AJ23004 Introduction to Literacy Studies

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2009
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 2 credit(s) (plus 3 credits for an exam). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Randall Roorda (lecturer), Mgr. et Mgr. Kateřina Prajznerová, M.A., Ph.D. (deputy)
Guaranteed by
Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Timetable
Thu 15:00–16:35 G22
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 8 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/8, only registered: 0/8, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/8
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Introduction to Literacy Studies What is literacy? What’s so special about writing, and how did it come about? How does writing differ from speaking? How do people with letters differ from those without? How is literacy acquired and transmitted, in what contexts, for what purposes, with what effects? What about literacy comprises or depends on technology, and how are shifts in technology affecting the character of literacy? How, for people of the book, does the world assume the semblance of texts? In what ways might writing be regarded as suspect, in what ways as transformative? Such questions as these are the province of literacy studies. Literacy studies is an interdisciplinary realm of inquiry, drawing on anthropology, linguistics, sociology, psychology, and philosophy as well as cultural and rhetorical criticism. It resides at the intersections between scholarly inquiry, public policy, and educational methodology. When it arose as an area of study during the 1960s, it was concerned with the question of what differentiates individuals and societies with writing from those without, how sharp and categorical such differences might be, and what consequences might follow from them. This question will form the point of departure for this survey of literacy studies, branching into questions of mind and cognition, social order and class standing, features of written and spoken English, and cultural transmission within and beyond schools. Work in the course will stress both content (as demonstrated through exams) and participation (as enacted in activities and projects).
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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