Literacy Teaching and Learning MOOC’s Updates

Section 1b: First Languages

Media embedded February 5, 2016

In this section, we explore literacies on a human scale. In the broadest of brushstrokes, discuss three phases in the development of literacies in our species: the literacies of people who spoke first languages, the arrival of writing beginning several thousands of years ago, and the rise of digital communications media since the last quarter of the twentieth century.

This first update of the section explores the literacies of 'first languages' used before writing as we know it. In the past, cultures that existed before writing were considered to be uncivilised or primitive. In fact, these languages were as complex and sophisiticated as any contemporary systems of communication. And the meaning systems of these first people were deeply multimodal.

To understand more about the nature of these languages,

Kalantzis, Mary and Bill Cope. 2006. "On Globalisation and Diversity." Computers and Composition 31:402-411.
Yolngu Multimodal Meaning Making - Language, Sound, Gesture, Image

Comment: In your exploration of first languages, what are some interesting or suprising things you have learned?

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