A subcommittee of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Executive Committee wrote the "NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing" in 2004. In over a decade since, the everyday experience of writing in people's lives has expanded dramatically. Increasingly, handheld devices are important instruments for people's writing,…

Includes: (1) "Comments on 'Arguing about Literacy'," Walter J. Ong; (2) "Patricia Bizzell Responds"; (3) "Two Comments on 'Three Views of Education: Nostalgia, History and Voodoo'," Keshaw Kamath and James R. Ruston; and (4) "Robert Scholes Responds." (RAE)

This paper challenges the distinction between text and utterance as one that overstates the separateness of literate and oral practices. The literacy lessons of the Passover Haggadah are shown to celebrate the intellectual necessity of interruption and interpretation of the sacred text, practices which are firmly rooted in oral tradition.…

Argues that two oppositions (product versus process, literacy versus orality) bear a special relationship to one another resembling a ratio. Relates product and literacy to centralized authority, and relates process and orality to open-minded exchange, thus evoking the central dilemma of modern culture. (HB)

Although questions concerning the effects of literacy on society, culture, and the mind remain problematic for anthropology and psychology, considerations of the role played by orality, literacy, or other media in creating different communicative potentials between writer and reader, should not seem out of place in the discipline of rhetoric. Hugh…

Treats orality and literacy in two ways: (1) examines the ubiquitous problem of moving from oral expression to writing, and (2) considers briefly the new, secondary orality that surrounds viewers on radio and television. (JMF)

Attributes McLuhan's theories about media to his interpretation of history as an interpenetrating sequence of three processes: all history originated in oral societies, which were fragmented by literacy, but electronic media are returning society to that original state through implosion. Reviews the historical, literary, and aesthetic sources for…

Offers a brief historical overview, playfully presented, to remind the reader of the relationships between orality, literacy, and the current electronic social condition. (SR)

Communication scholars have dichotomized language into orality and literacy, with orality being the language of the "concrete" and literacy being the language of the "abstract." However, the human experience of language is not that simplistic. In daily linguistic patterns, written words and the "literal" are not…

An interview with David Olson concerning his current research on the relation between the oral conversational language of preschool children and the formalized language of written texts. (RAE)

Examines the language and authority of textbooks as they relate to oral discourse, ritualized speech, and literacy as an archival function. Points out that texts serve an important archival function in preserving knowledge from which rules of thought and action may be derived. (JMF)

The evolution of lay literacy, the pervasive set of assumptions taken for granted by those who participate in a literate society, is traced from the 12th century. Research on the forms and assumptions of lay literacy over the change from an oral to a written to a computer society is urged. (MT)

Describes writing as a technology that changes thought processes and verbal expression and suggests that language and literature teachers become familiar with the processes of primary orality and literacy. (AEA)

Traces the richness of oral forms of expression used in nonliterate societies from ancient times to the present. Discusses the implications of research on orality for the early childhood curriculum and for methods of teaching young children. (BC)

Examines early literacy development as embedded within social contexts. Stresses the importance of approaches to teaching that build on children's earlier classroom experiences and strive to create literate communities in classrooms. (RAE)