Abstract:
This paper seeks to both redefine literacy in the modern world and to advance the notion of multiple literacies. It presents the view that literacy is no longer purely linguistic. Literacy might be defined as a way of thinking, and in the present century, as a way of structuring, communicating and interpreting ideas within the varying contexts of social, cultural and technological diversity. At the same time cognition, emotion and expression require multimodal means of transmission through various communications channels and media. In acknowledging this paradigm shift, the writers of The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum document (Ministry of Education, 2000) embraced the concept of multiliteracies to broaden the understanding of literacy in teaching and learning and to acknowledge a multiplicity of discourses within the school curriculum.