L2 Literacy and Biliteracy: Linguistic Consequences

Literacy studies can frequently be characterized asprogrammaticand/orevaluative: They focus on the need for literacy programs, on the social consequences of illiteracy, on ways in which the literacy level of a particular population group can be increased, or on the results of various programs already implemented. A glance at a bibliographic resource such as Hladczuk, et al. (1989) reveals that the majority of entries are devoted to “literacy campaigns” and “literacy programs,” “computers and literacy,” “functional literacy,” “history of literacy,” and “libraries and literacy.” Before the 1980s, questions of a linguistic nature were infrequently addressed because emphasis was traditionally placed on thepsychological aspectsof literacy (Bendor-Samuel 1984:5).