The initial idea to a multiliteracies approach to teaching and learning in a globalized world, is that contemporary education programmes need to focus on a broader range of literacies than merely on traditional reading and writing skills. The multiliteracy perspective in the context of teaching and learning (foreign) languages was introduced to point out the relevance of new forms of literacy associated with information, communication and multimedia technologies as well as to cater for the integration of students´ cultural and linguistic diversities (eg. Elsner/ Küster/ Viebrock 2007). Against this background the work with multilingual talking books may be the key to a first concrete realization of this so far rather theoretical concept. In the context of teaching and learning languages at primary and kindergarten level, the purpose of this presentation is to illustrate in which way the use of multilingual talking books can put the multiliterate notion into practice.

References:
Elsner, Daniela/ Küster, Lutz/ Viebrock, Britta (2007): Fremdsprachenkompetenzen für ein wachsendes Europa. Das Leitziel „Multiliteralität“. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Professor of English Didactics and Literature at the University of Vechta, Germany
Special fields of research: Teaching English to Young Learners; Multilingualism and Foreign Language Learning; Language Teacher Education