Multiliteracies for multilingual learners: the MultiSemiotic Architecture Framework

Abstract

ABSTRACT Creativity in the classroom should inspire teaching and learning that maximizes the students’ abilities and language competency. Humanity in education is based on respect, dignity, transparency, and compassion. It should be the foundation for the classroom environment before implementing any framework. Offering compassion for all learners is a strength. This conceptual paper invites educators to consider bilingual and multilingual learners’ literacies by proposing a new framework for moving culture forward in the classroom, the ‘MultiSemiotic Architecture Framework.’ I explore the tenets of the framework which are critical literacy, multiliteracies, transmultiliteracies sustaining pedagogy, new literacies, and translanguaging that facilitate justice in the classroom using semiotics. This framework aims to empower teachers, parents, communities, and schools with alternate approaches to consider their students’ literacy assets and cultural interests through a lens of opportunity. This framework has been tested with in service teachers, and a concrete example is provided that shows how the constructs in the framework could be applied in a lesson.