In these studies Michael Macdonald examines the extraordinary flowering of literacy in both the settled and nomadic populations of western Arabia in the 1500 years before the birth of Islam, when a larger proportion of the population could read and write than in any other part of the ancient Near East, and possibly any other part of the ancient world. Even among the nomads there seems to have been almost universal literacy in some regions. The scores of thousands of inscriptions and graffiti they left paint a vivid picture of the way-of-life, social systems, and personal emotions of their authors, information which is not available for any other non-elite population in the ancient Near East outside Egypt. This abundance of inscriptions has enabled Michael Macdonald to explore in detail some of the - often surprising - ways in which reading and writing were used in the literate and non-literate communities of ancient Arabia. He describes the many different languages and the distinct family of alphabets used in ancient Arabia, and discusses the connections between the use of particular languages or scripts and expressions of personal and communal identity. The problem of how ancient perceptions of ethnicity in this region can be identified in the sources is another theme of these papers; more specifically, they deal from several different perspectives with the question of what ancient writers meant when they applied the term 'Arab' to a wide variety of peoples throughout the ancient Near East.

This book challenges traditional, sanctioned, and official histories of reading comprehension by examining how ideological and cultural hegemony work to reproduce dominant ideologies through education in general and reading comprehension research and testing specifically. Willis analyzes the ideological and cultural foundations that underpin concepts, theories, research, tests, and interpretations, and connects these to the broader social and political contexts within U.S. history in which reading comprehension research and testing have evolved. The reconstruction of a history of reading comprehension research and testing in this way demystifies past and current assumptions about the interconnections among researchers, reading comprehension research, and standardized reading comprehension tests. A promising vision of the future of reading comprehension research and testing emerges-one that is more complex, multidimensional, inclusive, and socially just.
"Reading Comprehension Research andTesting in the U.S. "aims to revolutionize how reading comprehension is conceived, theorized, tested, and interpreted for all children. This is a critically relevant volume for educational researchers, teacher educators, school administrators, teachers, policy makers, and all those concerned with school literacy and educational equity.

This book challenges traditional, sanctioned, and official histories of reading comprehension by examining how ideological and cultural hegemony work to reproduce dominant ideologies through education in general and reading comprehension research and testing specifically. Willis analyzes the ideological and cultural foundations that underpin concepts, theories, research, tests, and interpretations, and connects these to the broader social and political contexts within U.S. history in which reading comprehension research and testing have evolved. The reconstruction of a history of reading comprehension research and testing in this way demystifies past and current assumptions about the interconnections among researchers, reading comprehension research, and standardized reading comprehension tests. A promising vision of the future of reading comprehension research and testing emerges-one that is more complex, multidimensional, inclusive, and socially just.
"Reading Comprehension Research andTesting in the U.S. "aims to revolutionize how reading comprehension is conceived, theorized, tested, and interpreted for all children. This is a critically relevant volume for educational researchers, teacher educators, school administrators, teachers, policy makers, and all those concerned with school literacy and educational equity.

This book offers a comprehensive view of multimodal composing and literacies in multilingual contexts for ESL and EFL education in United States of America and globally. It illustrates the current state of multimodal composing and literacies, with an emphasis on English learners' language and literacy development. The book addresses issues concerning multilinguals' multimodal composing and reflects on what the nexus of multimodality, writing development, and multilingual education entails for future research. It provides research-driven and practice-oriented perspectives of multilinguals' multimodal composing, drawing on empirical data from classroom contexts to elucidate aspects of multimodal composing from a range of theoretical perspectives such as multiliteracies, systemic functional linguistics, and social semiotics. This book bridges the gap among theory, research, and practice in TESOL and applied linguistics. It serves as a useful resource for scholars and teacher educators in the areas of applied linguistics, second language studies, TESOL, and language education.

Literacy for QTLS is written specifically with the needs of all those training to teach or currently working in the lifelong learning sector in mind. This highly practical and easy-to-use text will help you identify your areas of strength and weakness, develop your knowledge and skills in order to pass the national literacy test and adopt strategies that you can use to support the language and literacy skills of your own learners. Packed with test-your-knowledge questions, examples and recommendations for best practice, this book, closely linked to the QTLS standards, is essential reading for all those needing to ensure that their level of literacy and language is in line with the minimum core requirements.The text is accompanied by a Companion Website at www.pearsoned.co.uk/hickey, providing an electronic version of the self-audit sections, downloadable templates and additional resources.

As individual institutions of education at all levels respond to the call for greater accountability and assessment, those who teach literacy face the challenging task of choosing what to measure and how to measure it. Both defining literacy clearly and tying that definition to strategies for assessment are two of many challenges faced by educators, theorists, and members of the public who assume responsibility for assessing literacy as well as developing and improving literacy programs. In a pluralistic and democratic society sensitive to multicultural variation, we need to find our way between the competing needs for inclusiveness and for clear and useful standards. Multiple definitions of literacy raise the issue of whether there can be a standard or set of standards and if so, what they are in an environment of multiple literacies. Indeed, the downside of the defeat of older monolithic notions of literacy is the undermining or at least the questioning of well-established methods of literacy assessment. To some extent, the older methods of assessment have been revised in the light of more expansive definitions of literacy. But will this kind of revision be enough? How are the criteria for judgment to be known and applied? Thus, this volume addresses the problems of assessing literacy development in the context of multiple and inclusive definitions. Each section consists of chapters that deal with the issue of definitions per se, with standards in postsecondary settings, with the K-12 situation, and with alternative, non-school environments where literacy is critical to human functioning in a democratic society.

This volume revisits, problematizes, and expands the meaning of quality in the context of adult basic education. Covering a wide range of relevant topics, it includes contributors from the realms of both policy and practice and encompasses both the major instructional areas-reading, writing, and mathematics-as well as larger issues of literacy, learning, and adulthood. Each chapter focuses on what improving quality in the field might look like through the particular lens of the author's work. As a whole, the broad scope of topics and ideas addressed will raise the level of discussion, knowledge, and practice regarding quality in adult basic education.
In this book, the term "adult basic education "refers to the broad range of services for adults who wish to improve their literacy and language skills, including beginning and intermediate writing, writing and numeracy, preGED, GED/Adult Secondary Education, and ESL instruction that takes place in a range of contexts including schools, community-based programs, and workplace development programs. The volume is organized around three themes:
*Accountability, Standards, and the Use of Documentation and Research;
*Program Structures and Instruction; and
*Rethinking Our Assumptions and Concepts.
Coming at a time of increasing pressure to standardize, to be accountable, and to improve outcomes, and when calls for evidence-based practice are fueling stakeholders' interest in the relationship between research and practice at all levels of the system, "Toward Defining and Improving Quality in Adult Basic Education" is particularly timely for scholars, graduate students, and professionals in the field ofadult basic education.

This unique and timely book follows the experiences of students form ethic minority backgrounds, focusing on the role of literacy in daily life and the differences between the home and school. The author looks at the conflict between expectations and practices at school and in the home, arguing that problems are inevitable where class and cultural differences exist.
The book follows the cases of four Arabic teenagers, their families and community to explore the roles of literacy in their daily lives. Emerging themes are:
- how literacy practices in the community are undergoing rapid change due to global developments in technology;
- how the patterns of written and spoken language in English and Arabic in the homes are linked with social practices in logical and coherent ways;
- how many of the family practices, that differ from schools' culture and language, become marginalized.
With its accessible style and theoretical grounding, this book will be highly relevant to teachers working in multicultural contexts, students and lecturers in language/literacy or on TESOL courses and academics and researchers.

This book employs a critical discourse ethnographic approach to map the production of social meaning in digital media in education, drawing on insights from Switzerland to unpack the disconnects which arise in thinking postdigitally and ways forward for rethinking sociocultural approaches. Grounded in Foucault-influenced, linguistically-oriented discourse studies, the book calls attention to the ways in which educational discourse has increasingly promoted digital media as a means of justifying curriculum change. Using data from policy documents, participant observation and interviews, Mathier charts how this rhetoric manifests itself in the combination of top-down policies, on-the-ground implementation, and the lived experiences of students outside the classroom, and in turn, surfaces broader disconnects. The volume explores how digital education is increasingly shaped by platform capitalism, how young people's experiences are disregarded in formal knowledge production, and how the prevalence of digital teaching and learning contributes to issues of access and inequality. Through a critical discursive approach, Mathier demonstrates the need for literacy practices in postdigital education to interrogate the ways in which digital media and education are entangled in lager sociopolitical practices. This book will appeal to students and scholars in critical discourse studies, critical literacy studies, digital communication, education research, and linguistic ethnography.

Early Reading Development and Dyslexia focuses on how children learn to read and on the difficulties some children have in acquiring this important skill. It concentrates specifically on the very beginning stages of reading development - that is, in the 4-7 year age group. This book begins by considering current ideas about how young children begin to acquire reading skills, and draws particularly on research that focuses on the language abilities that they need to have in place in order to facilitate early reading. The link between phonological abilities and the acquisition of letter knowledge is especially strongly highlighted, but attention is also paid to other reading-related language skills and to the role that parents and teachers play in promoting good early reading development. Later chapters focus on the importance of early identification of reading problems through screening and assessment procedures. Effective teaching of beginning reading skills within the classroom is discussed, prior to a review of current specialist teaching methods designed to improve reading progress in early-diagnosed young dyslexic children.

There are many examples of good practices in literacy which have not fully impacted upon the ways in which we teach children with dyslexia.

Dyslexia and Literacy: An Introduction to Theory and Practice provides the reader with an understanding of the most recent theoretical positions in dyslexia and literacy and how these may be applied in practice. The book critically considers the current notions of literacy, provides an understanding of literacy concepts and re-appraises what we mean by literacy. The implications of this for dyslexic children are immense as it means that assessment and support can be more embedded in the curriculum context.

The role of professionals such as learning support co-ordinators and educational psychologists are discussed within current legislative and theoretical frameworks. Classroom intervention and approaches to dealing with the diverse needs presented by dyslexic children are addressed by examining individual education plans and the development of differentiated curricula in schools.

Gavin Reid and Janice Wearmouth have assembled an international field of renowned experts whose text will be a core source for university students on reading and dyslexia courses and is a set book for Open University course E801. Trainee teachers, special educational needs co-ordinators and educational psychologists will also find this volume of great value.

Open University Set Book for course E801-Difficulties in Literacy Development

This book is an exposition of a curriculum innovation within the complex yet fertile ground of school-based education in Singapore. Beyond straightforward descriptions and protocols, this book purposefully connects classroom practices with theories in a clear, uncomplicated way. The result provides a series of rationales for action, reflection and understanding that other publications in digital storytelling sometimes fail to cover or explain in sufficient detail. Broadly, these include digital multimodal authorship; teachers' and students' storytelling task design and assessment; the use of digital storytelling as a reflective and reflexive expression of teachers' professionalism; and dialogism in classroom practice.

African American Literacies is a personal, public and political exploration of the problems faced by student writers from the African American Vernacular English (AAVE) culture.
Drawing on personal experience, Elaine Richardson provides a compelling account of the language and literacy practices of African American students. The book analyses the problems encountered by the teachers of AAVE speakers, and offers African American centred theories and pedagogical methods of addressing these problems. Richardson builds on recent research to argue that teachers need not only to recognise the value and importance of African American culture, but also to use African American English when teaching AAVE speakers standard English.
African American Literacies offers a holistic and culturally relevant approach to literacy education, and is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the literacy practices of African American students.

This book shows connections between oral story listening and unique, enduring educational effects in and outside of the classroom. Using scientific studies and interviews, as well as personal observations from more than thirty years in schools and libraries, the authors examine learning outcomes from frequent story listening. Throughout the book, Schatt and Ryan illustrate that experiencing stories told entirely from memory transforms individuals and builds community, affecting areas such as reading comprehension, visualization, focus, flow states, empathy, attachment, and theory of mind.

With more than half a million paperback copies in print and now in this stunning hardcover keepsake edition, " How to Read a Book" is the classic and definitive guide to reading comprehension for students of literature, scholars across disciplines, and anyone who just loves to read.
Originally written in 1940 and first published by Simon & Schuster in 1972, "How to Read a Book" introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them in order to gain the most understanding and insight from any book. From elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading and beyond, readers will learn when and how to "judge a book by its cover," perceive structure no matter the prose, read critically, and extract the author's message from the text.
Also included are specific reading techniques that work best for reading particular genres, whether they be practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy, or social science works. A recommended reading list and multiple comprehension tests are incorporated as well in order to measure progress in reading skills, speed, and understanding.
As poignant and applicable today as it was nearly seventy-five years ago, this beautiful hardcover edition is the perfect way to rediscover "How to Read a Book," the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension.

This volume offers a unique glimpse into the teaching approaches and thinking of a wide range of well-known literacy researchers, and the lessons they have learned from their own teaching lives. The contributors teach in a variety of universities, programs, and settings. Each shares an approach he or she has used in a course, and introduces the syllabus for this course through personal reflections that give the reader a sense of the theories, prior experiences, and influential authors that have shaped their own thoughts and approaches. In addition to describing the nature of their students and the program in which the course is taught, many authors also share key issues with which they have grappled over the years while teaching their course; others discuss considerations that were relevant during the preparation of this particular syllabus or describe how it evolved in light of student input.
The book is organized by areas within literacy education: reading; English/language arts; literature; emergent literacy; content-area literacy; literacy assessment and instruction; literacy and technology; and inquiries into literacy, theory, and classroom practice. It is accompanied by an interactive Web site: http: //msit.gsu.edu/handbook. This online resource provides additional information about the authors' courses including complete syllabi, recommended readings, grading rubrics, and sample assignments. Readers are invited to respond and contribute their own syllabi and teaching experiences to the discourse generated by the volume.

This practical book, written by experienced practitioners, will help teachers of pupils with Special Educational Needs assess, record and improve the literacy skills of their pupils. The creation of the National Literacy Strategy and the Literacy Hour has put additional demands upon teachers, particularly those concerned with Special Needs.
The book covers all aspects of literacy development through the Early and Primary Years including early skills, reading, phonological skills, writing, spelling and handwriting. This resource pack includes advice and ideas on record keeping with Individual Education Plans, assessing pupils' skills and strategies for future learning.
It contains photocopiable checklists and assessment sheets for both teacher and pupil to complete and has clear child-friendly illustrated worksheets throughout. An indispensable resource for all classrooms.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203470400

The four articles in this issue represent recent developments in the study of basic processes in L2 reading at the primary level. The research reported reflects the array of theoretical and instructional issues targeted currently by researchers who wish to understand L2 reading development in young children. Ultimately, this research should be used to help policymakers and educators make better informed decisions about how L2 literacy instruction can be enhanced across various sociocultural and linguistic boundaries.

In Volume III, as in Volumes I and II, the classic topics of reading are included--from vocabulary and comprehension to reading instruction in the classroom--and, in addition, each contributor was asked to include a brief history that chronicles the legacies within each of the volume's many topics. However, on the whole, Volume III is not about tradition. Rather, it explores the verges of reading research between the time Volume II was published in 1991 and the research conducted after this date. The editors identified two broad themes as representing the myriad of verges that have emerged since Volumes I and II were published: (1) broadening the definition of reading, and (2) broadening the reading research program. The particulars of these new themes and topics are addressed.

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 book defines literacy broadly as it explores concepts within core subjects and shows how to make standards-based literacy the goal and outcome of school reform. It imagines a future digital medium where educational technology is worthy of the spirit our children bring to it.
Classrooms and schools centered on learners and learning can be intellectually exciting places. This book attends to that concern while giving a great deal of attention to connecting overlapping themes to good teaching.
"Literacy Today" sets out to challenge teachers to make literacy and learning more relevant and lasting for their students. By providing a standards-based context for connecting basic subjects, it encourages teachers to reflect upon their practices while building a conceptual framework for new directions and new approaches to the curriculum. As the concept of literacy expands to meet the needs of today's complex world, teachers need all the assistance that they can get. The standards movement does notauthoritatively tell teachers what to do. rather, it helps them make decisions about what to teach, what to spend time on, and what to eliminate from the curriculum. This books gives teachers a road map and a literacy-intensive destination. It highlights some of the better routes and helps teachers with good activities and professional development along the way.

Greek Writing from Knossos to Homer examines the origin of the Greek alphabet. Departing from previous accounts, Roger Woodard places the advent of the alphabet within an unbroken continuum of Greek literacy beginning in the Mycenean era. He argues that the creators of the Greek alphabet, who adapted the Phoenician consonantal script, were scribes accustomed to writing Greek with the syllabic script of Cyprus. Certain characteristic features of the Cypriot script--for example, its strategy for representing consonant sequences and elements of Cypriot Greek phonology--were transferred to the new alphabetic script. Proposing a Cypriot origin of the alphabet at the hands of previously literate adapters brings clarity to various problems of the alphabet, such as the Greek use of the Phoenician sibilant letters. The alphabet, rejected by the post- Bronze Age "Mycenaean" culture of Cyprus, was exported west to the Aegean, where it gained a foothold among a then illiterate Greek people emerging from the Dark Age.

This edited book brings together an international cast of contributors to examine how academic literacy is learned and mastered in different tertiary education settings around the world. Bringing to the fore the value of qualitative enquiry through ethnographic methods, the authors illustrate in-depth descriptions of genre knowledge and academic literacy development in first and second language writing. All of the data presented in the chapters are original, as well as innovative in the field in terms of content and scope, and thought-provoking regarding theoretical, methodological and educational approaches. The contributions are also representative of both novice and advanced academic writing experiences, providing further insights into different stages of academic literacy development throughout the career-span of a researcher. Set against the backdrop of internationalisation trends in Higher Education and the pressure on multilingual academics to publish their research outcomes in English, this volume will be of use to academics and practitioners interested in the fields of Languages for Academic Purposes, Applied Linguistics, Literacy Skills, Genre Analysis and Acquisition and Language Education.

The major shift going on today in the technologies of reading and writing raises important questions about conventional conceptions of literacy and its role in education, society, and culture. What are the important characteristics of electronic forms of reading and writing distinguishing them from printed forms? To what extent and in what ways is literacy being transformed by new technologies? This central question is addressed in this volume from diverse, multidisciplinary perspectives. The contributing authors focus on a guiding question in one of the following areas, which correspond to the major sections of the book:
*Transforming Texts. What are the new differences between printed and electronic texts, and what are the implications of new textual forms for defining literacy, especially in regard to teaching and learning in schools?
*Transforming Readers and Writers. How do electronic reading and writing change conceptualizations of literacy development from childhood through adulthood?
*Transforming Classrooms and Schools. What are the effects of introducing new reading and writing technologies into schools and classrooms?
*Transforming Instruction. How can instruction be adapted in response to the changing literacy landscape, and how can teachers and students exploit forms of reading and writing to enhance teaching and learning?
*Transforming Society. What are the broad societal implications of the increasing prevalence of electronic forms of reading and writing?
*Transforming Literacy Research. What are the questions that must be addressed as digital reading and writing become more common, and what approaches to research will be most useful in addressing those questions?
This volume is the result of an interactive process. The contributors met as a group to discuss drafts of their chapters at a one-day meeting convened and sponsored by the National Reading Research Center, and had read each others' chapters prior to this gathering. That meeting was followed by a two-day conference attended by approximately 180 researchers, educators, and policymakers who responded to an open invitation to present papers and to attend sessions focusing on the six major themes of the book. Contributors then revised their chapters based on interactions with fellow contributors, conference participants, and volume editors. Thus, this work is more than just a compilation of the individual authors' views. Rather, it represents a synthesis of a broad range of current thinking about how literacy is being and may be transformed by technology.

The role of interaction and corrective feedback is central to research in second language learning and teaching, and this volume is the first of its kind to explain and apply design methodologies and materials in an approachable way. Using examples from interaction, feedback and task studies, it presents clear and practical advice on how to carry out research in these areas, providing step-by step guides to design and methodological principles, suggestions for reading, short activities, memory aids and an A-Z glossary for easy reference. Its informative approach to study design, and in-depth discussions of implementing research methodology, make it accessible to novice and experienced researchers alike. Commonly used tools in these paradigms are explained, including stimulated recalls, surveys, eye-tracking, metanalysis and research synthesis. Open research areas and gaps in the literature are also discussed, providing a point-of-departure for researchers making their first foray into interaction, feedback and task-based teaching research.