No abstract

Literacy in the home is often judged as an inferior version of school literacy. In multilingual contexts, family literacy practices tend to be characterised as traditional and more reliant on oral than literate practices, with the children being seen as disadvantaged by the lack of parental literacy support. This paper argues that literacy practices in multilingual contexts are in fact dynamic and undergoing rapid development in response to technological and cultural change. This study, which examines the literacy practices of four teenagers and their families, was part of a six-year ethnographic study with Arabic-speaking families in Sydney. The data indicate that teenagers are taking an active role in a shift to technology-mediated literacy and in the mediation of both Arabic and English literacy. The implications of this for schooling are discussed.

No abstract

No abstract

There is widespread concern in all English speaking countries at the rapid decline in study of languages. The promise of ‘languages for all’ in the UK and North America in the 1970s marked a shift from languages as élite subjects for the privileged few, but this promise has not been fulfilled. This book explores the reasons for and solutions to this decline. More importantly, it looks at how these trends have been reversed in successful school programs and the implications of this for language education policy makers. The study draws on an analysis of data from 600 primary, secondary and community languages schools over six years and from detailed case studies in a representative sample of 45 successful schools. The book proposes a range of strategies to address the decline: from engaging classroom learning, assessment outcomes and embedding languages as central in school curriculum on the one level, to a mix of incentives and mandation for language study, especially at upper secondary school level. The authors explore the impact of learning languages on the thinking, educational experiences and outcomes of young people across a range of ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses. They show the importance of having equal access to languages study in a world where young people will have increasingly more diverse working lives and argue that the gap in languages between policy and uptake is really a gap in the thinking of policy makers and government.