List of illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 Introduction
Part 1
Chapter 2 The Reading Aloud in Britain Today (RABiT) project
Chapter 3 The questionnaire: Surveying contemporary reading aloud
Chapter 4 Mass Observation
Chapter 5 The interviews and recordings
Part 2
Chapter 6 Family, friends and lovers: Community, domesticity, intimacy and mediation
Chapter 7 Working life
Chapter 8 Religion
Chapter 9 Literary life: Production, performance, experience and the Wordhord
Chapter 10 Solitude: Aloud alone
Chapter 11 Oral reading and education
Chapter 12 Conclusion
Index
Sam Duncan is an adult literacy researcher and teacher educator at the UCL Institute of Education. She has a background in adult literacy and community education and teaches on a range of education, literacy and research-related modules. Sam is the author of Reading Circles, Novels and Adult Reading Development (Bloomsbury, 2012) and Reading for Pleasure and Reading Circles for Adult Emergent Readers (NIACE, 2014). She has just completed an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Fellowship to research contemporary adult reading aloud practices across Britain.
'Oral Literacies is a rich exploration of the complex nature of
reading and writing as mobile, embodied, and multimodal. Duncan
provides both detailed documentation and nuanced analysis of the
wide range of social practices involved in reading aloud that are
too often overlooked in literacy research. She complicates the
seeming paradox of the concepts in the title to demonstrate the
interanimating relationships of speech and text across daily
life.'Bronwyn T. Williams, University of Louisville, USA
'Revealing too many details in this reviewwould spoil the pleasure
for future readers. However, in ‘Family, Friends and Lovers’, the
author describes the intimacy of oral reading and recalls how a
participant in a pilot study had noted: ‘it feels like you are
being given a bit of a gift when somebody reads to you.’ I wrote
this down in my notebook because it resonated so deeply. Reading
aloud in all its guises is a gift: a gift to ourselves when engaged
in solitary reading aloud practices, a gift to others or a gift
that we receive. The publication of ‘Oral Literacies: When Adults
Read Aloud’ will ensure the visibility of this practice. The book
is very accessible and is essential reading for anyone wanting a
greater understanding of contemporary literacy practices. 'Oral
Literacies is a rich exploration of the complex nature of reading
and writing as mobile, embodied and multimodal. Duncan provides
both detailed documentation and nuanced analysis of the wide range
of social practices involved in reading aloud that are too often
overlooked in literacy research. She complicates the seeming
paradox of the concepts in the title to demonstrate the
interanimating relationships of speech and text across daily
life.'Research and Practice in Adult Literacies journal, vol
105'This book is rare in that it focusses on an area of literacy
studies that at first glance seems familiar, but which in fact has
been remarkably under researched.'Jamie D. I. Duncan, Lancaster
University, Book and New Media Reviews, Spring 2021'Oral
Literacies: When Adults Read Aloud by Sam Duncan argues for a
closer look at literacy in the everyday lives of adults, calling
for attention to the often-ignored role of voice and ear in how we
experience texts of all kinds. The latest in the Routledge
Literacies series, this book is a welcome and refreshing
contribution to our understanding of contemporary literacy
practice, presenting us with a richly textured account of the role
of speech in everyday interactions with text.'Susan Jones, Changing
English: Studies in Culture and Education, July 2021'One of the
joys of Duncan’s style is that it invites sharing and reflection.
For me, at least, this book did not just succeed in expanding and
building an important argument about a set of overlooked practices,
but in bringing these experiences to life in the imagination – and
voice – of the reader.'Cathy Burnett, Literacy UKLA, 2021
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