The English Language, Past, Present and Future - Essay Example

?The English Language, Past, Present, and Future: Introduction: It is widely believed that the term literacy implies different meanings in different communities which underlines the concept that literacy or the use of language is impossibly closely connected to a language’s social context of use. The process of literacy is actually influenced by both traditional and functional perspectives which will be contemplated in this essay. The traditional perspectives differ from the functional perspectives in respect that while the former assists the encounter of literacy with the printed texts in reading and writing in the schools and keeps the journey of literacy limited to the school domain and educational context of schooling, the latter encompasses a different view which grooms literacy beyond the school domain to make it serve bigger purposes in life. Both perspectives play a phenomenal role in transforming one into a literate person. It is also worth mentioning that a variety of ways is used in different communities to include and socialize children into literacy and those ways may stand in contrast with each other. So the issue of how different language practices need to be sufficiently tailored in respect to different kinds of learners as a way of speeding up the process of their socialization into literacy will also be explored in this essay. Literacy is a multidimensional activity based on a wide range of perspectives. According to one definition, it is considered a product of a wide variety of component skills all of which are essential to master high-level performance. “Phonological awareness, letter knowledge, automaticity in reading letter sequences, and lexical access could be identified key component reading skills” (Snow 2004, p. 3). The definitions for literacy differ enormously. Holistic thinkers see the act of reading as a solitary and integrated capacity and stress that attention should be paid to solitary components in reading instruction as meaning-making forms the bedrock of good reading skills. They in contrast to componential view do not consider literacy to be the product of an array of component skills which are mentioned earlier. While some consider literacy to be a solitary activity, others claim that it should essentially be viewed as an “interactive, collaborative activity embedded in social purposes, even when the act of reading itself is solitary” (Snow 2004, p. 3). As defined by the solitary viewers, reading and writing do not form collaborative activities but should be acknowledged primarily as “inside-the-head psycholinguistic processes” (Snow 2004, p. 3). The traditional perspective remains central to literacy while living in the present global environment heavily influenced by technology has developed new literacy needs. The autonomous model of literacy is one of the main models based on the traditional perspective according to which literacy does not have its roots embedded in the social context and exists “independently of specific contexts of social practice and producing effects independently of contextual social factors” (Lankshear 1999). So, the literacy practices in accordance with the traditional perspective are viewed independent of dynamic trend in everyday practical life. In contrast to this, the functional perspective based ideological model rejects the notion that societal contexts do not play any role in the process of making a person literate. Literacy in many forms keeps evolving and is embedded in multiple contexts including “particular relations and structures of power, values, beliefs, goals and purposes, interests, economic and political conditions, and so on” (Lankshear 1999). It is important to acknowledge that the practice of literacy originates not from the literacy itself as implied by the traditional perspective but from the combined action of literary components and multiple other social factors. The development of literacy does not remain restricted to the schools alone rather it keeps developing in the social life and promotes values, norms, and social relationships. This is why the traditional perspective in the present global environment is largely rejected by many educationists and scholars because literacy cannot be viewed as neutral in any way (Lankshear 1999). Research suggests that literacy skills for the 21st century are strongly indicative of social views on literacy because it is well understood in the present highly diverse classrooms that the nature of literacy and learning process is redefined with changed social contexts. The functional approach has taken over the traditional views about reading and writing because “it takes into account the goals and settings of people’s activities with written language” (Kintgen, Kroll & Rose 1988, p. 75). This perspective also “calls for the development of new and more complex notions of family, community, and literacy” (Kleeck & Stahl 2003, p. ix). It is implied that when children learn English or any language, “they are acquiring a tool for social action because they learn language in social situations” (Mercer & Swann 1996, p. 6) which underlines the importance of social contexts in the process of literacy. Now literacy is widely acknowledged as an activity which has its roots embedded in social purposes. However, it is claimed that “the interrelationship between home and school should be taken into account” (Kleeck & Stahl 2003, p. 3) when discussing the roots of literacy. Literacy skills now aim at propelling the students to explore new social contexts by facilitating the exchange of words and knowledge between diverse communities. They not only strengthen the ability to move across different foreign social networks but also “enable participation in the new communities emerging within a networked society” (Jenkins 2006, p. 55). “All children from preschool through the early elementary grades go through broad phases of literary development” (IRA/NAEYC, cited in McGee & Morrow 2005, p. 116). Pre-literacy is the earliest stage and begins in infancy in which parents typically read aloud to their children. In this early stage of literacy development, “infants understand more than they can say” (Mercer & Swann 1996, p. 23). Conception is the second stage in which the children develop the reading skill and try to read books. In the next stage called bridging stage, children learn to bridge the distance between dependent and independent reading and writing skills. In the next stage called early reading and writing, children develop the skill to learn words heard in unfamiliar contexts and try going through books. Independent reading is the following stage in which the reading skill is advanced and children begin to understand the meaning implied by words. They also become independent readers and start reading with expressions. This is followed by the stage in which children in addition to reading correctly and acknowledging the meaning of words begin to learn from what they read. Their writing also becomes increasingly coherent and they write properly structured sentences. It is implied that “for most children, literacy skills get reorganized many times over the course of development, and their literacy knowledge changes qualitatively” (Snow 2004, p. 14) as they journey through all these stages. Adults can help children socialize into literacy by helping them develop the reading and writing skills along with social knowledge. Both literary and social knowledge is important to interpret and use written text. Many processes are involved in the making of a reader and socializing him/her into literacy. Reading books to children is one way of socializing them into literacy (Saracho 2002, p. 12; Whitehead 2007, pp. 44-45). Book reading is seen by many as “providing children with the most effective socialization for school literacy” (Kleeck & Stahl 2003, p. viii). A growing body of research stresses that the failure of the parents to read to their child results in the failure of the child to read consequently in the school. Research suggests that “children’s interest in books and joint reading is rooted in social context” (Crain-Thoreson & Dale, cited in Kleeck & Stahl 2003, p. 3). The importance of storybook reading is also acknowledged by the policy makers as one major literacy policy report titled Becoming a Nation of Readers concluded that as a way of integrating children into literacy practices, “the singly most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children” (Anderson et al., cited in Kleeck & Stahl 2003, p. vii). The traditional perspective ignores the importance of multiple literacies which form a typical feature of today’s world and mostly efforts to socialize children into literacy fail due to a mismatch between “the school’s narrow view of literacy and the reality of multiple literacies in today’s society” (Kleeck & Stahl 2003, p. viii). Shirley Brice Heath is best known for her work related to literacy development and language variation in American English. Heath’s critically acclaimed ethnographic investigation based on a 10 year period in her book stresses that “children’s literacy is shaped by home and community and their literacy often differs from the literacy expected by schools” (Babin & Harrison 1999, p. 51). This implies that the literary process could not be seen as restricted to the school domain or a solitary process as stressed by the traditional perspective and solitary views. Rather, the contribution of community in advancing the process of literacy should be acknowledged and the way this contribution is made may differ from community to community. Heath also investigated the way children interact with story books and the role played by book reading in making a child literate. She concluded that “children respond in words and actions to the books their parents read to them each day” (Babin & Harrison 1999, p. 52). Simply reading books to children is not considered enough as research predicts that as a way of socializing children into literacy, it is also important that “parents capitalize on intimate knowledge of their child’s personal world so as to increase his/her’s linguistic knowledge” (Jones, cited in Kleeck & Stahl 2003, p. 7). Conclusion: Concluding, this much becomes clear from the above discussion that the functional perspective has won over the traditional view on literacy in the present world because it acknowledges the involvement of social contexts in developing literacy. The society or community in which a language is spoken inflicts mega influence on the literacy itself. Literacy is introduced in a different way across the world and the process of becoming literate accordingly varies across different communities. Patterns of literacy undeniably play a phenomenal role in integrating children into society. There are many ways of socializing a child into literacy and parents can play a major role in this regard by providing them means through which they could familiarize themselves with words and expressions. Long gone are the days when the acts of reading and writing could be considered solitary processes. In the present world, a combination of home schooling, school curriculum, and socializing makes a person literate. References: Babin, EH & Harrison, K 1999, Contemporary Composition Studies: A Guide to Theories and Terms, Greenwood Publishing Group, USA. Jenkins, H 2009, Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, MIT Press, USA. Kintgen, ER, Kroll, BM & Rose, M 1988, Perspectives on Literacy, 2nd edn, SIU Press, USA. Kleeck, AEV & Stahl, SA 2003, On Reading Books to Children: Parents and Teachers, Routledge, UK. Lankshear, C 1999, ‘Literacy Studies in Education: Disciplined Developments in a Post-Disciplinary Age’, in M Peters, After the Disciplines, Greenwood Press. McGee, ELM & Morrow, LM 2005, Teaching Literacy in Kindergarten, Guilford Press, NY, USA. Mercer, N & Swann, NMJ 1996, Learning English: Development and Diversity, Routledge, USA. Saracho, ON 2002, Contemporary Perspectives in Literacy in Early Childhood Education, IAP, USA. Snow, CE 2004, ‘What counts as literacy in early childhood?’, in K McCartney & D Phillips (eds.), Blackwell Handbook of Early Childhood Development, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford. Whitehead, MR 2007, Developing Language and Literacy with Young Children, 3rd edn, SAGE, Wiltshire, UK. Read More