R-A Chpt. 5: Literacy Development

This chapter discussed how to encourage literacy development in the second language classroom. They describe both reading and writing as interactional processes, and not only interacting with the text, but with the teacher and peers as well. The authors also talk about the whole language movement, which is the basis for a natural language/literacy framework which emphasises the importance of learning to read and write in order to communicate and survive rather than just teaching reading/writing skills out of context. I definitely agree that students will be more motivated to learn to read and write if it has an importance to them that is outside of the classroom. This is much easier in an ESL classroom than in a foreign language classroom, because the need to be able to communicate in the target language is there every day. However I feel that if the foreign language teacher sets up pen pal programs or other activities that involve the target language community, as the author suggests, it will greatly increase students' motivation to want to be literate in the language, more so than having them practice writing compositions that aren't really relevant to real life communication.