Dyson: Media & Literacy

In Chapter 20, "Coach Bombay's Kids Learn to Write...", Anne Haas Dyson presents language as a powerful influence on a person's sense of self and their place in society. Dyson explains that child language learning happens on many levels, is pulled from many sources, and is a complex and dynamic process. Dyson discusses child language learning from social, cultural, and scientific perspectives as she stresses that language learning happens in combination of all three categories. She places emphasis on the integral role that cultural resources, social resources, and media resources play in child language learning.

In the beginning of the article Dyson purposefully states that she "has no intention of reinforcing" a traditional outlook on child language learning that teachers and children have very specific and rigid roles (326). Instead, Dyson supports that children are very imaginative, innovative, and inventive (326). She focuses on the theory that media largely influences children's language learning. Dyson presents the role of media (pop culture, movies, actors, sports)as important in the child's world. Therefore, contemporary media must also be accessible to teachers as well.

Dyson focused on child language learning in the school setting of classes aged kindergarten through fifth grade. She collected and documented writing samples from over 1,000 children and conducted site studies on a focal group of children at a school in the San Fransico Bay area. Especially important to Dyson is the "quality of contemporary childhood". She feels that media and the contemporary world around the child who is learning language, is especially important to both the child and their teacher. Dyson also believes that children learn language through practices and activities in their everyday lives (328). She uses the example of Marcel who is almost seven years old and writes about the Dallas Cowboys in his school journal.

Dyson looks at child language learning as a complex and dynamic process with many factors involved. She supports that children “make their own choices from available meanings and practices” many of which may not necessarily be academic, but still play important roles in language development (328).