In
2017, the annual autumn symposium of the Finnish Association for Applied
Linguistics (AFinLA) was organised in Turku. During the symposium, the theme of
“Building new literacies” was approached from various perspectives. In this
introduction to the 2018 AFinLA Yearbook, we outline three approaches to
literacy research and introduce the contributions included in this volume.
First, we discuss how approaches to literacy have changed over time and
highlight the multifaceted nature of literacy. Second, we briefly outline some
of the recent societal changes, especially digitalisation and globalisation,
that influence literacy requirements. For instance, examining attitudes towards
digital literacy and the use of new technologies in teaching is important both
from language learners and language teachers' perspectives. Third, we present
new approaches to literacy that highlight the interactional and multimodal
aspects of literacy. We conclude with reflections on the theme from the
perspective of transdisciplinary action research based on Daniel Perrin's essay
included in the yearbook.