What Works in the Classroom? Promoting Literacy Practices in English

Abstract

Today, learners study and connect with one another across classrooms, community and country
borders in new and exciting ways. The growth of global languages, specifically the worldwide
spread of the English language in social, workplace and everyday communication demands
radical transformation in the classroom. The first part of the paper presents some key findings of
English literacy practices. The discussion gives a rather disturbing picture that literacy is still
learnt as a set of skills and not as a social practice connected to various domains and
communities of practices in the real world. The second part of the paper unveils the recent shifts
in thinking about literacy in general and specifically about learning in the English Language. The
paper advances the Multiliteracies approach as propounded by the New London Group (1996) as
a possible pathway of engaging the real world. This approach is supported by sample activities