Sociocultural Approaches to Language and Literacy : An Interactionist Perspective

This book deals with one of the major crises in education - the achievement of literacy skills. The approach taken is humanistic, focusing on relevant historical and cultural factors, and providing the reader with a broad range of examples of literacy development and education.

One of the most crucial areas of education - the development of oral language and the acquisition of literacy - is examined here with an effective combination of theory and practice. The sociocultural perspective is illustrated through descriptions of learning by populations usually neglected in treatments of literacy: American Sign Language Users, second-language speakers and minority students. The book covers a broad range of ages, ethnic backgrounds, locations, and literacy concerns from pre-school to law school. Although the populations and literacy issues are diverse, the book's unity is provided by a broadly shared theoretical framework. As such, Interactionist Approaches to Language and Literacy will be valuable to educators at every level and to researchers in applied linguistics, psychology, adult literacy programs, and English as a second language.