Literacy : an introduction / Randal Holme.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Holme, Randal, 1948- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literacy.

Language arts.

Writing.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (285 pages)

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2004]

Summary:

This book provides a balanced understanding of Literacy studies, helping readers understand some of the currents of thought, whether post modernist, cognitivist, or Vygotskian, on which its larger analysis is based.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

List of figures

Introduction

The elusive nature of literacy

Analogical literacies

The socio-economic nature of literacy

Literacy's use of sign-systems

Literacy's use of language

Literarcy and mind

The many-fold nature of literacy

PART I: THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC NATURE OF LITERACY

Chapter 1 Functional Literacy

Literacy and economy

Functionality and social change: the lliteracy campaign

Functionality and economy

Functionality and development economics

Functional literacy in the developed world

Functional literacy and social exclusion

Problems with the idea of a functional literacy

Problems with functional literacy: the economic impact

How do we construct literacy according to what it allows us to do?

The problem of treating literacy as a set of competencies: the need for a cultural literacy

Conclusions

Chapter 2 Critical Literacy

Two tenets of post-modernism

Post-moderism and minority movements

Who we arer shapes how we see: we have no final vocabulary

Critical discourse analysis

Systemic functional linguistics

Metaphor and critical literacy

Towards a participatory pedagogy

Critical literacy in practice

Difficulties with critical literacy

If 'there is nothing outside the text', how do we know anything?

Problems with the concept of criticality

Chapter 3 From Literacy to Literacies

Social practice: literacy practice

The practice as a context of use

The variety and history o fliteracy practices

Chapter 4 Literacy and Language Choice

Why there is a language choice

Responding to the language-choice question

Attitudes to language

Bilingualism and biliteracy.

How the use of language is predicted upon economic, political and military power relationships

PART II: SIGN

Chapter 5 Understanding Sign

The nature of sign

Differenct kinds of sign

Signs and the development of pre-writing

Symbol interpretation: categories and prototype theory

Symbol manipulation: the importance of metonymy

Metonymn and indexical signs

6 Writing

Writing systems

The alphabet

The syllabary

Distinguishing syllabaries from alphabets

The Chinese writing system: a morphpsyllabic script?

Writing and non-writing: semasiographic systems

Conventional and iconic seamasiographic systems: the role of metonymy in visual meaning representation

7 Writing through Time

From accidental to motivated sign-creation

Early writing systems

The evolution of the alphabet

8 The Nature of Writing

Writing systems as technological solutions

Successful writing systems must represent speech

The question of phonocentrism and the centrality of writing

PART III: THE LANGUAGE OF LITERACY

9 Basic Differences between Speech and Writing

Personal vs. interpersonal

Monologue vs. dialogue

Durable vs. ephemeral

Contextualised vs. decontextualised

Scannable vs. linearly accessible

Planned/highly structured vs. spontaneous/loosely structured

Syntactically complex vs. syntactically simple

Concerned with past and future not the present

Formal vs. informal

Expository- and argument-oriented vs. event- and narrative-oriented

Abstract vs. concrete

Syntactically and morphologically complete

10 Dimensions of Difference between Spoken and Written Language

Introduction.

What is a dimension of difference?

Narrative vs. non-narrative concerns

Explicit vs. situation-dependent reference

Persuasion

Higher lexical varieties

Informational elaboration under strict, real-time conditions

11 Written Language in Context

Understanding genre

Grammatical metaphor as an expression of how regrister and genre affect text

Looking at text

PART IV LITERARY AS MIND

12 Social Practice and a Socio-historical Theory of Mind

A socio-historical construction of mind

The zone of proximal development

13 Great Divide Theory

The historical Great Divide

The psychological Greats Divide

Literacy practices and Vygotsky's view of mind

Scaffolding with literacy practices

14 Literacy and Patterns of Mind

Frame theory

Script theory

Schema theory and narrative frames

Genre, schema and literary practice

Image schema

15 PART V CONCLUSIONS

15 The Social Nature of Literacy

Literacy as skill, practice and socio-economic function

Participatory appraisal: the model in practice

Text as a forum of the literacy practice

Glossary

References

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 262-275) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781474469265

1474469264