5 Literacy, everyday talk and society [1996]

The multiplicity of meanings ascribed to literacy suggests that it is a multi-faceted process embracing phenomena of different kinds; the controversies raging today around literacy tend to assume that only one facet is important; the others can be safely ignored. I will suggest that this view is open to question: to understand literacy is to understand how the various facets enter into the formation of that complex whole which we call literacy