Critical Digital Pedagogies in Modern Languages – a Tutorial Collection

This introduction sets out the context for this special collection of self-learning online tutorials exploring critical pedagogies in Modern Languages. Previous research has demonstrated that, while some areas within the Modern Languages (such as language pedagogy) have a long history of engagement with digital mediation through approaches such as CALL, MALL and TELL, broader experience with digital culture and technology within the field is characterised by uncertainty, scepticism and sometimes anxiety. This is particularly apparent in the area of digital literacy acquisition – a survey we carried out in 2019 demonstrated significant interest in acquiring digital literacies appropriate to Modern Languages education and research, but also doubts about which literacies needed to be acquired and how to acquire them.

This collection consists of practical and open educational resources for use in the Modern Languages, but it also represents an interrogation of the affordances and limitations generated by digital mediation. In this introduction we highlight some of the challenges that the collection had to overcome, and in so doing, we hope to foster wider discussion about how digital learning resources can be better integrated into Modern Languages education and research across languages, across educational levels and across digital platforms.