Multi-storied Lives: Global Simulation as an Approach to Developing Multiliteracies in an Intermediate French Course

Abstract

Recent scholarship has proposed a pedagogy of multiliteracies to frame FL curricula and instruction, and encourage critical reflection about language use through a variety of discourses and textual genres. One pedagogical framework conducive to fostering learners’ intersemiotic awareness is Global Simulation (GS). GS consists in the creation of a culturally grounded, fictitious scenario, wherein students adopt specific character roles through which they enact discourse styles associated with their characters’ identities and the simulation’s attendant social demands. The adoption of characters reinforces the notion of literacies based on participation in a variety of discourses from the standpoint of particular social roles. This article reports on the development and implementation of a multiliteracies-based GS in fourth semester French applying a genre-based framework. First, we provide background on GS and its compatibility with multiliteracies and genre-based approaches. Next, we outline the framework and various texts and modules used in the course under study. Finally, we demonstrate through our findings the potential for this approach to foster learners’ awareness of language and other communication modes as social signifying practice, and their abilities to draw upon multiple Available Designs in making meaning.