ABSTRACT
This popular text, now in its fourth edition, “unpacks” the various dimensions of literacy—linguistic and other sign systems; cognitive; sociocultural; and developmental—and at the same time accounts for the interrelationships among them. Distinguished by its examination of literacy from a multidimensional and interdisciplinary perspective, it provides a strong conceptual foundation upon which literacy curriculum and instruction in school settings can be grounded.
Linking theory and research to practice in an understandable, user-friendly manner, the text provides in-depth coverage of the dimensions of literacy, includes demonstrations and “hands-on” activities, examines authentic reading and writing events that reflect key concepts, and summarizes the concepts in tables and figures.
Changes in the Fourth Edition
• Addresses academic language, new literacies/multiliteracies, and their relationship to literacy learning
• More fully develops the developmental dimension of literacy in separate chapters on adult mediation and learner construction
• Expands the discussion of multimodal literacies
• Extends and integrates the discussion of bilingualism and biliteracy throughout the text
• Integrates instructional implications more fully throughout
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |18 pages
Introduction
chapter |16 pages
A Multidimensional View of Reading and Writing
part |90 pages
The Linguistic and Other Sign Systems Dimension of Literacy
chapter |39 pages
The Nature of Language and Other Sign Systems
chapter |24 pages
Oral and Written Language Relationships
chapter |25 pages
Language Variation
part |118 pages
The Cognitive Dimension of Literacy
chapter |29 pages
The Constructive Nature of Perception
chapter |41 pages
The Reading Process
chapter |18 pages
Understanding Written Discourse
chapter |28 pages
The Writing Process
part |56 pages
The Sociocultural Dimension of Literacy
chapter |30 pages
Understanding Literacy as Social Practices
chapter |24 pages
The Authority of Written Discourse
part |50 pages
The Developmental Dimension of Literacy