Volume: 19  Number: 4  Page: 322–338

Conversations Around the Literacy Hour in a Multilingual London Primary School

Catherine Wallace Institute of Education, School of Culture, Language and Communication, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL, UK

This study was conducted against the background of a British government initiative – The National Literacy Strategy – which prescribes a daily hour of formal literacy instruction for primary aged children, known as the Literacy Hour. The paper describes the developing understanding and experience of literacy of four bilingual Year Five children, studying in a multilingual London school. I recorded and analysed conversations about literacy and the Literacy Hour with the children – two boys and two girls – for one hour a week over one school year. My focus was on the impact of the Literacy Hour on the children’s understanding of literacy as revealed through their personal talk about text. I divide the conversational data into four sets, moving from relatively structured, ‘on task’ talk, closely aligned to the Literacy Hour, to talk which embraces more widely the children’s cultural and linguistic experiences, resources and attitudes. I conclude that the Literacy Hour plays a relatively small part among the rich literacy resources, crossing both home and school boundaries, which the children make use of in everyday life.

Keywords: literacy, multilingualism, schooling, text, the National Literacy Strategy, pedagogy

© 2005 C. Wallace

Access this article