This article reviews research on literacy and makes some educated guesses about literacy research and policy in the current decade and beyond. Issues addressed include defining literacy, literacy acquisition, retention of literacy, and consequences of literacy. The article concludes with some suggestions on future literacy programs in the 1990s, the EFA decade.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
1. Cf. Jack Goody, Literacy in Traditional Societies (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1968).
2.
2. Michael T. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979).
3.
3. Robert F. Arnove and Harvey J. Graff, eds., National Literacy Campaigns: Historical and Comparative Aspects (New York: Plenum Press, 1987), p. 126.
4.
4. William S. Gray, The Teaching of Reading and Writing (Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 1956), p. 19.
5.
5. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, World Literacy at Mid-Century (Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 1957), p. 18.
6.
6. Richard L. Venezky, Daniel A. Wagner, and Barrie Ciliberti, eds., Toward Defining Literacy (Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 1990).
7.
7. John Downing, Comparative Reading (New York: Macmillan, 1973).
8.
8. John U. Ogbu, “Literacy in Subordinate Cultures: The Case of Black Americans” (Paper delivered at the Literacy Conference of the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 1980).
9.
9. For more details, see Daniel A. Wagner, Jennifer E. Spratt, and Abdelkader Ezzaki, “Does Learning to Read in a Second Language Always Put the Child at a Disadvantage? Some Counter-Evidence from Morocco,”Applied Psycholinguistics, 10:31-48 (1989).
10.
10. Irwin Kirsch and Ann Jungeblut, Literacy: Profiles of America's Young Adults (Princeton, NJ: ETS, 1986).
11.
11. A more complete presentation of these suggestions is provided in D. A. Wagner, “Literacy: Developing the Future,”UNESCO Yearbook of Education (Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 1992), vol. 43.
12.
12. Daniel A. Wagneret al., “The Myth of Literacy Relapse: Literacy Retention among Moroccan Primary School Leavers,”International Journal of Educational Development, 9:307-315 (1989).
