REGULAR ARTICLE Multiliteracies in an Outcome-Driven Curriculum: Where Is Its Fit? Lynde Tan • Libo Guo Ó De La Salle University 2013 Abstract This paper describes how the pedagogy of multiliteracies was piloted in a language arts curriculum for high-ability adolescent students. Specifically, it delineates the pedagogical intervention that was needed for its implementation within the formal language arts curricu- lum. Drawing on ethnographic research in two classes of 14-year-old students in Singapore, the study highlights that implementing multiliteracies within the formal school curriculum cannot be imported holus-bolus into the class- rooms. It also emphasizes that teachers’ willingness to innovate is crucial for bringing about sustainable change in the classroom. In addition, the study also suggests that unless the learners’ literacy practices are considered, sev- eral literacy activities could be meaningless to the students. Finally, contrary to the widely-cited view that multilitera- cies are paramount for the 21st century, this paper also highlights adolescents’ preference for traditional print- based literacy in language learning and tensions in imple- menting multiliteracies within the formal curriculum. Keywords Multiliteracies Á Meaning making Á Literacy practices Á Language pedagogy Introduction In recent years, research in literacy education has been arguing for the notion of literacy to be broadened and defined in relation to semiotic modes of representation and communication beyond language (e.g. Bearne 2003; Jewitt 2005; Kalantzis and Cope 2008; Kress 2003; Lemke 2006; Unsworth 2001). In response to the changing communi- cational landscapes that have become more multimodal and multimedia in nature, much has been written about the need to recognise how the interaction of the semiotic modes on a multimodal text represents and shapes knowledge. Yet, research in literacy education remains lacking in empirical studies that can illuminate how the theory of multimodality can be translated into literacy pedagogy for classroom instruction (Mills 2009). The New London Group’s (Cope and Kalantzis 2000) seminal work is of particular note in this respect. One of its central arguments is that ‘literacy is associated with mul- tiple modes of representation and meaning making beyond language (such as the visual, the audio, the spatial, and the gestural modes) which they term Design elements’ (Cope and Kalantzis 2000, p. 25). The New London Group (Cope and Kalantzis 2000) proposes the pedagogy of multiliter- acies, a literacy pedagogy with the following salient components: (a) Situated Practice Immersion in experience and the utilisation of available Designs of meaning, includ- ing those from the students’ lifeworlds and simula- tions of the relationships to be found in workplaces and public spaces. (b) Overt Instruction Systematic, analytic, and conscious understanding of Designs of meaning and Design processes. In the case of Multiliteracies, this requires the introduction of explicit metalanguages, which describe and interpret the Design elements of different modes of meaning. (c) Critical Framing Interpreting the social and cultural context of particular Designs of meaning. This involves the students’ standing back from what they L. Tan (&) Á L. Guo National Institution of Education, 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore 637616, Singapore e-mail: lynde.tan@nie.edu.sg 123 Asia-Pacific Edu Res DOI 10.1007/s40299-013-0082-0