Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language

by David Barton

This introduction to the expanding field of literacy studies has been fully revised for the second edition. It explores recent developments and new research that has contributed to our understanding of literacy practices, reflecting on the interdisciplinary growth of the study of reading and writing over the past decade.

Genres: Nonfiction

257 pages, Paperback

First published May 17, 1994

Reviews

[Sunah Chung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Regarding literacy and literacy education, the author, David Barton, explains major concepts and implications educators and researchers need to contemplate about. Literacy activities are not limited to the education at school, but expended to daily practices with peers, family, community, and alone. In this regard, he emphasizes the ecological perspectives to account for literacy activities. Specifically, he focuses on literacy as reading and comprehending the written form. He also considers writing systems and the meaning of written forms of language. This book provides great background knowledge on literacy practices to those who study literacy education.

[Ann Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I started on my M.A. in Linguistics, I didn't expect Literacy would be my favorite class, but it was. In the first session, I was made aware of the many ways in which I am illiterate: I cannot read Chinese, Japanese, Ethiopian, Arabic, and Russian writing, have little idea how to interpret certain charts and statistics, underestimate the power of symbolic communication such as certain rituals, and so on. My ability to memorize is much weaker than the memory of an illiterate person.
As a professor, I learned that while many of my students could obviously speak English, they had not mastered written English, which is a different form of the language. We do not write as we speak, and if we do, it is often misinterpreted or not understood at all; in some languages, such as Greek, there are two forms of the language, one of them a formal language, the other the language people speak in their everyday life. Some young students today cannot write their thoughts in cursive. Should I write a birthday greeting to my grandchildren as I am accustomed to doing, in cursive?
I'm so fascinated by the subject that I'm tempted to go on and on, but will instead highly recommend this book as an introduction to a new way of looking at language which will enrich not only your intellectual life but the rest of your life as well. It will lead you to see things that have been right under your nose but you have never noticed.

[Tyson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly formatted

I would have expected a book of this price to be off a higher quality. There are several extra spaces and grammatical error throughout the entire book. While the content is fine, the overall format is one of the worst I’ve seen on Kindle. The price should reflect the lack of attention to ebook formatting.