a view informed by the problems of traditional literacy in a digital age

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Ronald Soetaert & Bart Bonamie
than words; images, graphics and sounds can play an important role. New
interface design will change the writing space. Today, this interaction is
mainly text based.
Indeed, historically, the interactive role was fulfilled by spoken
language, whereas written language was a better medium for reflection,
ongoing interpretation and evaluation. Printed texts could be read over and
over again. The literary canon and the whole critical tradition built around it
were a direct result of the invention of book printing, which created a
revolution in the production and reception of knowledge, in the way we
organise society and the way we use our brains.
It is possible that multimedia free us from a particular form of written
literacy. So in fact hypermedia could bring together on the screen what the
printing press has separated. Joining an electronic community, in which
audio and visual aspects become as important as written words and in which
design plays a central role, confronts us with a fundamental question: What
do we win? Or what do we lose?
In any case, we have a moral obligation to prepare children to critically
interpret and evaluate visual and audio information from our dominant
culture, and to provide critical interpretative models to deal with visual
information. Indeed, very often in traditional education: ‘Our visual
acculturation starting with Sesame Street usually stops at the classroom
door’ (LaSpina, 1998, p. xiv). We can only hope to avoid the same
happening with modern technology. It is a complex process because we are
in the middle of a revolution, creating new genres and products; our whole
work is ‘under development’ or ‘work in progress’.
Methodology
As far as the teaching of languages is concerned, back-to-basics can be
characterised by the fact that grammar and literature are at the core of our
subject. In fact, in modern languages the curriculum and the methodology
of Latin and Greek were imitated: studying grammar and vocabulary in
order to read/translate the classical texts. Such a classical education was
essential to become a member of the cultural elite. Very often language
teaching was part of the construction of a national identity. It focused on the
standard language and the literary canon.
As part of a general progressive reform of education, the
communicative approach to language teaching was introduced. Content –
and certainly literature – was considered less important. Skills were at the
core of the methodology; the aim was to use language in ‘real
communicative settings’. The approach stressed learner-centredness and
motivation.
As we have noted, back-to-basics criticism was based on the idea that
our culture could be characterised by a general amnesia. The weak point in
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