Multimodal Literacies in the Early Years: summary for practitioners and policy makers

Flewitt, Rosie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1986-0644 (2011) Multimodal Literacies in the Early Years: summary for practitioners and policy makers. Research Report. The Open University.

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Abstract

The research project Multimodal Literacies in the Early Years explored what learning to be ‘literate’ means for young children in today’s media-rich world. Its findings contribute to understandings of the role of new technologies in early literacy learning. In the current Foundation Stage curriculum, literacy is presented as an essentially printbased, linguistic accomplishment. Whilst clear guidance is given regarding the development of traditional early literacy skills, including mark-making, phonic awareness, familiarity with printed texts etc, scant attention is paid to new technologies and the implications of their ubiquitous use in everyday literacy practices. This stands in contrast to a mounting body of research evidence which suggests that for today’s young children, learning to be literate involves acquiring a range of skills and practices in diverse media (Hall, Larson and Marsh, 2004) and that ‘individuals need new kinds of expertise, technical skills and understanding’ (ESRC, 2010) in contemporary society.