Module: Additional lectures
Taught by Prof. Nicole Nau
WS 2025/206
Short course description
Writing – the technique of expressing language with visual signs on a surface, and literacy – a set of skills and practices involving writing, have been studied in linguistics, anthropology, educational science and other disciplines for a considerable time. This lecture will present theories about the role of writing for languages, individuals and societies and approaches to their study from the 20th and 21st centuries.
We will discuss questions such as the following:
- Where, when and why was writing invented and how did it spread?
- In which way is written language special?
- What is the impact of literacy on a culture?
- How is literacy used in a society or within a group?
- What makes alphabetization and literacy campaigns successful?
- What ideologies and attitudes involving writing or scripts are often observed?
- In which way may literacy influence cognition and language awareness?
- How does literacy change in the digital world?
Requirements for course credits are active participation in classes and homework (mostly reading), one mid-term test and one small project.
Selected literature
Barton, David. 2007. Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language. Second edition. Oxford: Blackwell.
Donaldson, Coleman. 2015. “The Social Life of Orthography Development.” Working Papers in Educational Linguistics 30 (2): 1-12.
Keefe, Elizabeth, and Susan R. Copeland. 2011. “What Is Literacy? The Power of a Definition.” Research & Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities 36 (3/4): 92–99.
Kern, Richard (2021). “Twenty-Five Years of Digital Literacies in CALL”. Language Learning & Technology, 25(3), 132–150. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/73453
Kolinsky, Régina, Navas, A. L., Vidigal de Paula, F., Ribeiro de Brito, N., de Medeiros Botecchia, L., Bouton, S., & Serniclaes, W. (2021). “The Impact of Alphabetic Literacy on the Perception of Speech Sounds. Cognition, 213, 104687. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104687
Meletis, Dimitrios, and Christa Durscheid. 2022. Writing Systems and their Use. An Overview of Grapholinguistics. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110757835 (Open access)
Morais, José, and Régine Kolinsky. 2002. “Literacy Effects on Language and Cognition”. In L. Bäckman & C. von Hofsten, eds. Psychology at the Turn of the Millennium, Vol. 1. Cognitive, Biological, and Health Perspectives. Psychology Press/Taylor & Francis: 507-530.
Ong, Walter. 2002 [1982]. Orality and Literacy. The technologizing of the word. London, New York: Routledge.
Sebba, Mark. 2007. Spelling and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486739
Sebba, Mark. 2009. “Sociolinguistic approaches to writing systems research.” Writing Systems Research 1 (1): 35-49. https://doi.org/10.1093/wsr/wsp002
Street, Brian. 2003. “What’s ‘new’ in New Literacy Studies? Critical Approaches to Literacy in Theory and Practice.” Current Issues in Comparative Education 5: 77-91.
Vold Lexander, Kristin, Kellie Gonçalves, and Haley de Korne. 2020. “Introduction. Multilingual Literacy Practices: Global Perspectives on Visuality, Materiality, and Creativity.” International Journal of Multilingualism 17 (3): 271-285. DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2020.1766049