Web-based new literacies:revisiting literacy in TESOL and EFL teacher education

Abstract

English language learning in general, and TESOL in particular, has been recently associated with some new literacy practices imposed by the Internet and other new ICTs which, according to Coiro et al. (2008), have been defining the concept of literacy in the 21st century. The changing social practices should be accompanied by a process of revolutionizing the concept of literacy itself so that it can encompass those new dimensions brought up by the Web. Hence, this paper reviews approaches to literacy as far as language learning and the Web, as a new technology of literacy, are concerned, as well as the relevant new literacy practices in this context as indicated by some empirical studies. Here I present the term Web-based new literacies in the Egyptian context of EFL teacher education to express the new knowledge, skills, strategies, and social practices that prospective teachers of English require to cope with the rapid developments in the Web and the new literacy practices that students have recently been involved in within informal contexts. It is suggested that introducing this new term along with a review of the new literacy practices associated with the Internet and other ICTs in a language learning context may help us as EFL teacher educators to reconsider our teaching practices and refine EFL curriculum in the pre-service EFL teacher education programmes accordingly.