The concept of multiliteracies was made popular through the New London Group's 1996 article.  It is the intersection of three areas that I'm interested in pedagogically: critical thinking, skeptical thinking, and education technology.  After initiating research for information gap tasks, intercultural competence, and skeptical thinking, I discovered that a core element in all three is critical thinking.  Information gap tasks help students think critically about how language is used in different contexts.  Reflecting upon how culture affects one's teaching is an exercise of critical thinking on the part of the instructor and the administrator.  And skeptical thinking is actually a subcategory of critical thinking.  I'm also aware that many of my former students use English movies, television programs, and web-based media to learn about American culture, the pragmatics of the English language, not to mention the English language itself.  Instructors should not be threatened by the increasing ease of learning English as a second language online.  I'm very interested in how instructors can use programs already in place to enhance their instruction and ultimately their students' learning.

Why do I want to research this topic?

I am interested in observing how multiltieracies are addressed in context- and task-based instruction.  Through my research, I would like to develop a model for using media literacy in content- and task-based learning classrooms that include one or more of the following components.  Key concepts for success include: 1) any neutral or positive relationship between building media literacy skills and building language competency 2) any positive effects on learners' motivation, 3) ease of applying or modifying this model to a language learning program.