FACULTAD DE HUMANIDADES Y CIENCIAS SOCIALES ACREDITACIN DE IDIOMA INGLS NIVEL II LECTOCOMPRENSIN TRABAJO PRCTICO N.

. 1 PART A Censors and the New Proposals for Literacy

Robert E. Shafer

Educational researchers have proposed a variety of new methods for literacy instruction as well as new definitions of literacy in recent decades. For example, Chisman (1990) has noted that a five-part definition of adult literacyreading, writing, and verbal communication abilities as well as mathematics and problem-solving skillsis "accepted by most of the recent scholarly literature" and has "increasingly winning acceptance by policy makers and literacy providers as well" (p. 2). Chisman continues to note that this five-part construct is often referred to as "basic skills," a term that is used interchangeably with both "literacy" and "functional literacy." Pattison (1982) proposes that "literacy is a combination of variablesindividual and cultural awareness of language and the interplay of this awareness with the means of expression" (p. 7). And Tuman (1987) views literacy in a psychological sense:
Literacy is the ability to read and write as defined in terms of the ability to understand and create symbolic verbal meanings stored in some permanent form.... Literacy, then, is nothing less than our ability to deal with discourse that projects a worldto deal in other words with the world of texts (pp. 28-30).

Giroux (1987), writing from a Freirean perspective, conceives literacy as "critical literacy" tied to and grounded in "an ethical and political project that dignified and extended the possibilities for human life and freedom" (p. 2). He sees literacy as a social movement"part of a larger struggle over the orders of knowledge, values, and social practices that must necessarily prevail if the fight for establishing democratic institutions and a democratic society were to succeed" (p. 2). Further, Giroux sees this struggle as ongoing in the United States:
The language of literacy is almost exclusively linked to popular forms of liberal and right-wing discourse that reduce it to either a functional perspective tied to narrowly conceived economic interests or to an

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ideology designed to initiate the poor, the underprivileged, and minorities into the logic of a unitary, dominant cultural tradition. In the first instance, the crisis in literacy is predicated on the need to train more workers for occupational jobs that demand "functional" reading and writing skills. The conservative political interests that structure this position are evident in the influence of corporate and other groups on schools to develop curricula more closely tuned to the job market, curricula that will take on a decidedly vocational orientation and in so doing reduce the need for corporations to provide on-the-job training. In the second instance, literacy becomes the ideological vehicle through which to legitimate schooling as a site for character development; in this case, literacy is associated with the transmission and mastery of a unitary Western tradition based on the virtues of hard work, industry, respect for family, institutional authority, and an unquestioning respect for the nation. In short, literacy becomes a pedagogy of chauvinism dressed up in the lingo of the Great Books (pp. 2-3).

Giroux's "second instance" undoubtedly brings to mind the work of Hirsch (1987) and his concern for "cultural literacy" or "core knowledge." Hirsch's Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, as Simmons discussed in Chapter 6, proposes that there is a core of knowledge in history, science, literature, and the arts that every American needs to know, which should be taught specifically in public schools. As another example of the new definitions of literacy, the concept of media literacymeaning the development of critical abilities to evaluate the output of electronic mediawas advanced by McLuhan in his early book Understanding Media (1962). Strassman (1983) has also expanded traditional definitions of literacy to include the "interactive computer medium" for communication; and Saloman (1983) has discussed media literacy with particular reference to television. This type of literacy will undoubtedly continue to be an important aspect of many school programs. As definitions of literacy have changed to accommodate new technologies and shifting sociopolitical views, so too have the implications of recent research into reading and writing processes changed literacy instruction and learning. Bloome (1987) has noted that this research resulted from moving the study of literacy from the laboratory to the real world and using a variety of new methods (for instance, ethnomethodology) to study it "from the perspective of a broad range of disciplines such as anthropology, sociolinguistics, cognitive psychology, administration and policy studies, English and literary criticism, linguistics, educational sociology, special education, and developmental psychology" (p. xv). An early example, and perhaps the most strikingly original one, is Emig's (1971) study of the composing processes of 12th graders. She used case-study
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techniques, in particular one that she called "composing aloud," to examine how good writers compose in the "extensive and reflexive modes." Emig discovered that when students write for their own purposes, they spend a great deal of time prewriting, planning, and revising; she called this "reflexive writing" (p. 91). In the schoolsponsored writing Emig observed, very little time was allowed for these activities. She labeled school-sponsored writing "extensive" writing, noting that the writer was usually detached from his or her subject and that "adult others, notably teachers, are the chief audience for extensive writing" (p. 91). Emig's findings clearly showed that many teachers did not understand that writing is a process, requiring time for prewriting, planning, and revision and that attention to that process will result in both better writers and better products. During the 1970s and '80s the teaching of writing changed as many teachers began to concentrate on allowing time for the "writing process" in their classrooms. This movement was both facilitated and enhanced by the Bay Area Writing Project, now known as the National Writing Project in the United States. As the writing process was being explored, researchers were also studying reading and the connections between reading and writing. They built on the pioneering work of Louise Rosenblaw (1938/1983, 1978) and her development of a transactional theory of reader response (explained by Simmons in Chapter 1) and began to design an intriguing model of the reading process. They suggested that print provides only the potential for meaning, but that it is the reader who always creates meaning from the text. Moving further along the same theoretical path, Brent (1992) has proposed that the reader's construction or creation of meaning is an essential aspect of the writer's process of invention. These developmentsconcerned with cognitive and affective aspects of literacy learning as well as its social and political meaning and status within societycould not help but bring forth varied responses from many communities. Teachers, curriculum workers, school administrators, and parents were discouraged by the failure of early behavioristic accountability models in reading as well as the lack of attention to writing. Many welcomed the work of researchers such as Emig and the reader response theorists; teachers began to experiment with process writing combined with the use of literature in place of basal readying programs in their classrooms. Shafer, Staab, and Smith (1983) described such an experiment in a Phoenix, Arizona, elementary school in the early 1980s. Teachers began to meet voluntarily after school and on Saturdays to discuss these innovations; local and regional teacher networks were gradually informed. In the later 1980s, "whole language teachers," as they called themselves, flooded the convention programs of the International Reading
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Association and the National Council of Teachers of English with meetings about whole language teaching. There is still disagreement on a precise definition of whole language: for example, Froese (1991) describes it as "a child-centered, literature-based approach to language teaching that immerses students in real communication situations whenever possible" (p. vii). On the other hand, Edelsky, Altwerger, and Flores (1991) characterize whole language as the following:
A unity of framework, theoretical base, and congruent practice...a belief that reading and writing are learned through really reading and writing (not through doing reading and writing exercises) using genuine textschildren's literature, song lyrics, dictionaries, and so on (pp. 6-7).

ACTIVITIES 1. Explain the main concepts contributed by Giroux and Emig. 2. What are the other authors mentioned in the text? What is their contribution? e. What is "whole language? LANGUAGE 1. What is the function of the underlined words in the text? 2. Transcribe the sentences containing the linking words and provide a translation in your language.

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