Australian Review of Applied Linguistics - Volume 9, Issue 2, 1986

This paper is concerned with crucial issues which need to be addressed in attempting to define literacy. Several persistent myths or common misreadings of the nature of literacy are critiqued, namely the myths of literacy as: an absolute, word perfect standard; a collection of functional skills; an autonomous, context-free and unified competence; and a means of economic benefit. Alternative definitions, differing radically from the myths in their reading of reality, are proposed. These argue for a broad, inclusive definition which takes into account two broad perspectives – (i) the essentially creative meaning-centred and relative nature of language learning or use, and (ii) the patterns of social and cultural contexts in which literate behaviours are learnt, developed, constrained by or act to constrain the literacy of others. A dual focus is argued for. First, a focus on individual learning and experience serves to highlight the essentially constructive, selective, purposeful nature of the literacy process and the organic relation between literacy, experience, personal growth and autonomy. Thus, literacy is seen as transcending exclusively linguistic considerations and empowering its possessors to make sense of, to read and reread their experience, both to “take meanings” from the world and to act to transform that world. The second essential focus entails the recognition that socio-cultural contexts, including the nature, availability or distribution of information and printed materials in a society, are a vital part of the literacy process itself, shaping the meaning, values status and conceptions of literacy practices or competences. Hence discussion moves to the wider definitional framework for the analysis of literacies as social practices embedded in socio-cultural contexts of parent-child relationships, socialization patterns and ideologies.

A study of literacy as a social rather than as a personal phenomenon reveals new aspects of its complexity. Looking in particular at Jewish literacy, a distinction is proposed between unmediated and mediated literacy, the latter referring to modes of literacy that continue to require extensive mediation by a teacher long after the initial skill of phonemic decoding of the orthography has been acquired. In the case of the Written Law (the Bible) this situation was maintained by the use of an orthography which did not record vowels or punctuation and by the maintenance of an oral tradition on correct reading in crucial points in the text. In the case of the Oral Law (the Talmud), when it was finally written down, it was recorded in an elliptical style that continued to make the mediation of a teacher necessary. The result in each case is a method of safeguarding transmission without fossilizing content. Even after unmediated literacy had become widespread for other purposes, the effect of the traditions has remained strong. The system of mediated literacy, combined as it is in the Jewish tradition with a strong value for universal education, assures continued interpretation of traditional knowledge.

Parents have considerable influence on their children’s learning in the processes of general socialization. Much of this learning is relevant to school learning and differences between families in these matters can cause substantial differences in children’s school achievements. This applies to children’s learning to read. Systematic studies have shown that schools can have considerable success in involving parents in assisting the reading development of low competence readers by using simple techniques of modelling and reinforcement which are part of parents’ general socialization skills. These studies are reviewed.

The implications of the “natural learning approach” for home-reading programs is analyzed – and relevant literature is examined to portray two further approaches:

a) schools involving parents in activities which are Generally supportive of their children’s reading development;

b) parents being trained to develop their children’s cognitive/reading skills during reading episodes.

These models have not yet been systematically evaluated.

The appropriateness of the standard practical orthographies for Australian languages, recommended by e.g. Dixon (1980:xxi-xxii), and used in languages such as Warlpiri and Walmajarri, has recently been called to question by linguists and Aboriginal users. A non-phonemic English based orthography has been developed for at least one language (Gooniyandi). However, the issues surrounding orthography design have not been fully brought out and evaluated. My main aim in this paper is to remedy this situation, identify as many relevant issues as possible, and discuss them in the sociolinguistic context of the Kimberley Aboriginal speech communities. The paper is intended to provoke discussion and elicit feedback from others involved in orthography design, rather than make recommendations.

This paper presents data gathered from the third year of a project examining the literacy development of NESB children in their first three years at school. It focusses on the effects of modelling narratives and reports for the childrens’ development of these written genres within a process writing classroom. It suggests hat some genres can be successfully modelled.

This paper focusses upon an experiment in which 9 adult non-native speakers of English were required to ‘think aloud’ as they undertook a writing task of an expository kind. The experiment aimed to accumulate data about the sub-processes of writing (planning, rehearsing, revising, re-reading, commenting etc.) in order to understand better what actually happens in the writing process.

During the first 6 months of the school year of 1985, at Brunswick Language Centre, I observed Nasr as he was learning to write in his second language.

The most significant change which occurred is that Nasr gained an appreciation of the way in which English written anguage is different from spoken language. That is, rather than merely recording his spoken language, Nasr became a writer in English.

The changes manifested themselves not only in the product, namely the texts themselves, but also in the processes by which they were produced. These processes can be both directly observed, as recorded on videotape or in the observational diary, which was kept once weekly, or inferred from the product.

The major ways in which the last piece is more “developed” is that Nasr has chosen a more “advanced” genre, and the piece conforms more strictly to one genre, rather than also containing elements of other genres.

Nevertheless, the earlier pieces mark important, transitional stages and I have therefore chosen to call these intermediate forms “intertext”.

Nasr gains mastery over linking mechanisms more characteristic of written than of spoken language he moves from co-ordination to subordination, and through the use of reference and ellipsis, he gradually eliminates the various forms of redundancy. Acquisition of form and function of the past tense Is regarded as essential for the production of sustained narrative and, as such, can also be viewed as a form of cohesion.

In Nasr’s case the changes in the writing behaviour include an increase in pause length and a reduction in the number of pauses, changes in the number and type of revisions made, and differences in the way in which input from the teacher is generated.