Developing critical digital literacy through genre-based pedagogy

Recognizing how online genres are tied to communicative purposes and conventionalized expectations, this presentation discusses how a dialogical approach to genre analysis can be useful for pedagogical purposes. By sharing the design of two university communications courses, it demonstrates how bridging activities, authentic text production and analysis of platform design can enable students to develop a critical awareness of genres as forms of discourse constructed for particular audiences and specific purposes. By engaging a material and sociotechnical lens to examine online genres, learners can build metalinguistic and metacommunicative skills that outlive the lifecycles of online genres themselves. Copyright © 2021 Technology-Enhanced Language Learning and Teaching. All rights reserved.