Publisher's Synopsis
Encyclopaedia of Language and Literacy Research Methods: Challenges, Strategies and Opportunities attempts to explain current thinking about the relationship between individual development and societal and interpersonal practices and then explore the implications of this new understanding for the learning of language and literacy. There are long traditions of literacy teaching and research in the English speak- ing world that see literacy as a discrete set of skills that can be acquired step by step. Some are founda- tion skills, such as being able to map words onto sounds using phonics, to spell accurately or form letters through handwriting. Some are more complex linguistic and information-processing skills that enable people to recognize different kinds of texts and to take account of purpose and audience when they read or write. To be effective teachers, we need to understand this 'more' - how skills are shaped by the social contexts, purposes and relationships within which reading and writing are used. As an example, some- thing as basic as writing down the bare facts of your life is never done in a vacuum. These facts are written in a CV, a diary or an autobiography. They may be written by another person in medical case notes, given as a speech at a funeral or other ceremonial event, or reported in a police statement. In each situation, the form and process of the writing will be different. Very often the physical act of writing and the materi- als used to carry it out will be different. Different outcomes will hang on the accuracy of the account, how persuasive it is, or whether the spelling and layout are correct. In other words, literacy is situated and embedded in local activities, and can never be pulled out and captured as a separate and unvarying thing. This perspective, of the contextual and embedded nature of literacy, has become known as literacy as situated social practice. It draws on situated theories of learning which see learning as taking place in day-to-day relationships between people in their environment, whether this is a formal college classroom, a workplace or a self-help medical group. It draws a bigger landscape than that of seeing literacy as a set of discrete skills, and is concerned with local differences, diversity and variety as well as with universal principles.