Responding to Change in the Teaching of School English: Creating a Design for the Future

Abstract

Given the changing nature of texts and the shifting emphasis in English in the Australian curriculums, it seems timely to re-view the school English program. In turn, such change invites consideration of contemporary), teacher education programs and challenges these programs to provide a curriculum that is a design for the future.' In our multimodal world. the definition of text has undergone radical change as technology has challenged the place of the book. Inevitably, the digital culture impacts on authors and illustrators and influences how they might develop verbal and visual narrative. Such change gives rise to new reader expectations dictated by this screen-age culture. This paper raises the question whether the exploration of a plethora of literacies, which has become central to the English curriculum, offers appropriate strategies to deal with a world that is no longer predominantly language-based. In turn, it invites questions about what might inform the future focus of tertiary, programs for pre-service and practising teachers of English.