Fraiberg, S.. “Composition 2.0: Toward a Multilingual and Multimodal Framework. ” College Composition and Communication : SPECIAL ISSUE: The Future of Rhetoric and Composition 62.1 (2010): 100-126. ProQuest Education Journals, ProQuest. Web. 4 Apr. 2011.
Fraiberg’s article is partly a response to calls from within composition studies for working to understand the teaching of written English in the context of globalization and other languages. The author recounts how other composition scholars have pushed for an understanding of literacy practices “as shaped by and shaping a constellation of historical, economic, social, and ideological factors,” sometimes referred to as “cultural ecologies.” In his article and the corresponding study, he maps out the ways that these cultural ecologies function by using examples from ethnographic research he did over a six month period in Israel, focusing on how English mixes and interacts with Hebrew in the Israeli high-tech sector. As a result of his study, he argues that a “multilingual-multimodal framework” is the key for bringing composition scholarship and teaching into the twenty-first century. Fraiberg also agrees with scholars Bruce Horner and John Trimbur who also argue for integrating composition with ESL and other language instruction because we are teaching an increasingly heterogeneous student population, many of whom do not fit into traditional categories of first vs. second language. This article was interesting in some ways, and I could relate to the idea of teaching multimodal and multilingual students, but his examples from his ethnographic research seemed to have limited application to the courses and population I teach.