ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book makes no claim to provide a well-defined theory of literacy. It uses as a starting point for making such observations of the uses to which literacy is actually put. In discussing the bases of a sociolinguistic account of literacy, the book emphasizes at many points that reading and writing always take place in cultural and social settings, and that the functions of literacy must be included in any such account. Literacy involves not only psychological processes in the individual reader. A systematic theory of literacy must be based, first of all, on an account of the relationship between spoken and written language. The relationship between the English writing system and units of spoken English is complex. The book discusses that however, has not been based on the observation of readers and writers in particular social settings such as classrooms.
