Chapter 2: Technological Literacy and Foreign Language Literacy in a Technological Era:Considerations of Two Interacting Constructs For Foreign Language Education

This paper discusses two types of literacy—alphabetic and technological— their characterization, their relationship, and their relevance to the field of foreign language education. In keeping with current interpretations within many disciplines, alphabetic literacy is viewed not merely as competencies in reading and writing, and based on texts of an academic nature, but as a set of competencies of many interrelated communication skills, and based on discourse generated in a range of computer and non-computer media. Of crucial concern for foreign language education are the social and cultural contexts in which such skills are practiced. Technological literacy concerns the set of competencies required to integrate a range of technologies, and especially communication technologies, into a domain of behavior. Both types of literacies are viewed as key to currently defined discourse-based methodologies for foreign language instruction.