Learning to be Literate

This textbook brings together research on literacy and multilingualism from a variety of settings: the learning of English in migrant destinations, immersion and bilingual education, and the maintenance of heritage languages. Designed to be accessible to students from a wide range of disciplines, the book explores multilingualism as a global phenomenon at both the individual and societal level, and literacy learning in a wide variety of contexts. It uses both these discussions to explore the theoretical and policy issues which are behind current educational practice, and points to possible ways forward. Students are introduced to examples of innovative and best practice from a range of international contexts, and discussion points and suggested activities encourage them to build on their own experiences as language learners. This is an ideal introductory text for students on courses where a critical understanding of language in education is necessary, as well as being a useful summary of the field and its future directions for researchers, practitioners and policy makers.

Viv Edwards is Professor of Language in Education at the University of Reading where she is also Director of the National Centre for Language and Literacy. She is editor of the international journal Language and Education and has researched and published widely in the areas of multilingualism and education. Her book on Multilingualism in the English-speaking World received the 2005 British Association for Applied Linguistics book award. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society for Arts.