Heath, "Protean Shapes in Literacy Events"

The oral language and written language are very different and many question still need to be answered. Many researcher are studying the possible links between oral and written language, and between literacy and its individual and societal consequences. I believe that individual grow up and learn the oral part of literacy and than they learn the written language of literacy. Although those two are very different it is important to be literate both in oral and written. Research that have examined oral performance in particular groups is said to support the notion that as members of society increasingly participate in literacy, they lose habits associated with the oral tradition. Language on the other hand is literate and meaning is created through text and interpretation. According to Heath "The literacy event is a conceptual tool useful in examining within particular communities of modern society the actual forms and functions of oral and literate traditions and co-existing relationships between spoken and written language."(p.445). As individual the environment where we grow up in and how we are raised play a role in our literacy discourse and practices. For the most part literacy can be obtain not just in school but in the community where an individual grow up in. Literacy can be seen in many activities in our lives and it is not just oral but in text and writing.