Dr.

Iliana Reyes
REFLECTIONS ON HONBERGER AND REYES
September 16, 2018

This week I was struck by a concept brought up in the Hornberger reading about the many varieties of
literacy within different societies. Literacy serves a multitude of purposes, functional, leisure and private
notes to name a few (Street, as cited in Hornberger, 1989). I hadn’t thought about the differing ways that
we use literacy skills. I honestly thought in general terms that reading is reading. I hadn’t considered the
complexities that go into each purpose. I was especially struck by the importance of storytelling and its
relation to oral language use.

It is incredible to think about the “bedtime story” (Heath, as cited in Hornberger, 1989, p. 278) as being a
part of oral language development. Every time I put my son to bed he asks me to read him books and tell
him stories. He likes to hear the ones that I make up and he uses many of the same words and phrases
that I add in my stories in his voice outside of bedtime. I have a cute 2-year-old example of oral language
development and use.

This example led me through the Reyes & Esteban-Guitart (2013) text as I considered differing literary
practices that lead to development of literacy. I thought about the time I have spent simply communicating
with my children and how I may have or continue to impact their literacy development. I was trained as an
elementary school teacher and I’m sure that my love of books and stories that I pass to my children came
from my formal schooling experience. However, I remember distinct conversations and stories from my
childhood, that were not from the school setting, that I still hold on to today, that I believe helped me to
become the story teller my kids enjoy and continuously ask for one more story. I think that this
exploration of oral literacy development, especially in immigrant homes, is very important to
understanding the differing ways that community builds literacy.

Hornberger, N. (1989). Continua of biliteracy. Review of Educational Research, 59 (3), pp. 271-296. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0034-
REFERENCES

6543%28198923%2959%3A3%3C271%3ACOB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X
Reyes, I. & Esteban-Guitart, M. Exploring multiple literacies from homes and communities: A cross-cultural comparative analysis. In K.
Hall, T. Cremin, B. Comber, & L. Moll (Eds.), International handbook of research on children’s literacy, learning, and culture (pp. 156-
171). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.