Using multiliteracies and multimodality to explore engineering literacies and problem-scoping for multilingual learners: A perspective on multiliteracies for STEM learning

This article provides an overview of multiliteracies in relation to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Terms such as New Literacy Studies, new literacies, and multimodality are defined. To exemplify the interpretive power of multiliteracies, the authors introduce elementary students (ages 9-10) participating in the engineering design process in an engineering literacies club. Drawing upon social semiotics and multimodality, the authors describe multilingual students' use non-linguistic modes for problem-scoping. A multiliteracies analysis reveals that multilingual students employ multimodal communicative literacies for problem-scoping in more nuanced and complex ways than previous studies have suggested.