Breaking down borders to multiliteracy

writing in a second language with technology

Abstract

In his book entitle Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to
Technology, Postman {1992) raised serious concerns regarding the
invading power of computer technology and rightly argued that we
should seriously consider "what other humans skills and traditions
are being lost by immersion in a computer culture, (122). Here I
would like to take an opposing point of view and consider the beneficial
power that computers may have in the particular case of
learning to write in a second language. My assumption is based on
my experience as an educator and as a parent, and my simple desire
to facilitate learning and cognition without abolishing traditional
educational methods, such as pen and paper in the case of writing.
In this article I will review recent research in CALL technologies for
L2 writing and discuss the opportunity of combining them with
concepts of multiliteracy as well as curriculum design.