Linguistic Literacy Research Articles

Literacy and development as discourse, cognition or as both?

Commenting on R&T's ‘Developing Linguistic Literacy’ is not an easy task. Their attempt addresses precisely the right questions, in all their complexities and breadth, centring and bundling these questions in strategic and potentially novel ways, and thereby exploring new territories and encouraging investigators to enter these territories. However, I still feel left with a sense of incompleteness and exclusion when it comes to a more discursive orientation to theorizing literacy and development.

Peer commentary on ‘Developing linguistic literacy: a comprehensive model’ by Dorit Ravid and Liliana Tolchinsky

The authors of this rich and interesting paper have done a fine service to the field of child language by bringing to the forefront the largely neglected topic of later language development. Major discourse-oriented studies including children beyond preschool age have been confined to oral production of narrative texts (Peterson & McCabe, 1983; Berman & Slobin, 1994; Hickmann, in press), and they all leave off at around age ten. The pathbreaking work of Labov (1972) did in fact consider the language of pre-adolescents and teenagers in explicitly linguistic terms, but this also concerned oral narratives without focusing on development. One important contribution of the present study, then, is to show that the progression from early school-age via middle childhood and on to adolescence and adulthood involves far more than merely increased vocabulary.

Sociocultural and cognitive constraints on literacy development.

In their position paper, Dorit Ravid & Liliana Tolchinsky have made a critical attempt to develop a theoretical framework which would account for the success of learning to read and write in different languages throughout the life span. The major focus of this framework is on the linguistic perspective of literacy development – leading to the concept of linguistic literacy. The authors highlight those aspects of literacy competence that are expressed in language as well as aspects of linguistic knowledge that are affected by literacy competence. They postulate control as a defining feature, metalanguage as a concomitant process, and familiarity with writing and written language as a condition of linguistic literacy. These postulations can be seen as highly relevant from both a theoretical and a practical point of view since such framework is useful in order to develop research initiatives and educational programs on literacy development. The view of literacy as a constituent of language knowledge characterized by the availability of multiple linguistic resources can be seen as powerful. However, given the multifaceted character of written language and its development, the question is to what extent the concept of linguistic literacy should be relativized. In the present commentary the impact of sociocultural and cognitive constraints on literacy will be stressed to disambiguate the monolithic conception of linguistic literacy.

Investigating literacy development and language acquisition. Reply to commentaries on ‘Developing linguistic literacy: a comprehensive model’

The model under discussion was elaborated in response to our need to construct a general, explicit and integrative framework for the seemingly different strands of research that we and our associates have carried out in the last decade or so. The findings of these studies made it increasingly clear to us that it is impossible to account for the dramatic changes in language knowledge and language use in children and adolescents within the boundaries of current research paradigms in language acquisition. Our goal was thus to relate later language acquisition and children's increasing cognitive abilities to literacy development in a motivated way, focusing on germane themes in socio-linguistics and discourse analysis, on the one hand, and facets of written language, on the other.

The Corporeal Stenographer: Language, Gesture, and Cyberspace

The author describes her research and creative practice exploring the intersection between digital, biomedical, and linguistic modes of bodi ly representation. She synthesizes traditional forms of painting with new computer and medical imaging technologies to call into question the relationship between visible and invisible bodily forms and actions. Her paintings and installations use scientifically rendered images of the body (from symbolic DNA sequences to developing cel lular structures) in order to consider the role of the tools and technologies used to organize and view these images. The issue of visual, linguistic, and scientific literacy is thus a corollary concern.

Linguistic Minorities and Literacy: Language Policy Issues in Developing Countries

Linguistic Minorities and Literacy: Language Policy Issues in Developing Countries

Taking “computer literacy” literally

Computer literacy implies an analogy between computer-related skills and linguistic literacy that has not been seriously explored. Recent studies of linguistic literacy can illuminate the definition of computer literacy and can suggest new ways of teaching it.

Defensive Aesthetics for the Technical Writer

Requirements of accuracy in technical writing overwhelm considerations of stylistic grace. Analysis of the resulting technical style, however, often reveals a discrepancy between technical and verbal accuracy. The object of verbal form is an accommodation between grace and accuracy. Several avenues to achieve this accommodation are presented from Martin Buber's I and Thou to psycholinguist theorists such as George Miller and Walter Kintsch. Linguistic theory and literacy analysis can also provide means of reestablishing grace, not as replacement, but in contention with technical accuracy. The aims of technical discourse, like that of all other discourse, should include the gracefulness of one human being speaking to another.

A informática educativa aplicada à educação especial: o software educativo "hércules e Jiló"

Trata-se de um ambiente de aprendizagem multimídia de caráter cooperativo, recomendado para alunos com necessidades educacionais especiais em nível de alfabetização por apresentarem deficiência mental. O software denominado "Hércules e Jiló" pretende estimular o aluno mediante múltiplos recursos, buscando a interação entre o virtual e o real, objetivando a alfabetização científica, matemática, lingüística, social e informática. Está baseado em cinco dimensões — de conteúdo, didática, cognitiva, lúdica e interativa — interdependentes e complementares, que se relacionam de maneira dialética. O mesmo foi concebido para servir de apoio pedagógico ao professor. Baseia-se em princípios cognitivo-construtivista.s e está centrado em uma série de atividades que se dividem em duas categorias: 1 — para montar e jogar; 2 — interativas e virtuais. As atividades abordam o tema dos seres vivos. Foi. Desenvolvido com profissionais de educação, psicologia, informática e desenho industrial. Foi objeto de tese de doutoramento realizada na UNED/Espanha.