A Sisyphean Task [electronic resource] : Historical Perspectives on the Relationship between Writing and Reading Instruction. Technical Report No. 7 / Geraldine Joncich Clifford.
Based on the thesis that cycles of concern for an integrated, holistic approach to English language instruction have periodically emerged in reaction to historical forces that are essentially fragmenting in their effects, this thematic report explores events in 20th-century American educational theo...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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[S.l.] :
Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse,
1987.
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| Summary: | Based on the thesis that cycles of concern for an integrated, holistic approach to English language instruction have periodically emerged in reaction to historical forces that are essentially fragmenting in their effects, this thematic report explores events in 20th-century American educational theory, research, and practice that deal with English language education. Two fundamental and enduring facts about English education in the schools which the report examines are the subordination of writing to reading and the other language skills and the separation of language skills from one another--particularly the isolation of reading from writing. Using perspectives drawn from American educational and social history, the report identifies five forces--the democratization of schooling, the professionalization of educators, technological change, the pragmatic character of American culture, and liberationist ideologies--and probes their analytically separable but interacting influences on English language education. Following a summary of the evidence of the assertions that writing has been dominated by reading in schools and that writing and reading have been separated for most of their histories, the report provides illustrations of the prevailing opinion that integration in language education is the proper approach, giving rise to cycles of reform aimed at such integration. It then gives an overview of the 19th century emergence of English as an identifiable subject of the school curriculum, and addresses the ways in which the forces cited promoted both separation and integration of the teaching of writing and reading. (One hundred ninety-six footnotes are attached.) (NKA) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED297318. Availability: Center for the Study of Writing, School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, CA 92720 ($3.50, plus sales tax for California residents; make check payable to Regents of U.C.). Sponsoring Agency: Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC. |
| Physical Description: | 51 p. |