Literacy

Barirah Nazir Department of English University of Sargodha

 The most common definition of Literacy The ability to read and write Literacy is a fairly recent English word which first appeared in dictionaries in 1924. With literacy the four words are to consider: Literate, Illiterate, Literacy and Illiteracy In Samuel Johnsons first dictionary of English (1755) only one term i.e. Illiterate is to be found Even the word Illiterate was quite uncommon word (Barclays dictionary of 1820) dates from 1556 Illiteracy dates from 1660 more than 200 years ago before Literacy appears in 1883

 Literacy is sometimes contrasted with Orality, or with other neologism, Oracy. Non-literate can be used as a less pejorative sounding alternative to illiterate Illiterate Not being able to read within a culture which is literate Non-literate covers people in a culture which has never had literacy Even talk of a literate culture is an extension of the word beyond the idea of literacy being a property of people

 Like a germ that learns to enjoy penicillin, illiteracy consumes all the armies sent to fight it. No matter what we do about it the condition persists (July 04, 1988, Financial Times of Canada) Literacy with clergy, ruling class

 Transition from an oral culture to written culture that is to use of technologies of written words for communication Orality world of sound to Literacy (world of thought)

 A very useful definition given by UNESCO

 Ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential and to participate fully in their community and wider society

 Literacy Studies .. The attachment of the concept of literacy with varying theoretical fields. Multiple literacies- that is, ways of reading the world in specific contexts: technological, health, information, media, visual, scientific, and so on For example: Information Literacy ability to access and use a variety of information sources to solve an information need.

 15th century invention of the movable type printing press It was not until the Industrial Revolution of the mid-19th century that paper and books became financially affordable to all classes of industrialized society. Even today, the dearth of cheap paper and books is a barrier to universal literacy in some less-industrialized nations.

Traditional Concept of Utility of Literacy

Literacy

Reading and Writing

Simple Arithmetic

Comprehension

Divergent Views

Literacy

Functional Literacy

New Literacy Studies

Literacy as Learning

Critical Literacy

 In the 1960s and 1970s Cognitive approach Literacy could be taught as a universal set of skills (applicable everywhere) and that there was only one literacy, which everyone should learn in the same way. Literacy was seen as neutral and independent of social context The most common understanding of literacy is that it is a set of tangible skills particularly the cognitive skills of reading and writing that are independent of the context in which they are acquired and the background of the person who acquires them AUTONOMOUS LITERACY

 The ways in which literacy is practised vary by social and cultural context Rather than seeing literacy as a technical skill independent of context, the NLS approach argues it is a social practice, embedded in social settings and, further, that even a presumably objective skill such as numeracy can be socially situated IDEOLOGICAL MODEL

 Literacy events are all sorts of occasions in everyday life where the written word has a role. For example, an adult reads a story to a child at night People are engaged in wide range of literacy events. A man who discusses contents of newspaper with friend, organize his shopping and taking a telephone message for his daughter who does not have a phone the three different literacy events

 An occasion when a person attempts to comprehend or produce graphic signs, either alone or with others (Anderson et al. 1980) When talk revolves around a piece of writing (Heath, 1983) Where literacy has an integral role (Heath, 1983)

 The common patterns in using reading and writing in particular situation. People bring their cultural knowledge to an activity. Literacy events are particular activities where literacy has a role; they may be regular repeated activities. Literacy practices are the general cultural ways of utilizing literacy which people draw upon a literacy event. For instance, in the example mentioned above In deciding who does what, where and when it is done, along with the associated ways of talking and the ways of writing, the two participants make use of their literary practices.

 The recognition of multiple literacies varying according to time and space (local and global) Power relations and literacy (Dominant literacies and Marginalized literacies) Questions the validity of designations of individuals as literate or illiterate, as many who are labelled illiterate are found to make significant use of literacy practices for specific purposes in their everyday

Sylvia Scribner and Michael Cole (1981)

Scribner and Cole defined literacy as a set of socially organized practices which make use of a symbol system and a technology for producing and disseminating it. Literacy, they claim, is more than being able to read and write; its the ability to apply those skills to for specific purposes in specific situations. Important to note is that Scribner and Cole claim the particular kinds of literacy practices enacted by a culture determine the specific kinds of skills associated with literacy They analyzed how three literaciesEnglish schooling, Quoran studies, and traditional Vai script (Liberia, writing system of their own) affected various cognitive skills. Results demonstrated that each literacy practice sparked the development and enhancement of specific types of cognitive skills.

 Ways with Words Culture influences language and literacy learning Schools cater to the success of townspeople, students from middle class, educated backgrounds, while students from rural or blue collar communities fail and drop out at alarming rates.

Criticism

It overemphasizes local exigencies and insufficiently recognizes how external forces (e.g. colonial administrations, missionaries, international communication and economic globalization) have impinged upon the local experiences of specific communities

Literacy as Learning

views literacy as an active and broad-based learning process, rather than as a product of a more limited and focused educational intervention. Learning (Experience) to Literacy Paulo Freire is perhaps the most famous adult literacy educator whose work integrated notions of active learning within socio-cultural settings

 Freire emphasized the importance of bringing the learners socio-cultural realities into the learning process itself and then using the learning process to challenge these social processes

Critical Literacy

Inspired by the theories of Michel Foucault Literacy as subject matter and the nature of texts that are being produced and consumed by literate people Critical perspective towards text/discourse A text constructs the reader Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968) Paulo Friere

 Literacy assumes a particular language at the cost of Vernacular language Social restrictions on peoples reading and writing leads to Restricted Literacy

 Emergent Literacy term first used by Marie Clay to describe how young children interact with books Adult Literacy

Literacy and Gender

o o o

2/3 of mothers are illiterate. Why? Male offspring is more important Female child at home Less jobs Stereotypes Children are read to more by female grown ups than males, Girls are quicker to learn reading/spellings, Fiction choice is gender oriented