Response to Street & Lefstein Section A
25 January 2010Street and Lefstein claim “[U]nderstanding and defining literacy lies at the heart of ‘doing’ literacy” (47). Prior to my starting the studies for my BA in English, I would likely have answered the question, “what is literacy?” with a surface response such as, “the ability to read and write.” I now have been exposed to other definitions of literacy and theoretical ways of looking at literacy and literacies, what they mean in today’s world, what we can do as educators to facilitate the acquisition of literacies, etc. In addition to my newfound knowledge I bring to this academic conundrum my own ideas about literacy gleaned from personal experience and observations. This conversation about literacy and literacy practices is, while necessary and intriguing, also frustrating. It is frustrating because, ultimately, while the conversation goes on, children and adults need to be taught. As Street and Lefstein put it, “in the light of this academic challenge, what are literacy policy makers and practitioners to do?” (41).
I know that this part of the book is an introduction and “mapping of the field” of literacy studies so the main objective is to give an overview of the conflicting schools on these studies. One of the things I am hoping to see addressed is the difference in literacy for children and literacy for adults. That is, the difference in introducing or teaching each group. As someone who took Spanish for the first time as a 40-something year old, I can attest to the fact that language acquisition for an adult is much different and, I would argue, much more difficult than that for a child. How closely linked are literacy acquisition and language acquisition? I can’t wait to dig deeper into these questions.
Street, Brian V. and Adam Lefstein. Literacy: An Advanced Resource Book. New York: Routledge, 2007. Print.
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Great point. Street and Lefstein will indeed overview key issues associated with the developing literacies of both children and adults, including much useful information from studies that focus on exactly these populations. In light of Duffy’s work, language certainly figures in that development as well.
Thanks, Melissa!
Good questions and at the heart of it all, like you said what is literacy? It seems like we have to define that before we can define how to obtain it. I agree that there is a difference between children and adults abilities to learn differing types of literacy.
Good question but I can assure you that it is easier for children to acquire language than adults based on my knowledge from my undergraduate linguistics class where choamsky argues that language is innate even though there are many counter argument. Take for example, if you place an adult and a child in community to learn a language, you will discover that, the child learns or better still acquires that language faster than the adult.May be from the peer groups in school and say play ground etc.