The seminar deals with theories of language which are conducive to language education, English language education in particular. The aim of the seminar is to explore the main differences between language learning and literacy development through an analysis of linguistic and social theories that have affected literacy education. Starting with a review of literacy research, the first part of the seminar explores different meanings of the notion of literacy in various socio-historical contexts, and it discusses key notions in literacy research—such as the notions of multiliteracies and multimodality, formal and informal literacies, new and digital literacies—in relation to EFL literacy development.  

The second, and main part of the seminar, deals with three traditions of critical literacy which developed out of different theoretical orientations. The first is the tradition of critical literacy in Australia which is based on M.A.K. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics and his view of language as a social semiotic. The second is the Critical Language Awareness tradition in the U.K. which was influenced by Critical Discourse Analysis and the third is the tradition of Critical Pedagogy in the U.S. which developed from the work of Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire.

Finally, the third part of the course focuses on foreign language literacies and it involves students in applying the acquired knowledge to practical aspects related to EFL literacy development and language pedagogy in formal and informal educational contexts.

Students will be asked to read papers and articles from various sources and to be prepared to discuss them in the seminar. Assessment will be done in terms of oral participation in class, oral presentations, short assignments and an end-of the term written project. Students should keep the various assignments and project work in a portfolio which is submitted to the instructor for evaluation at the end of the semester.  

Course evaluation is conducted through anonymously completed questionnaires and class discussion.

Instructor: Bessie Mitsikopoulou