Analysing foreign language instructional materials through the lens of the Multiliteracies Framework

Literacy, understood as a socially situated process of making meaning from texts, has been offered as a conceptual solution to collegiate foreign language curricular divisions, and multiliteracies pedagogy as a means of implementing that solution. Within multiliteracies pedagogy, the knowledge processes framework [Kalantzis, M., Cope, B., Chan, E., & Dalley-Trim, L. (2016). Literacies (2nd ed.). Melbourne: Cambridge University Press] facilitates deep engagement with texts and development of advanced language and literacy skills. As more programmes adopt this conceptualisation of literacy as a programmatic goal, additional research is needed to understand how this framework is applied in materials design and implementation. In response, this article documents the materials analysis of multiliteracies lesson plans developed as part of a revised lower-level collegiate Spanish curriculum. Using the knowledge process framework as an analytical lens, study participants examined 25 lessons targeting interpretive communication from two different courses. Results reveal an overwhelming emphasis on the knowledge process of experiencing; the knowledge processes of conceptualising, analysing, and applying occur much less frequently. The authors discuss conceptual and pedagogical factors contributing to the findings and implications for teacher development and student learning in collegiate foreign language contexts.