Classrooms are increasingly multicultural in their social composition, and students are increasingly connected, through digital media, to local and global networks. However, pedagogy has failed to take full advantage of the opportunities these resources represent. This book will draw attention to the interfaces between learner engagement, creativity and critical digital literacy as well as seriously addressing the multilingual within the multiliteracies framework.

In this book contributors explore new digital spaces for language learning and extending understandings of youth literacy in an increasingly interconnected world. The book draws on an innovative and multi-site research project based in mainstream and community schools in London and overseas, to discuss how young people become engaged creatively and critically with literacy. The book demonstrates how digital storytelling can be used as a tool for language development and addresses a significant gap in the field of multiliteracies by focusing on multilingualism.

The book begins by considering linguistic, cultural, cognitive and social dimensions of language learning from a theoretical perspective whilst the second part focuses on practical case studies that reflect and illustrate these theoretical principles.

Breaking new ground within multiliteracies pedagogy, it foregrounds the importance of:

• integrated and inclusive approaches to language and literacy within the context of an interculturally oriented curriculum
• critical and creative strategies for working with digital media and developing the skills required in multimodal composition
• engaging learners and promoting new knowledge generation through personalised enquiry-based activity including student-led research
• building bridges between school learning and learning in out-of-school contexts
• preparing young people for active participation and citizenship in a globalised world.

Multilingual Digital Storytelling will appeal to researchers and academics in the fields of education, applied linguistics, sociology and youth and community studies. It will also appeal to teachers and teacher educators and curriculum planners and policy makers.