Assess The Importance Of Children's Multi-Literacy In The Classroom

In order for a child’s multi-literacy competency to grow educators must introduce them to the various forms available to them. Educators are given the job of providing a space for learners to develop their own multimodal ways of making meaning in different contexts with their variables of culture, gender and life experience (Kalantzis, 2012). Teachers must be aware of the different Englishes and forms of literacy as their classrooms are more than likely to hold children from various cultures and socioeconomic situations. Schools have their own values and levels of competence that they recognise as “correct” and students who enter these classrooms are often expected to be familiar with working within these expectations (Green & Campbell,

2006, p.4). Children can lose their self-confidence and self-respect when home and school language and literacy practices do not weave together smoothly. This points towards the fact that multi-literacies are indeed present and something that educators need to be working towards incorporating into their classrooms in order for students to expand their knowledge and understanding. Green and Campbell (2006, p.5) explain how children are directed in different ways of writing and communicating in their own homes and communities, requiring educators to be aware of these differences in their classrooms in order to incorporate and work around them. These practices at home can either work in favour of the child’s learning or against it, making awareness of the home practices and routines increasingly important for educators.

There needs to be a genuine and real partnership between a child’s family, the community and also their educational program in order to create meaningful learning and understanding for a child.

Green and Campbell (2006, p.6) emphasise the need for a child’s classroom and outside life to have a certain amount of relevance for the child to grow in learning. Classrooms include children with various backgrounds and home languages as well as different disabilities, disorders, talents and skills. There are consequences and downfalls to ignoring a child’s cultural resources such as a second language and different experiences. Bilingualism is made unusual and not utilised as a resource when educators do not allow their bilingual children to incorporate their extended language skills into their classroom learning (Adoniou, 2014). A child’s learning potential is effected when their second language is not utilised and if they are not able to reach into that knowledge and ability to communicate in more than one way. A child’s identity and who they are is ignored when they are unable to communicate in a way that is meaningful to them, which can also cause social and emotional issues for the child (Adoniou, 2014). The transferability of literacy from school to the “real” world is crucially important but often lost when the diversity of the home, community and sociocultural status is misunderstood and not integrated into a child’s classroom experience (Cairney, 2016,

p.245).

Some children have more exposure than others to the various forms that information comes in including magazines, newspapers, televisions, radio, internet sites and more.

Print literacy is not the only skill required to function in society today, and educators need to be aware of multi-literacies in order to prepare their children for life after the classroom. Language is ideological and educators must help children in recognising how texts are constructed in trying to get a particular view across (Green & Campbell, 2006, p.10). Students should learn how to interpret information in whatever form it is given, understand the content presented and then be able to critically analyse the information given (Green & Campbell, 2006, p.7). Understanding of how to manage the sheer amount of information presented, how to filter it and critically analyse information is an important skill that educators must strive to develop in their classrooms (Green & Campbell, 2006,

p.7).

The diversity in language and the various factors effecting Englishes provide a basis for concluding that there are many Englishes that educators need to be aware of for working in their classrooms. A discussion of the importance of multi-literacies has also shown the need to incorporate working with multi-literacies for children to learn to function and contribute to society. Thus educators play a critical role in bringing each child’s diverse language abilities into the classroom to promote the best value for learning through the multi-literacies available. A high awareness of both Englishes and multi-literacies in classrooms will provide learners an environment in which they are comfortable and thus an environment in which their learning and understanding can only grow.