Using the Multiliteracies Approach to Promote Learner Engagement in an ESL Classroom: A Case Study of a Secondary School in Penang

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Published: Jan 1, 2010

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Sarjit Kaur

Abstract

ESL teachers face numerous challenges in teaching students effectively in today’s increasingly globalised classrooms which have been significantly altered with the rapid cultural and technological changes in literate forms of communication. ESL teachers in Malaysian classrooms experience many roadblocks in trying to deal with the issue of what to do in literacy pedagogy on the basis of different cultural and national discrepancies and the proliferation of multi-chanelled communication technologies. Kalantzis and Cope (2005) suggest that teachers need to be knowledgeable and active participants in today’s educational contexts which use information and communication technologies (ICTs) widely in the domain of knowledge creation. This article presents a case study of ESL teaching using the Multiliteracies (ML) approach in a secondary school in Penang, Malaysia. The results confirm the need for enhancing students’ intercultural dimensions and broad repertoires of textual practice in the secondary school context as these elements promote the view that multiliterate ESL students are those who are able to create meaningful learning experiences from relevant information they have collected. In today’s globalised ESL classrooms, English literacy is interwoven into the fabric of rapid development of new technologies and cannot be separated from our everyday lives. The implications of this study suggest that ESL students can build effective social, cultural and cognitive bridges when taught using the Multiliteracies approach.

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No. 1 (2010): Thoughts 2010
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Articles

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Author Biography

Sarjit Kaur

Sarjit Kaur (PhD) is Associate Professor and Programme Chairperson of the English Language Studies Section at the School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia.  Widely published, her research areas include Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), workplace literacies, multiliteracies approach, postgraduate education and policy research in higher education.

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