This open access volume reveals the hidden power of the script we read in and how it shapes and drives our minds, ways of thinking, and cultures. Expanding on the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis (i.e., the idea that language affects the way we think), this volume proposes the "Script Relativity Hypothesis" (i.e., the idea that the script in which we read affects the way we think) by offering a unique perspective on the effect of script (alphabets, morphosyllabaries, or multi-scripts) on our attention, perception, and problem-solving. Once we become literate, fundamental changes occur in our brain circuitry to accommodate the new demand for resources. The powerful effects of literacy have been demonstrated by research on literate versus illiterate individuals, as well as cross-scriptal transfer, indicating that literate brain networks function differently, depending on the script being read. This book identifies the locus of differences between the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans, and between the East and the West, as the neural underpinnings of literacy. To support the "Script Relativity Hypothesis", it reviews a vast corpus of empirical studies, including anthropological accounts of human civilization, social psychology, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, applied linguistics, second language studies, and cross-cultural communication. It also discusses the impact of reading from screens in the digital age, as well as the impact of bi-script or multi-script use, which is a growing trend around the globe. As a result, our minds, ways of thinking, and cultures are now growing closer together, not farther apart.

This innovative text draws on theories and methodologies from the fields of multimodality, ethnography, and literacy studies to explore the sociocultural significance of book ownership and book inscriptions in Edwardian Britain. The Sociocultural Functions of Edwardian Book Inscriptions examines evidence gathered from historical records, archival documents, and the inscriptive practices of individuals from the Edwardian era to foreground the social, communicative, and performative functions of inscriptive practices and illustrate how material, lexical, and semiotic means were used to perform identity, contest social status, and forge relationships with others. The text adopts a unique ethnohistorical approach to multimodality, supporting the development of a typography of book inscriptions which will serve as a unique interpretive framework for analysis of literary artifacts in the context of broader sociopolitical forces. This text will benefit doctoral students, researchers, and academics in the fields of literacy studies, English language arts, and research methods in education more broadly. Those interested in British book history, anthropology, and 20th-century literature will also enjoy this volume.

This open access book discusses how cultural literacy can be taught and learned through creative practices. It approaches cultural literacy as a dialogic social process based on learning and gaining knowledge through emphatic, tolerant, and inclusive interaction. The book focuses on meaning-making in children and young people's visual and multimodal artefacts created by students aged 5-15 as an outcome of the Cultural Literacy Learning Programme implemented in schools in Cyprus, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, Spain, Portugal, and the UK. The lessons in the program address different social and cultural themes, ranging from one's cultural attachments to being part of a community and engaging more broadly in society. The artefacts are explored through data-driven content analysis and self-reflexive and collaborative interpretation and discussed through multimodality and a sociocultural approach to children's visual expression. This interdisciplinary volume draws on cultural studies, communication studies, art education, and educational sciences.

This is the first hands-on methods guide for second-language (L2) reading research. The authors expertly and critically situate L2 reading and literacy as a multivariate, interactive process and define terms, concepts, and research tools in connection with theory and a rich body of past empirical work, with lessons to learn and pitfalls to avoid. They concretely detail how to design empirical studies, collect data, and analyze findings in this important area. Authored by world experts on first-language (L1) and L2 reading, this book provides a comprehensive, critical, theory-driven review of methods in L2 reading research, offering a step-by-step guide from research design to study execution and data analysis. With useful pedagogical features and a unique database of L2 reading studies from around the world over three decades, this will be an invaluable resource to students and researchers of second-language acquisition, applied linguistics, education, and related areas.

This is the first hands-on methods guide for second-language (L2) reading research. The authors expertly and critically situate L2 reading and literacy as a multivariate, interactive process and define terms, concepts, and research tools in connection with theory and a rich body of past empirical work, with lessons to learn and pitfalls to avoid. They concretely detail how to design empirical studies, collect data, and analyze findings in this important area. Authored by world experts on first-language (L1) and L2 reading, this book provides a comprehensive, critical, theory-driven review of methods in L2 reading research, offering a step-by-step guide from research design to study execution and data analysis. With useful pedagogical features and a unique database of L2 reading studies from around the world over three decades, this will be an invaluable resource to students and researchers of second-language acquisition, applied linguistics, education, and related areas.

Classicists have been slow to take advantage of the important advances in the way that literacy is viewed in other disciplines (including in particular cognitive psychology, socio-linguistics, and socio-anthropology). On the other hand, historians of literacy continue to rely on outdated work by classicists (mostly from the 1960's and 1970's) and have little access to the current reexamination of the ancient evidence. This timely volume attempts to formulate new interesting ways of talking about the entire concept of literacy in the ancient world--literacy not in the sense of whether 10% or 30% of people in the ancient world could read or write, but in the sense of text-oriented events embedded in a particular socio-cultural context. The volume is intended as a forum in which selected leading scholars rethink from the ground up how students of classical antiquity might best approach the question of literacy in the past, and how that investigation might materially intersect with changes in the way that literacy is now viewed in other disciplines. The result will give readers new ways of thinking about specific elements of "literacy" in antiquity, such as the nature of personal libraries, or what it means to be a bookseller in antiquity; new constructionist questions, such as what constitutes reading communities and how they fashion themselves; new takes on the public sphere, such as how literacy intersects with commercialism, or with the use of public spaces, or with the construction of civic identity; new essentialist questions, such as what "book" and "reading" signify in antiquity, why literate cultures develop, or why literate cultures matter. The book derives from a conference (a Semple Symposium held in Cincinnati in April 2006) and includes new work from the most outstanding scholars of literacy in antiquity (e.g., Simon Goldhill, Joseph Farrell, Peter White, and Rosalind Thomas).

This book unpacks recent changes in the landscape of literature and language teaching, and aims to find new explanations for the altered relationships between readers and writers, the democratisation of authorship, and the emergence of new ways of using language. By examining topics as various as literature and technology, multimodality, and new Englishes, the authors take a fresh look at the use of literature as a tool in the teaching of English to second-language speakers. More than simply a way of teaching aesthetic and ethical values and rhetorical skills, they argue that literature can also be used to help students to critically evaluate assumptions about society, culture and power which underpin the production and reception of texts. The book relates theories of language acquisition and literary criticism to examples of literary texts from a wide range of global literature in English, and discusses new ways of engaging with it, such as transmedia story telling, book blogs and slam poetry. It will be of interest to language teachers and teacher trainers, and to students and scholars of applied linguistics, TESOL, and digital literacies.

Drawing on a multidisciplinary approach integrating insights from conversation analysis, narrative analysis, and narratology, this book theorizes teaching around narrative prose in each level of education, with a focus on a new framework of Pedagogic Literary Narration which emphasizes the practice of shared novel reading and the importance of the role of the teacher in mediating this practice. // With insights taken from a comprehensive set of transcripts taken from actual classrooms, the volume focuses on the convention in native-tongue literary study in which teachers and students read a novel shared over lessons, combining periods of reading aloud with those of questioning and discussion. In so doing, Gordon seeks to extend existing methodologies from literary and social science research toward informing teaching practice in literary pedagogy and address the need for a theorization of literary pedagogy which considers the interrelationship between text-in-print and text-through-talk. Transcripts are supported with comprehensive analyses to help further explicate the research methodology and provide guidance on implementing it in the classroom. // This book is a valuable resource for scholars in language and education, literary studies, narrative inquiry, and education research.

A Poetry Pedagogy for Teachers generates imaginative encounters with poetry and invites educators to practice a range of poetry exercises in order to inform instructional approaches to reading and writing. Guided by pedagogical principles prompted by their readings of Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," Maya Pindyck and Ruth Vinz provide critical discussion of prominent literacy practices in secondary classrooms and offer alternative approaches to encountering a text. They do this by way of experimental readings of Wallace Stevens' poem toward a set of thirteen pedagogical principles that anchor a pedagogy of poetic practices. The book also offers invitational exercises, the authors' own engagements with poetry practices, as well as student examples, visual modes of theorizing, and a gathering of relevant resources compiled by two classroom teachers. This is a book for secondary English teachers, teaching artists, English educators, college writing professors, readers and writers of poetry - both existing and aspirational - and any educator interested in poetry's capacities to pedagogically inform their subject matter and/or literacy practices.

More effectively meet the diverse literacy needs of the growing Latino population by learning how to evaluate and select quality Latino children's literature. Latinos are the fastest growing and largest ethnic minority in the United States. The number of Latino children is at a historic high. As a result, librarians and teachers in the United States must know how to meet the informational, cultural, and traditional literacy needs of this student demographic group. An ideal way to overcome this challenge is by providing culturally accurate and authentic children's literature that represents the diversity of the Latino cultures. Much more than simply a topical bibliography, this book details both historical and current practices in educating Latino children; explains why having quality Latino children's literature in classrooms and libraries is necessary for the ethnic identity development of Latino children; and offers a historical overview of Latino children's literature in America. Web resources of interest to educators working with Latino children are also included. Figures relating to Latino population growth, home language of Latinos, and stressors of recently arrived Latinos Extensive bibliography of print and web resources for developing collections of quality materials about Latino cultures, professional publications related relating to evaluating Latino children's literature and integrating the literature into classrooms and libraries, and recommended English, Spanish, and bilingual children's and young adult books about Latinos Contains useful resources such as reproducible bookmarks of recommended Latino children's books, evaluation sheets for analyzing Latino children's books for stereotypes, and a bingo sheet for professional development related to library services for Latinos and Latino children

Transliteracy in Complex Information Environments considers this relatively new concept, which has attracted a great deal of interest in the library and information field, particularly among practitioners. The notion of transliteracy arises in the context of increasingly complex information and communication environments characterised by multimodality and new roles of creators and consumers. Transliteracy concerns the ability to apply and transfer a range of skills and contextual insights to a variety of settings. Rather than focusing on any one skillset or technology, transliteracy is about fluidity of movement across a range of contexts. This book is concerned with processes of learning and knowledge creation. An understanding of transliteracy emergesfrom research data gathered in university and high school settings. Transliteracy is considered in relation to other literacies as an overarching framework. Applications in education and lifelong learning are discussed. Social aspects of transliteracy are considered in relation to academic cultures and broader social trends, particularly hybrid cultures

Elijah Muhammad and the Supreme of Literacy explores how Elijah Muhammad framed the term literacy as contrasted with its generally known definitions and applications. The text frames a construct for understanding why Elijah Muhammad considered the science of literacy essential to the success of the Blackman and woman in America specifically, and people in general. It outlines the scriptural foundations of Muhammad's teachings, drawn from both Bible and Qur'an. A detailed review of the course of study prescribed for his followers supplies Elijah Muhammad's the unique perspective on both literacy and language. Examples of his study curricula are offered. A brief history of Muhammad's own educational process is presented, with an emphasis on the pedagogy of literacy as practiced by Muhammad's teacher, W.D. Fard. Material on the early educational focus of The Nation of Islam is introduced. And finally, general commentary on the teachings is made known through the lenses of three men in their role as teachers: W. D. Fard, teacher of Elijah Muhammad, Muhammad himself, and Minister Louis Farrakhan, student of Elijah Muhammad.

Our current "culture wars" have reshaped the politics of secondary literature instruction. Due to a variety of challenges from both the left and the right-to language or subject matter, to potentially triggering content or to authors who have been cancelled-school reading lists are rapidly shrinking. For many teachers, choosing which books to include in their curriculum has become an agonising task with political, professional and ethical dimensions. In Literature and the New Culture Wars, Deborah Appleman calls for a reacknowledgment of the intellectual and affective work that literature can do, and offers ways to continue to teach troubling texts without doing harm. Rather than banishing challenged texts from our classrooms, she writes, we should be confronting and teaching the controversies they invoke. Her book is a timely and eloquent argument for a reasoned approach to determining what literature still deserves to be read and taught and discussed.

This timely book tackles underlying issues that see disproportionate numbers of African American males with dyslexia undiagnosed, untreated, and falling behind their peers in terms of literacy achievement. Considering factors including dialectic linguistic difference, limited phonological awareness, and the intersectionality of gender, language, and race, the studies included in this volume illustrate how classroom practices at preschool and elementary levels are failing to support students at risk of reading and writing difficulties. Promoting Academic Readiness for African American Males with Dyslexia shows that it is possible to provide every girl and boy, and particularly African American boys with effective support and appropriate interventions enabling them to read at a level that is conducive to ongoing academic performance and success. This, argue the authors of this volume, is vital to the social, emotional, moral, and intellectual development of our society. This edited volume was originally published as a special issue of Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties. It will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate students, researchers, and academics in the field of African-American Education, Educational Equity, Race studies, Multiple learning difficulties and Literacy development.

1998 Winner of the Cyril O. Houle World Award for Literature in Adult Education In this thought-provoking book, Quigley offers a new view of illiteracy that starts with the learner and takes into account a broad array of work, family, and cultural considerations. This guide gives adult educators and trainers working in the field concrete suggestions and alternatives for their work that they can use to shape a new philosophy of adult literacy and improve their practice.

The Educational Media and Technology Yearbook has become a standard reference in many libraries and professional collections. It provides a valuable historical record of current ideas and developments in the field. Part one of this updated volume, "Trends and Issues in Learning, Design and Technology," presents an array of chapters that develop some of the current themes listed above, in addition to others. In Part Two, "Leadership Profiles," authors provide biographical sketches of the careers of instructional technology leaders. Part Three, "Organizations and Associations in North America," and Part Four, "Worldwide List of Graduate Programs in Learning, Design, Technology, Information or Libraries," are, respectively, directories of instructional technology-related organizations and institutions of higher learning offering degrees in related fields. Finally, Part Five, the "Mediagraphy," presents an annotated listing of selected current publications related to the field.

Creating a strong link between up-to-date research findings and classroom practice, this book analyzes, compares, and critiques prevalent classroom strategies in light of expertise available in other countries. The theme of the volume, that form and meaning can be united from an early point in the reading curriculum, is clearly developed and reinforced from different perspectives. The book is a distinctive blend of assimilated research results and cogently argued teaching recommendations. It provides solutions to common problems that have proved successful in other countries, and opens up alternatives that presently are not described in the literature.

This book is for new faculty, graduate students, teachers, administrators, and other academics who want to write more clearly and have their work published. The essays focus on writing journal articles, dissertations, grants, edited books, and other writing in educational settings. The authors are educators who share their own first-hand experiences that provide novice writers with important knowledge and support in the quest for success in professional scholarly writing. A variety of authors discuss the writer's craft, including issues of voice, audience, planning, drafting, revision, conventions, style, submitting to journals, editorial review, and editing.

This book showcases interviews with nine women who have made pioneering contributions to social semiotics and systemic functional linguistics (SFL), highlighting how these women have taken the discipline into new and innovative directions, and the enduring impact of their work. The volume features interviews with a generation of scholars inspired by the prominent linguists Michael Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan in Sydney, reflecting on their achievements in the advancement of theory, knowledge, and practical application as well as the establishment of research centers in different parts of the world. A consistent interview format helps to illustrate the different directions the work of these scholars has taken and their different takes on key concepts to the discipline such as register, genre, text and context, and multimodality. Taken together, the interviews offer insights into key strands of social semiotic and SFL scholarship and give inspiration toward moving the field into new theoretical and applied directions. Reflecting on the groundbreaking work of renowned women scholars in social semiotics and SFL and their continued global impact, this book will be key reading for students and scholars in these fields, as well as those in the areas of language pedagogy, literacy, and multimodality.

Despite a vast amount of study, literacy is still a very confused topic, which requires the integration of findings from different areas. Reading and writing are psychological skills, but they are also linguistic skills (since people read and write meaningful language) and social skills (since written language serves particular functions in different societies). In this book Michael Stubbs provides a basis for a sociolinguistic theory of literacy. He believes that a systematic theory of literacy must be based on an understanding of a number of factors, such as the relationship between written and spoken language, including how English spelling works and how it is related to spoken English. Also of paramount importance are the social, educational and technological pressures on written language, which are particularly powerful in the case of an international language like English; the social and communicative functions which written language serves - largely administrative and intellectual functions; and the variability of spoken language and the relative uniformity of written language. The book also discusses the arguments behind deprivation theory as an explanation of educational failure. Reading failure is not well understood, but the author stresses that a vital element is the attitude of teachers towards the child's language. He emphasizes that it is important that teachers should understand as much as possible about the relationship between written language and the child's spoken language. Such understanding, he argues, can only increase tolerance of regional, social and ethnic diversity in language.

Originally published in 1980. The skills of reading and writing have been proclaimed as universal human rights. This book explores why this should be so. In particular, it examines whether or not the possession of reading or writing skills has, or has not, influenced the values and organisation of society. Viewing literacy as a technology, the author maintains that like all technologies, it is created by man for limited purposes. Nevertheless, given the right conditions, it can be used by man to change not only other technologies, but also himself and (in the end) all of his society. But like other technologies, literacy too may be subject to obsolescence which poses the all-important question of whether the advent of universal literacy has coincided with the redundancy of the written word.

In Forged by Reading, Beers and Probst reflect on the role of reading in a democratic society. It is a book that helps us to understand why creating independent readers and writers is critical to the health of our world. Beers and Probst argue that reading and writing are the tools of literacy. This is critical because the history of literacy has largely been about the suppression of that power and privilege. Written in 2020 against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the death of George Floyd and the ensuing emergence of the anti-racism protests, this is a book about literacy and the opportunity for change it offers to our society. This book examines the inequalities of our world through the lens of literacy. Rachel Clarke, Independent Reading Consultant

Literacy and the Bilingual Learner focuses on bilingual learners in London (UK) schools and colleges and aims to bring this marginalised group into sharper relief so as to allow their distinctive skills and resources to be acknowledged and to ensure greater access to quality education. While the interest is in literacy more widely, this book will look specifically at the teaching of reading. How do bilingual learners develop identities as readers and how are they supported in the journey to forms of literacy which serve their social needs and academic aspirations in the twenty first century? The book takes both a sociocultural and sociolinguistic approach to literacy, to include a strong emphasis on critical literacy. An over-riding theme of the book, defined and developed across chapters which address different learning contexts, is the role of critical literacy as key in allowing second language learners to engage with the key debates of our age.