manifested in a hypertext--yet they are rarelyconsidered as such (Burbules 1997, p. 105). Burbules proposes severalcategories of links based on the kinds of meanings they imply. Forexample, a link from a page dealing with `political organisations'to one dealing with `Catholic Church' could be read as a metaphor,encouraging the reader to think about politics and religion in adifferent way. If a page on `human rights violations' is linked topages on `corporal punishment corporal punishment,physical chastisement of an offender. At one extreme it includes the death penalty (see capital punishment), but the term usually refers to punishments like flogging, mutilation, and branding. Until c. in schools', this suggestscategorical That which is unqualified or unconditional.A categorical imperative is a rule, command, or moral obligation that is absolutely and universally binding.Categorical is also used to describe programs limited to or designed for certain classes of people. inclusion. Links make such associations, but do so in a way that is seldom made problematic; yet because such categorical links are often the gateway that controls access to information, clustering and relating them in one way rather than another is more than a matter of convenience or heuristic--it becomes a method of determining how people think about a subject. (Burbules 1997, p. 113) The use of frames or windows makes it possible to have twodifferent texts and/or images on the screen at the same time. Thisprovides new ways for designers/authors to structure their texts and maybe considered a significant advance in the potential use of the Internetfor educational purposes (Moore 1999). But again the semioticsignificance of the use of and placement of these frames to achievethese parallelisms goes beyond a neutral resource for juxtaposingrelated information. Critical reading of digital rhetorical structuresnecessitates a capacity to `make strange' or problematise theapparent `naturalness' or `invisibility' of the rhetoricalchoices designers/authors have made, questioning why certain links andjuxtapositions are included and to imagine connections of a similar kindthat could have been made but weren't. This requires meta-knowledgeof digital rhetorical devices, such as understanding how hyperlinks aremade and multi-frames included. The more one is aware of how this is done, the more one can be aware that it was done and that it could have been done otherwise. (Burbules 1997, p. 119) In view of the potential for non-linear text structuring and theinclusion of multimedia `pages' or screens, it is remarkable thatso much electronic publishing An umbrella term for non-paper publishing, which includes publishing online or on media such as CDs and DVDs. features written text and makes strongdemands on conventional reading skills (Garton 1997). Nevertheless, thepotential of electronic texts for enhanced multimodal presentation hashad an obvious impact and it has been argued that visual literacies maybe pre-eminent in negotiating multimedia electronic texts. The most popular and successful websites are not necessarily elaborately linked hypertexts, but they are visually interesting. Literacy in electronic environments may have more to do with the production and consumption of images than the reading and writing of either hypertextual or linear prose. (Bolter 1998, p. 7) The nature, extent and rhetorical use of images in electronicpublishing however, also warrants critical attention. Some literarynarratives for young readers on CD-ROM use multimedia and hypertextualelements to draw the reader into the story in ways that are notavailable in conventional format books (James 1999). On the other handsome such narratives are replete re��plete?adj.1. Abundantly supplied; abounding: a stream replete with trout; an apartment replete with Empire furniture.2. Filled to satiation; gorged.3. with gratuitous Bestowed or granted without consideration or exchange for something of value.The term gratuitous is applied to deeds, bailments, and other contractual agreements. hypermedia links toimages and text that are at best peripheral to the story (Miller &Olsen 1998). In an investigation of science topics for primary schoolstudents Unsworth 1999b compared sections in conventional trade bookswith presentations of the same topics on the CD-ROMs Encarta 95(Microsoft 1994), The Eyewitness An individual who was present during an event and is called by a party in a lawsuit to testify as to what he or she observed.The state and Federal Rules of Evidence, which govern the admissibility of evidence in civil actions and criminal proceedings, impose requirements Encyclopedia of Science (DorlingKindersley 1994) and The Way Things Work (Macaulay 1994). There weremany more, and a greater variety of images in the trade books. In sometopics on some of the CD-ROMs there were no images at all. On the otherhand some CD-ROMs on some topics provided animations that were notpossible in the books. But the significance of the type of animationalso needs to be considered. For example, the Encarta 95 CD-ROM providesa realistic animation of the water cycle, but there is no synoptic syn��op��tic? also syn��op��ti��caladj.1. Of or constituting a synopsis; presenting a summary of the principal parts or a general view of the whole.2. a. Taking the same point of view.b. ,schematic diagram simultaneously depicting all stages of the watercycle. Current work comparing science explanations on CD-ROM and onInternet websites suggests that learners attempting to work from lesscomplex to more complex explanations need to adopt different readingstrategies depending on the format of the material they are using. Forexample the Encarta 95 CD-ROM entry for the greenhouse effect greenhouse effect:see global warming. greenhouse effectWarming of the Earth's surface and lower atmosphere caused by water vapour, carbon dioxide, and other trace gases in the atmosphere. Visible light from the Sun heats the Earth's surface. presentsthe more technical version as the main text and the second version as ahyperlinked oral explanation accompanying an animation. On the otherhand on the USA Today website(http://usatoday.com.weather/tg/whrmng.htm) the simpler explanation withanimated images is presented first with a hyperlink to the moretechnical version and a more complex, static image. The challenge of alternative perspectives--critical literacies What is involved in critical literacy Critical literacy is an instructional approach that advocates the adoption of critical perspectives toward text. Critical literacy encourages readers to actively analyze texts and it offers strategies for uncovering underlying messages. defies simple definition(Lankshear 1994, Muspratt et al. 1997) but work from a variety oftheoretical perspectives suggests a common recognition of criticalliteracy practices which can be distinguished from routine decoding de��code?tr.v. de��cod��ed, de��cod��ing, de��codes1. To convert from code into plain text.2. To convert from a scrambled electronic signal into an interpretable one.3. oftextual information and from compliantly participating in theestablished, institutionalised Adj. 1. institutionalised - officially placed in or committed to a specialized institution; "had hopes of rehabilitating the institutionalized juvenile delinquents"institutionalized2. textual practices of a culture. Thesedifferent aspects of literate practice will be categorised Adj. 1. categorised - arranged into categoriescategorizedclassified - arranged into classes here as`recognition literacy', `reproduction literacy' and`reflection literacy'. The relationship of these categories tothose published elsewhere is indicated in Table 1. Recognition literacy involves learning to recognise and produce theverbal, visual and electronic codes that are used to construct andcommunicate meanings. It can also refer to the literacy practices thatare very familiar to members of a culture, as they are ubiquitous andintegral to common experiences of everyday life. Reproduction literacyinvolves understanding and producing the conventional visual and verbaltext forms that construct and communicate the established systematicknowledge of cultural institutions. Reflection literacy necessitates anunderstanding that all social practices, and hence all literacies, aresocially constructed. Because of this, literacies are selective inincluding certain values and understandings and excluding others.Reflection literacy means learning how to read this inclusion andexclusion. Interpreting and constructing texts entails the text analystrole, interrogating the visual and verbal codes to make explicit how thechoices of language and image privilege certain viewpoints and how otherchoices of visual and verbal resources could construct alternativeviews. This triadic categorisation carries the risks of its neatness. Inpractice there is likely to be some degree of overlap and interweaving.Nor is the triad a simple developmental progression. Even those quiteproficient in a range of literacies need to deal with code-breaking oroperational mechanics in contexts of literacy practices that are novelto them. It has also been shown that quite young learners can engageproductively in reflection literacies (Knobel & Healy 1998).Nevertheless, it has been argued (Hasan 1996, Macken-Horarik 1996) that,regardless of the age or experience of the learner, reflection literacypresupposes reproduction literacy, which presupposes recognitionliteracy. These three facets of literate practice are not linked bytemporal sequence but by logical inclusion: reflection literacy includesa well-developed range of reproductive literacy practices, and theseinclude recognition literacies, but the reverse is not the case. What is being increasingly recognised is the importance ofmetalanguage in developing all three facets of literacy, butparticularly critical literacies (Lankshear 1997, Luke 2000, Rassool1999). In fact, although not a sufficient resource, some argue thatmetalanguage is a priority resource for critical literacy development. A rudimentary working definition of critical literacy entails three aspects. First, it involves a meta-knowledge of diverse meaning systems and the socio-cultural contexts in which they are produced and embedded in everyday life. By meta-knowledge I mean having an understanding of how knowledge, ideas and information `bits' are structured in different media and genres, and how these structures affect people's readings and uses of that information. (Luke 2000, p. 72) Since the `critical dimension' of literate practicefundamentally involves awareness that all literacies are sociallyconstructed (Lankshear et al. 2000), an essential feature of themetalanguage to be adopted would seem to be a clear theoretical linkbetween the descriptions of the visual and verbal elements of texts andhow they make meanings, and their relationship to the parameters of thesocial contexts in which they function. This is at the heart of systemicfunctional linguistics and the verbal semiotic analyses extrapolatedfrom it, contributing a sound basis for a metalanguage ofmultiliteracies. A metalanguage of multiliteracies The importance of a metalanguage for developing multiliteracies isvery widely acknowledged, and there seems to be growing consensus aboutthe kind of metalanguage that is needed. A group of ten academics,identifying themselves as `The New London Group' (1), and includingmembers from the UK, the US and Australia, addressed this issue in theirproposal for a pedagogy of multiliteracies (New London Group 1996, NewLondon Group 2000). They emphasised that the metalanguage needed tosupport a sophisticated critical analysis of language and other semioticsystems yet not make unrealistic demands on teachers and students. Butabove all the metalanguage needed to derive from a theoretical accountthat linked the meaning making elements and structures of semioticsystems like language and image to their use in social contexts. ... the primary purpose of the metalanguage should be to identify and explain differences between texts, and relate these to the contexts of culture and situation in which they seem to work. (New London Group 2000, p. 24) This aligns with a fundamental premise of systemic functionallinguistics (SFL)--the complete interconnectedness of the linguistic andthe social (Halliday 1973, Halliday 1978, Halliday 1994, Halliday 1985,Hasan 1995, Martin 1991, Martin 1992). The metalanguage included in theQueensland English syllabus for Years 1 to 10 (Queensland Department ofEducation 1994) draws very extensively on SFL, and in a more modifiedform SFL clearly provides the source for significant aspects of themetalanguage in the New South Wales New South Wales,state (1991 pop. 5,164,549), 309,443 sq mi (801,457 sq km), SE Australia. It is bounded on the E by the Pacific Ocean. Sydney is the capital. The other principal urban centers are Newcastle, Wagga Wagga, Lismore, Wollongong, and Broken Hill. English K-6 syllabus (New SouthWales Board of Studies 1998). As already noted a number of professionaldevelopment programs for teachers have incorporated the explicitteaching of functional grammar and genre to provide access to such ametalanguage (National Professional Development Program 1997, Polias1998). Extrapolating from SFL descriptions of language, researchers havedeveloped a corresponding functional account of `visual grammar'(Kress & van Leeuwen 1990, Kress & van Leeuwen 1996, Lemke 1998,O'Toole 1994). This work recognises that images, like language,realise not only representations of material reality but also theinterpersonal interaction of social reality (such as relations betweenviewers and what is viewed). The work also recognises that images cohere cohere (kōhēr´),v to stick together, to unite, to form a solid mass. into textual compositions in different ways and so realise semioticreality. More technically, functional semiotic accounts of images adoptfrom systemic functional linguistics the metafunctional organisation ofmeaning-making resources: * representational/ideational structures verbally and visuallyconstruct the nature of events, the objects and participants involved,and the circumstances in which they occur * interactive/interpersonal verbal and visual resources constructthe nature of relationships among speakers/listeners, writers/readers,and viewers and what is viewed * compositional/textual meanings are concerned with thedistribution of the information value or relative emphasis amongelements of the text and image. The New London Group indicated that what is needed to support apedagogy of multiliteracies is an educationally accessible functional grammar; that is, a metalanguage that describes meaning in various realms. These include the textual and the visual, as well as the multimodal relations between different meaning-making processes that are now so critical in media texts and the texts of electronic multimedia. (New London Group 2000, p. 24) Current research is developing functionally oriented inter-modaldescriptions relating visual and verbal semiotic resources (Martin inpress, O'Halloran 1999, van Leeuwen 2000) as well as those relatingto relating torelate prep → concernantrelating torelate prep → bez��glich +gen, mit Bezug auf +accmovement (Martinec 1999) sound and music (van Leeuwen 1999). Thiswork will extend and enhance the current visual and verbal bases of ametalanguage of multiliteracies as referred to here. Conclusion Rather than trying to `squeeze' the textual affordances of newtechnologies into familiar literacy education procedures, we need toattend to the reality of new and emerging literacies. But we also needto acknowledge that conventional, hard-copy forms of `linear' textswill continue to coexist co��ex��ist?intr.v. co��ex��ist��ed, co��ex��ist��ing, co��ex��ists1. To exist together, at the same time, or in the same place.2. with electronic hypertext for some time, andthat old and new literacy technologies will frequently havecomplementary roles in a range of contexts. Technoliteracies aredistinctive because of the particular affordances of computer-based andnetworked technologies for information and communication. However,technoliteracies are also sites for the integrative deployment ofvisual, verbal and acoustic semiotic resources and, in the foreseeablefuture will co-exist with multiliteracies required to negotiatecontemporary hard copy texts. Teachers' work will clearly involvedeveloping students' use of mulitliteracies in the composition andcomprehension of texts in computer-based and conventional formats. Butit also involves developing students' meta-semiotic understandingand the associated metalanguage to facilitate critical understanding ofhow meaning-making systems are deployed to make different kinds ofmeanings in texts and how these may be oriented to naturalise thehegemony of particular interests. Although some explication ex��pli��cate?tr.v. ex��pli��cat��ed, ex��pli��cat��ing, ex��pli��catesTo make clear the meaning of; explain. See Synonyms at explain.[Latin explic of theclassroom practicalities of multiliteracies development has beenundertaken (Cope & Kalantzis 2000, Unsworth 2001), this remains anurgent agenda item for further collaboration among literacy educatorsand researchers.Table 1. Distinguishing critical literacy--comparing typologiesof literate practiceDimensions (Green (Freebody & (Hasan (Macken-of literate 1988) Luke 1990) 1996) Horarikpractice 1996)Recognition Operational Code-breaker Recognition FunctionalReproduction Cultural Text participant Action Reproductive Text userReflection Critical Text analyst Reflection Critical (1.) Courtney Cazden, Bill Cope, Norman Fairclough Norman Fairclough (1941 -) is emeritus Professor of Linguistics at Lancaster University. He is one of the founders of critical discourse analysis, a branch of sociolinguistics or discourse analysis that looks at the influence of power relations on the content and structure of , James Gee, MaryKalantzis, Gunther Kress, Carmen Carmenthrows over lover for another. [Fr. Lit.: Carmen; Fr. Opera: Bizet, Carmen, Westerman, 189–190]See : FaithlessnessCarmenthe cards repeatedly spell her death. [Fr. Luke, Sarah Michaels, Martin Nakata. 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Wyatt-Smith, C. & Cumming, J. 1999, `Examining the literacydemands of the enacted curriculum, Literacy Learning: SecondaryThoughts, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 19-31. Len Unsworth is Associate Professor and Head of the School ofDevelopment and Learning and the Division of Graduate Studies in theFaculty of Education at the University of Sydney The University of Sydney, established in Sydney in 1850, is the oldest university in Australia. It is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight" Australian universities that are highly ranked in terms of their research performance. . He has publishedextensively in journals dealing with literacy education and has editedand authored a number of books including Literacy Learning and Teaching,Researching Language in Schools and Communities and TeachingMulti-literacies across the Curriculum. Address: Faculty of Education, University of Sydney, NSW NSWNew South WalesNoun 1. NSW - the agency that provides units to conduct unconventional and counter-guerilla warfareNaval Special Warfare 2006Email: l.unsworth@edfac.usyd.edu.au