Discourse Patterns in First Language Use at Hcme and Second Language Learning at School: an Ethnographic Approach

Literature I 37

of reading and writing <l.e. literacy) are more complex phenomena thaɪjjust
the 'essay-text form of literacy' (page 41) and that most cultures* are
likely to offer a mix of oral and written activities and 'literacies',
according to the particular contexts and ways in which power relations
are embedded (page 8). Street (1984) draws many arguments from social
history studies as well as from anthropology and linguistics, and
develops many of the points presented above when discussing the
differences between oral and written communication. His argument is even
more persuasive, however, when contributions from pragmatics and
discourse analysis have been further explored (as in Street,1986).

2.2.3 Oral discourse, oral text and school literacy

Literacy-related activities during pre-school years, like reading bed-
time stories or shared reading, have been considered Important for the
subsequent acquisition of literacy at school (Dombey,1983; Villlams et
al.,1982; Heath,1982b); but the extent to which the child acquires text-
related, context-reduced language skills has been considered to be a
more crucial variable (Snow, 1983 and 1984). Consequently, the
characteristics of oral language that were identified as potentially
facilitatlve for literacy learning would be those more typical of the
written language, like distance between sender and receiver, explicitness
of reference, fictionallzatlon of sender and receiver, complexity of
syntactic structure, permanency of information, autonomous rather than
interactive narrative skills, high degree of cohesion (Tannen,1982a).

These are the characteristics of decontextualized language use.
Literacy is normally decontextualized, and literate activities
normally show these features. But if oral discourse can have these
characteristics and be used in a decontextualized way, so too can
literate activities be context-bound. (Snow,1983:186)

An example of decontextualized oral discourse is ritual communication
(Aklnnaso 1982b), and an example of contextualized literacy is Val

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