Received: 18 October 2017 | Accepted: 29 November 2017 DOI: 10.1111/flan.12316 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Moving toward multiliteracies in foreign language teaching: Past and present perspectives ... and beyond Chantelle Warner | Beatrice Dupuy Challenges Texts are never culturally neutral, but rather are embedded in, and shaped by, histories and contexts, language, speech communities, modes, and text types. How does such a multi- literacies approach enable learners to explore not only new words, but new worlds, and to view reading and writing as complementary linguistic processes? University of Arizona Chantelle Warner (PhD, University of California at Berkeley) is Associate Professor of German and Applied Linguistics, University of Arizona, Tucson. Beatrice Dupuy (PhD, University of Southern California) is Professor of French and Applied Linguistics, University of Arizona, Tucson. Abstract In recent years, literacy has emerged as a key critical term in foreign language (FL) teaching and learning. This essay reflects on the history of literacy and on current develop- ments, in particular those related to the development of multiliteracies paradigms. The article concludes with a discussion of emergent topics related to literacy and language teaching and suggests ways in which research in these domains is posing new questions for the field of FL education. KEYWORDS literacy, multiliteracies, reading, writing 1 | INTRODUCTION In recent years, literacy has emerged as a critical term in foreign language (FL) teaching and learning. This essay reflects on the history and future of literacy and FL teaching, in particular as reflected in the © 2018 by American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Foreign Language Annals. 2018;1–13. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/flan | 1