The Institute for Research on Digital Literacies
The Institute for Research on Digital Literacies

Heather Lotherington

Dr Heather Lotherington is Professor of Multilingual Education at York University, where she is appointed to graduate schools in both the Faculty of Education, and the Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics (LAPS). She is an applied linguist who has taught in universities in England, Germany, Fiji, and Australia as well as Canada. Her research interests span multimodality; multilingual and plurilingual education; language, literacy and technology; and pedagogical innovation. Her current research focuses on capturing digital communicative competencies, and investigating how literacies in the post-human spectrum can be applied to language learning. Professor Lotherington’s most recent book is: Pedagogy of multiliteracies: Rewriting Goldilocks (Routledge, 2011).

Current research

How is human communication altered in digital environments? Historically,”second” and “foreign” language teaching was normed on face-to-face speech encounters and alphabetic print norms, and based on structural ideologies of language and national heritage concepts of culture. However, in the multimodal, interactive, networked environments of today, symbolic conventions, media, genres, discourses, identity, authority and authorship,to name but a few aspects of communication, have shape-shifted beyond recognition.

My current research project ties together specialists in English language teaching and testing, intermediality, new media communication,multilingualism, and digital literacy, who are spread across four countries.Together we are developing new paradigms for understanding communication,using lifelogging technology.

Presentations & Workshops

Links