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CONTEXT AND LITERACY PRACTICES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2005

Stephen Reder  and
Erica Davila
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Abstract

This chapter reviews recent progress in resolving tensions between conceptions of literacy as a system of locally situated cultural practices and conceptions of literacy as a broader system of written language that transcends specific individuals and local contexts. Such theoretical tensions have arisen out of earlier, long-standing literacy debates—the Great Divide, the Literacy Thesis, and even debates about situated cognition itself. Recent reviews and critiques of the “New Literacy Studies” examined here—Brandt and Clinton, 2002; Collins and Blot, 2003; Street, 2003a, 2003b—are reaching toward new theoretical ground to address emerging concerns about the adequacy of current literacy theories framed in terms of locally situated social practices. This new work should be of interest not only to those working in the field of literacy but also to applied linguists in general, because the core issues have to do with the nature and role of context in language use, whether in oral or written form.

Type
LITERACY STUDIES
Information
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , Volume 25 , March 2005 , pp. 170 - 187
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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