Eve Gregory

'[This book] is a helpful edition to a field where there is a limited amount of good literature to support teachers dealing with second language acquisition in the classroom' - ESCalate `Gregory's book is an important and timely contribution to the literature on literacy, biliteracy, second language learning and early childhood education, synthesizing cutting-edge research, perspectives and teaching approaches in a clear and accessible way. Overall, it is a terrific resource' - Dinah Volk Across the world, an increasing number of young children are learning to read in languages different from their mother tongue, and there is a clear need for a book which addresses the ways in which these children should be taught. Eve Gregory's book is unique in doing so. Building upon the ideas proposed in Making Sense of a New World, this second edition widens its scope, arguing for the limitations of policies designed for 'monolingual minds' in favour of methodologies which put plurilingualism at the centre of literacy tuition. This book offers a practical reading programme -- an 'Inside-Out' (starting from experience) and 'Outside-In' (starting from literature) approach to teaching which can be used with individuals, small groups and whole classes. It uses current sociocultural theory, while drawing on examples of children from America, Australia, Britain, China, France, Singapore, South Africa and Thailand who are engaged in learning to read nursery rhymes and songs, storybooks, letters, the Bible and the Qur'an as well as school texts, in languages they do not speak fluently. Gregory argues that, in order for literacy tuition to be successful, reading must make sense -- children must feel part of a community of readers. There is no common method which they use to learn, but rather a shared aim to which they aspire: making sense of a new world through new words. Eve Gregory is Professor of Language and Culture in Education at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Making Sense of Words and Worlds

Learning to Read in a New Language

Susi Long

Dinah Volk

Based on extensive research that proves that children actively make sense of literacy outside the official schooling and parental tuition they receive, this book examines how young children take literacy learning into their own hands.

Young Children Learning with Siblings, Grandparents, Peers and Communities

Many Pathways to Literacy

Ann Williams

City Literacies explores the lives and literacies of different generations of people living in two contrasting areas of London at the end of the 20th century: Spitalfields and the City. This contrast outwardly symbolizes the huge difference between poverty and wealth existing in Britain at this time. The book presents a study of living, learning and reading as it has taken place in public settings, including the school classroom, clubs, places of worship, theatres, and in the home. Over fifty people recount their memories of learning to read in different contexts and circumstances.

Learning to Read Across Generations and Cultures

City Literacies

This text is a compilation of studies conducted in a variety of cross-cultural contexts where children learn language and literacy with siblings, grandparents, peers and community members. Focusing on the knowledge and skills of children often invisible to educators, these illuminating studies highlight how children skillfully draw from their varied cultural and linguistic worlds to make sense of new experiences. Through studies grounded in home, school, community school, nursery and church settings, we see how children create for themselves radical forms of teaching and learning in ways that are not typically recognized, understood or valued in schools.

Young Children Learning with Siblings, Grandparents, Peers, and Communities

Jean Conteh

Chris Kearney

Aura Mor-Somerfield

Here is an exciting departure from existing volumes on educational research methods. This book focuses on the "writing" of an ethnographic dissertation and provides examples of successful ethnographic studies that have earned PhDs. It is a core reader for students pursuing ethnographic research at Masters, Ed.D or PhD level Professor Eve Gregory is Director of Studies in the Department of Educational Studies at London University's Goldsmiths College. The other authors have all been her part-time M.Phil/PhD students and all have used ethnographic methods in their fields of culture, language, literacy and identity. And all three have classroom experience and a fascination for their research topics. The book provides an overview of the value of an ethnographic approach to researching issues of diversity in education and offers models of writing for each stage of the work. The authors relate how each went about writing their study and describe the difficulties they encountered. This makes compelling reading and offers a moving personal and professional rationale for ethnography as a research approach. The result is an excellent model and guide for new researchers, especially inexperienced writers or part-time students such as teachers on how to go about writing M.Phil/PhDs, EdDs, MA or M.Research dissertations.

Eve Gregory

Books

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