ABSTRACT

This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part starts with a case for the inclusion of oracy as a key part of the literacy curriculum. It presents a conceptual framework of oracy skills, highlighting the physical, linguistic, cognitive, social and emotional dimensions of language development. The part provides the development of tools for the analysis of classroom dialogue in literacy. It highlights the potential of different tools for the analysis of dialogue and also presents a natural evolution of literacy studies that increasingly includes the multimodal features of literacy as different text genres work across modes. The part focuses on the affordances of small group reading instruction approaches and the development of literate thinking. It discusses the importance of metalinguistics for the teaching of writing, describes the different approaches historically taken to examine children’s writing development, and reviews an integrated model which considers the individual, social and textual elements of writing.