How multimodal digital literacy develops critical thinking skills in second language learners

As Kress argues (2010), human communication is multimodal – i.e., speakers use different semiotic resources to interact, or rather, to make meaning. This implies that speakers acquire skills that enable them to use all the resources effectively. Literacy then no longer means having competencies in reading and writing verbal texts only but also learning how to interpret, analyse, and evaluate multimodal meanings. Today, another facet of the concept of literacy regards technological development. The pervasiveness and ubiquity of digital technologies and devices have affected our social practices and shaped our forms of interaction (Domingo et al., 2015). Education, in particular, is a domain where information technology plays a pivotal role. For this reason, the technology-education binomial pushes educational researchers to reconceptualise the nature of literacy (Kamil et al., 2000, Leu et al., 2004, Leu, 2006). If we also include the necessity for learners to know how to categorise and critically interpret multimodal meanings – mostly consumed through digital media – the urgency about new pedagogies of literacy is evident. This theoretical contribution aims to speculate on and expand the concept of ‘literacy’ in order to support a multifaceted approach to education. Multimodality, digitality, and Critical Thinking will be explored and, at the same time, integrated within a holistic view of education and pedagogy with a particular focus on second language learning and teaching.