A Study On Cultivating College Students’ Ability Of Multiliteracies

Multiliteracies mean a new learning method as well as a new ability of literacy. This newability of literacy includes various abilities of literacies, not only traditional reading and writingliteracy, but also audio-visual and the Internet-based literacy and so on in the modern society. So theability of multiliteracies is an important ability that should be possessed by every college student inthe information age. Studies abroad on mutiliteracies have been conducted for many years, yetstudies in China have just started in recent years. At present, these previous studies have covered thefollowing aspects, such as setting up multiple courses, exploring training models and teachingpedagogy and so on. But few studies have been taken on cultivating students’(non-English majors)ability of multiliteracies. Therefore, this study aims to do an experimental exploration aboutcultivating college students’ability of multiliteracies. The quantitative and qualitative studies arecombined in the study, which include test papers and a questionnaire.First, the thesis probes into the origin and meaning of multiliteracies, and then interprets thetheoretical framework of multiliteracies; based on the interpretation of multiliteracies, it investigatesthe current situation of college students’awareness and ability of multiliteracies by a questionnaire;finally, with the purpose of improving college students’ability of multiliteracies, this study breaksthe traditional English teaching mode centering on textbook, and focuses on cultivating collegestudents’ability of multiliteracies based on the Internet resources from three perspectives:audio-visual literacy, the Internet-based literacy and basic reading and writing literacy. After aterm’s training and the analyses of the test results from the two groups, the experiment group hasimproved their ability of audio-visual and the Internet-based literacy, meanwhile their ability of thebasic reading and writing literacy has also been slightly improved, which indicates that their abilityof multiliteracies has been improved.This thesis can be divided into six chapters. Chapter one is the introduction. It introduces theresearch background, clarifies the research purpose and significance, explained the researchquestions and methodology, and finally presents the thesis organization. Chapter two reviews theexisting studies of multiliteracies in China and abroad. Chapter three discusses the theoreticalframework of multiliteracies. Firstly, it traces the origin of multiliteracies, and then it explores thetheoretical basis of multiliteracies. Based on the theoretical basis, it interprets the theoreticalframework of multiliteracies. Chapter four and chapter five are the main body of the thesis. It firstinvestigates college students’awareness and ability of multiliteracies by a questionnaire. Then itbegins to carry out an experimental study on cultivating college students’ability of multiliteracies on the basis of the survey, which aims to explore a way of cultivating college students’ability ofmultilitercies. Chapter six summarizes the thesis. First, it presents the main findings, and thenpresents its implications for English teachers and learners, and finally points out its contributions,limitations and the suggestions for further research.