Developing linguistic literacy: a comprehensive model

Abstract

This is a position paper modelling the domain of linguistic literacy and its development through the life span. It aims to provide a framework for the analysis of language development in the school years, integrating sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic notions of variation, language awareness, and literacy in a comprehensive model. The paper focuses on those aspects of literacy competence that are expressed in language as well as aspects of linguistic knowledge that are affected by literacy competence, tracing the route that children take in appropriating linguistic literacy as part of their cognitive abilities and examining the effect of literacy on language across development. Our view of linguistic literacy consists of one defining feature: control over linguistic variation from both a user-dependent (‘lectal’) and a context-dependent (modality, genre, and register) perspective; of one concomitant process: metalanguage and its role in language development; and of one condition: familiarity with writing and written language from two aspects: written language as discourse style – the recognition that the kind of language used for writing is essentially different from the one used for speech; and written language as a notational system – the perception and growing command of the representational system that is used in the written modality. Linguistic literacy is viewed as a constituent of language knowledge characterized by the availability of multiple linguistic resources and by the ability to consciously access one's own linguistic knowledge and to view language from various perspectives.

Exploring the Language and Literacy Outcomes of Pediatric Cochlear Implant Users

“…As their writing matures they begin to use a more sophisticated writing style when they gain more cognitive control over the written form. As this control develops children are more able to detach their written output from their spoken output and to "access non-default, less productive marked options" (Ravid & Tolchinsky, 2002). The data from the current study suggest that the normal-hearing group has begun to undergo this "detachment" while the cochlear implant group has not, thus they continue to use their spoken language scripts for writing.…”

Lexical standards for expository writing at Grade 3:The transition from early literacy to academic literacy

“…Many words from Coxhead's (2000) Academic Word List are already accessible to young learners. At a much younger age than previously thought, youngsters are sensitive to informational genres and register (Ravid & Tolchinsky, 2002).…”

The Challenge of Academic Language

“…For instance, research with Hebrew-speaking children and adults has shown that whereas knowledge of formal sophisticated morphology and syntax increases from age five to age seven, only college-educated adults and some older adolescents are capable of appropriately displaying this knowledge in the construction of texts (Ravid & Tolchinsky, 2002). As stated by Berman (2004) and by Ravid and Tolchinsky (2002), a crucial aspect of later language development, in addition to vocabulary expansion, is learning a variety of sophisticated morpho-syntactic structures and how to use them flexibly for diverse communicative purposes.…”

“…We might hypothesize that sociolinguistic awareness is a prerequisite to mastering academic language. Systematic linguistic variation can be dialectal, sociolectal, ethnic, or gender-based, as well as determined by genre, register, and modality (Ravid & Tolchinsky, 2002). The ability to switch appropriately across language varieties and registers depends on the opportunities to participate in various communicative situations (Hymes, 1974).…”