Digital games, new literacies and English

Abstract

English as a school subject is increasingly required to teach an expanded repertoire of literacies and texts. Demands are made for the subject's longstanding concern with literacy and the mastery of 'standard' English to be extended now to also include attention to multimodal non-print forms, with the need to teach students to become active, capable and critical users of both traditional and 'new' literacies. This chapter discusses the use of 3D approaches to English and new media texts, particularly videogames, in the English and literacy classroom, and the ways in which the model might be used as a framework for curriculum planning and pedagogy, and for consideration of the literary and literacy dimensions of these new media forms.