by Brian V. Street, King's College, University of London

Contextualizing literacy
In 1981 Scribner and Cole in The Psychology of literacy published a definitive account of what can legitimately be claimed about the relationship between literacy and cognitive processes. After a decade's work among the Vai peoples of Liberia, with a team of psychologists and anthropologists, employing a battery of tests and observational methods about the uses of literacy in different languages and contexts, they came to the conclusion that 'specific practices promote specific skills.'

There is nothing special about literacy in general as regards its consequences for cognitive skills - in each case particular skills and abilities are associated with a particular literacy.

In the Vai case there were three languages, Vai, Arabic and English, and literacy was variously used for letter writing, for religious purposes and for trading and schooling. Particular skills are associated with each set of literacy practices.

There is nothing
special about
literacy in
general as
regards its
consequences for
cognitive skills
-- in each case
particular skills
and abilities are
associated with
a particular
literacy.