Regards Croisés – Innovative Projects in Language Teaching: Integrating Language and Content

The expansion of the term ‘literacy’ to ‘literacies’ in New Literacy Studies challenged skill-based notions of literacy focused on the ability to read and write in ways commensurate with a monolithic, normative standard. The pluralization signaled a shift to viewing literacies as a broad range of dynamic, culturally- and historically-situated practices of using and interpreting diverse written and spoken texts to fulfill particular social purposes. This talk will propose a similar shift in perspective on the languages we teach by expanding the scope of our inquiry beyond canonical grammars of a standard norm to include usages within different communities, language innovations, differences across media and contexts, and language contact phenomena—in order to enhance learners’ understanding of language as a protean, dynamic social resource rather than just a body of static content to be mastered.

Reception to follow.