This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Kenner, C. Articles by Kress, G. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

The Multisemiotic Resources of Biliterate Children

Institute of Education, University of London, UK

Gunther Kress

Institute of Education, University of London, UKck{at}mariposa.u-net.com;g.kress@ioe.ac.uk

This article argues that children gain access to an enhanced range of communicative resources through familiarity with more than one writing system. Different scripts can be seen as different modes, giving rise to a variety of potentials for meaning-making. In case-studies of children’s responses to learning Chinese, Arabic or Spanish as well as English at the age of six, they were found to be exploring these potentials in terms of symbol design, spatial framing and directionality. A multimodal analysis shows how children can build up ‘embodied knowledges’ as they construct different visual and actional dispositions through the bilingual script-learning experience. Such flexibility is likely to be an asset in a world that makes increasing use of multilingual and multimodal communication.

Key Words: bilingualism • biliteracy • multimodality • script-learning • writing development • young children

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				V. L. Gadsden The Arts and Education: Knowledge Generation, Pedagogy, and the Discourse of Learning Review of Research in Education, February 1, 2008; 32(1): 29 - 61. [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. Jewitt Multimodality and Literacy in School Classrooms Review of Research in Education, February 1, 2008; 32(1): 241 - 267. [Full Text] [PDF]

				N. Flynn Good practice for pupils learning English as an additional language: Lessons from effective literacy teachers in inner-city primary schools Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, August 1, 2007; 7(2): 177 - 198. [Abstract] [PDF]

				C. K.-M. Lee Affordances and Text-Making Practices in Online Instant Messaging Written Communication, July 1, 2007; 24(3): 223 - 249. [Abstract] [PDF]