Following other volumes in the Learning to Read Critically series, Learning to Read Critically in Language and Literacy aims to develop skills of critical analysis and research design. It presents a series of examples of `best practice′ in language and literacy education research at a time when literacy development and learning through language are key policy issues.

This book is an overview of issues in Language and Literacy Education research, as well as a guide to appropriate research methods, and how to do a literature survey. Leading researchers present a research project, together with their gloss on why they did it that way; what they found, or did not find, and why the research worked or in some cases did not work. The book is intended as a reference and teaching text for taught postgraduate courses in the area of language and literacy.

This series, edited by Mike Wallace, supports research-based teaching on masters and taught doctorate courses in the humanities and social sciences fields of enquiry. Each book is a ′three in one′ text designed to assist advanced course tutors and dissertation supervisors with key research-based teaching tasks and aims to:

• develop students′ critical understanding of research literature

• increase students′ appreciation of what can be achieved in small-scale investigations similar to those which they undertake for their dissertation

• present students with major findings, generalisations and concepts connected to their particular field.