The Implications of the ‘New Literacy Studies’ for Literacy Education

Abstract

This paper deals with the following questions:1. The ‘problem’: what is the ‘Literacy Debate’ and why do such apparently arcane accounts of language and literacy have such a high profile in popular media?2. What are the New Literacy Studies (NLS) and what are the new understandings of language and of literacy on which NLS are based?3. What are the implications for literacy education?