The contribution of José Mariano Vallejo to literacy in nineteenth-century Spain

Abstract

This paper presents the first data of a research carried out on the work of José Mariano Vallejo in the field of literacy in primary schools of the 19th century in Spain. The study has been done with a double aim: a) to highlight the contribution of Vallejo within this discipline and b) to continue the revision of the teaching methods of reading that supposed a pedagogical renewal in nineteenth-century Spain. The detailed review of the Vallejo’s works on reading throws very interesting results, because this author proposes an analytical method that takes into account the difficulties inherent to the alphabetical system of Spanish. Vallejo's proposal is based on a rational conception of pedagogy, which is evident not only in the reading method itself, but also in the articulation of a peculiar didactic procedure to carry it out in the classroom.