Vernacular Literacy: A Re-evaluation »

This book contains first-hand information on the history, economics, and politics surrounding literacy issues all over the world. Discussions are supported by case-studies of campaigns to promote vernacular languages, and examples of how people relate to their languages in different cultures. Providing a non-Western perspective, the contributors question traditional notions of the uses of literacy.

Booknews

Eight contributions are grouped in two sections. The first addresses general issues<-->political, economic, social, orthographic, and pedagogical. The second discusses cases from migrant settings in Europe; East, Central, and West Africa; East, South, and South-East Asia; and Pidgin-and Creole speaking communities. The aim here is to address the crisis of illiteracy, "...not by prescribing remedies but by attempting to increase understanding of its nature and some of its underlying causes..."<-->from the introduction. The scope of this work is limited to the second half of this century, starting with the 1953 Unesco statement which aimed at the promotion of vernacular literacy. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.