ABSTRACT
The interest in the nature and consequences of literacy and its instruction has exploded during the last several decades. This explosion goes far beyond the perennial educational concerns about why Johnny (and Susie) can’t (or won’t) read. Disciplines as diverse as linguistics, cultural studies, and psychology have all come to view an understanding of the processes of reading and writing as critical to their fields. Not surprisingly, there has been a tendency for each discipline to create literacy in its own image. Linguists emphasize the language or textual dimensions of reading and writing. Cognitive psychologists explore the mental processes that are used to generate meaning through and from print. Socioculturalists view acts of literacy as expressions of group identity that signal power relationships. Developmentalists focus on the strategies employed and the patterns displayed in the learning of reading and writing.
