Literacy

The traditional definition of literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write, or the ability to use language to read, write, listen, and speak. In modern contexts, the word refers to reading and writing at a level adequate for communication, or at a level that lets one understand and communicate ideas in a literate society, so as to take part in that society. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has drafted the following definition: "Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society."

Many policy analysts consider literacy rates a crucial measure of a region's human capital. This claim is made on the grounds that literate people can be trained less expensively than illiterate people, generally have a higher socio-economic status and enjoy better health and employment prospects. Policy makers also argue that literacy increases job opportunities and access to higher education. In Kerala, India, for example, female and child mortality rates declined dramatically in the 1960s, when girls who were educated in the education reforms after 1948 began to raise families. Recent researchers, however, argue that correlations such as the one listed above may have more to do with the effects of schooling rather than literacy in general. Regardless, the focus of educational systems worldwide include a basic concept around communication through text and print, which is the foundation of most definitions of literacy.

World literacy rates

See also: List of countries by literacy rate

Illiteracy is most prevalent in developing countries. South Asian, Arab and Sub-Saharan African countries are regions with the lowest literacy rates at about 10% to 12%. East Asia and Latin America have illiteracy rates in the 10 to 15% region while developed countries have illiteracy rates of a few percent.

Within ethnically homogeneous regions, literacy rates can vary widely from country or region to region. This often coincides with the region's wealth or urbanization, though many factors play a role.

Literacy throughout history

The history of literacy goes back several thousand years, but before the industrial revolution finally made cheap paper and cheap books available to all classes in industrialized countries in the mid-nineteenth century, only a small percentage of the population in these countries were literate. Up until that point, materials associated with literacy were prohibitively expensive for people other than wealthy individuals and institutions. For example, in England in 1841, 33% of men and 44% of women signed marriage certificates with their mark as they were unable to write. Only in 1870 was government-financed public education made available in England.

What constitutes literacy has changed throughout history. It has only recently become expected and desirable to be fully literate and demeaning if you are not. At one time, a literate person was one who could sign his or her name. At other points, literacy was measured by the ability to read the Bible. The benefit of clergy in common law systems became dependent on reading a particular passage.

Literacy has also been used as a way to sort populations and control who has access to power. Because literacy permits learning and communication that oral and sign language alone cannot, illiteracy has been enforced in some places as a way of preventing unrest or revolution. During the Civil War era in the United States, white citizens in many areas banned teaching slaves to read or write presumably understanding the power of literacy. In the years following the Civil War, the ability to read and write was used to determine whether one had the right to vote. This effectively served to prevent former slaves from joining the electorate and maintained the status quo. In 1964, educator Paulo Freire was arrested, expelled, and exiled from his native Brazil because of his work in teaching Brazilian peasants to read.

From another perspective, the historian Harvey Graff has argued that the introduction of mass schooling was in part an effort to control the type of literacy that the working class had access to. That is, literacy learning was increasing outside of formal settings (such as schools) and this uncontrolled, potentially critical reading could lead to increased radicalization of the populace. Mass schooling was meant to temper and control literacy, not spread it.

Examples of highly literate cultures in the past

Main article: History of writing

India and China were advanced in literacy and made many scientific advancements. Many universities like Nalanda provided education to pupils and scholars from all around the world.

The large amount of graffiti found at Roman sites such as Pompeii, shows that at least a large minority of the population would have been literate.

Because of its emphasis on the individual reading of the Qur'an in the original Arabic alphabet many Islamic countries have known a comparatively high level of literacy during most of the past twelve centuries. In Islamic edict (or Fatwa), to be literate is an individual religious obligation.

In the Middle Ages, literacy rates among Jews in Europe were much higher than in the surrounding Christian populations. Most Jewish males learned to read and write Hebrew, at least. Judaism places great importance on the study of holy texts, the Tanakh and the Talmud.

In New England, the literacy rate was over 50 percent during the first half of the 17th century, and it rose to 70 percent by 1710. By the time of the American Revolution, it was around 90 percent. This is seen by some as a side effect of the Puritan belief in the importance of Bible reading.

In Wales, the literacy rate rocketed during the 18th century, when Griffith Jones ran a system of circulating schools, with the aim of enabling everyone to read the Bible (in Welsh). It is claimed that, in 1750, Wales had the highest literacy rate of any country in the world.

Historically, the literacy rate has also been high in the Lutheran countries of Northern Europe. The 1686 church law (kyrkolagen) of the Kingdom of Sweden (which at the time included all of modern Sweden, Finland, and Estonia) enforced literacy on the people and a hundred years later, by the end of the 18th century, the literacy rate was close to 100 percent. Even before the 1686 law, literacy was widespread in Sweden. However, the ability to read did not automatically imply ability to write, and as late as the 19th century many Swedes, especially women, could not write. This proves even more difficult, because many literary historians measure literacy rates based on the ability that people had to sign their own names.

Teaching literacy

Literacy comprises a number of subskills, including phonological awareness, decoding, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. Teaching each of these subskills is needed for students to become highly proficient readers.

Phonics

Phonics is an instructional technique that teaches readers to attend to the letters or groups of letters that make up words. So, to read the word throat using phonics, each grapheme (a letter or letters that represent one sound) is examined separately: th says /θ/, r says /ɹ/, oa says /oʊ/, and t says /t/. A common way to teach this is to have the novice reader pronounce each individual sound and "blend" them to pronounce the whole word. This is called synthetic phonics. There are various methods for teaching phonics.

There are many programs that use this approach. A widely-known program is SRA/McGraw-Hill's DISTAR program (now called Reading Mastery). The Orton-Gillingham method, Lindamood-Bell Phoneme Sequencing Program, and the Wilson reading system are other phonics programs. British educator Nellie Dale is credited with creating one of the earliest programs designed to teach basic reading skills, in the late 19th century.^[1]

Whole language

Because English spelling violates the alphabetic principle in many words, advocates of whole language recommend that novice readers should learn a little about the individual letters in words, especially the consonants and the "short vowels." Teachers provide this knowledge opportunistically, in the context of stories that feature many instances of a particular letter. This is known as "embedded phonics." Children use their letter-sound knowledge in combination with context to read new and difficult words.^[2]

Programs that use a whole language approach include Reading Recovery and Guided Reading.^[3]

Which approach is better?

The answer to this question is often debated. Scientific research in reading has tended to support the value of teaching phonics, although reading experts from all perspectives believe that time spent reading--a key element of whole language--is very important. Advocates of whole language have dismissed this scientific research for many different reasons. One common complaint is that scientific education researchers rely on randomized studies (similar in design to those done in medicine) and do not value descriptive research that has demonstrated the value of whole language approaches. In the United States, the National Reading Panel was an attempt to determine which approach was best. It found that phonics was more effective than embedded phonics or no phonics, but it only used experimental and quasi-experimental research (it did not include qualitative research), so the whole language community remained skeptical of its conclusions. There is no definitive answer to this question.

Beyond the basics: Comprehension

Most educators believe that children need to learn to analyze text (comprehend it) even before they can read it on their own. So, comprehension instruction generally begins in pre-Kindergarten or Kindergarten.

During the last century comprehension lessons usually consisted of students reading aloud and then the class answering questions as a group or writing responses on their own. In the last quarter of the 20th century a combination of research, expert opinion and common sense created a common call for the elimination of "round robin reading" and the read-test method of teaching comprehension. Both are now considered ineffective, at least, and can be harmful psychologically to struggling readers who have poor oral reading fluency.

In the last ten-fifteen years, research studies have concluded that there are much more effective ways to teach comprehension. Much work has been done in the area of teaching novice readers a bank of "reading strategies," or tools to interpret and analyze text.^[4] There is not a definitive set of strategies, but common ones include summarizing what you have read, monitoring your reading to make sure it is still making sense, and analyzing the structure of the text (e.g., the use of headings in science text). Some programs teach students how to self monitor whether they are understanding and provide students with tools for fixing comprehension problems.

Instruction in comprehension strategy use often involves the gradual release of responsibility, wherein teachers initially explain and model strategies. Over time, they give students more and more responsibility for using the strategies until they can use them independently. This technique is generally associated with the idea of self-regulation and reflects social cognitive learning theory, originally conceptualized by Albert Bandura.

What does it mean to be literate?

The standards for what constitutes "literacy" vary, depending on social, cultural and political context. For example, a basic literacy standard in many societies is the ability to read the newspaper. Increasingly, many societies require literacy with computers and other digital technologies (see: Literacy in the Information Age: Final Report of the International Adult Literacy Survey, OECD 2000. PDF).

Being literate is related to wealth. The higher a person's level of literacy, the higher their potential earnings. The conditions of wealth and literacy are highly correlated, but it is important not to conflate literacy with wealth. Increases in literacy do not necessarily cause increases in wealth, nor does greater wealth necessarily improve literacy. Therefore, wealth is probably not a good barometer of "what it means to be literate."

Illiteracy

Many have been concerned about the illiteracy in the world population, despite the fact that literacy rates have increased steadily over the past few decades, especially in the third world. Third world nations which adopted Marxist ideology (China, Cuba, and Vietnam, for example), experienced some of the most dramatic growth of literacy, approaching Canadian and European rates. The United Nations defines illiteracy as the inability to read and write a simple sentence in any language. Figures of 1998 show that 20% of the world population is illiterate (by the UN definition).

United States

In 2003, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), conducted by the US Department of Education, found that fourteen percent of American adults scored at this “below basic” level in prose literacy in English. More than half of these persons did not have a high-school diploma or GED. 39 percent of persons at this level were Hispanic; 20 percent were black; and 37 percent were white. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, "results showed that the average quantitative literacy scores of adults increased 8 points between 1992 and 2003, though average prose and document literacy did not differ significantly from 1992. Among blacks, average prose literacy scores increased by 6 points and average document literacy scores rose by eight points between 1992 and 2003. The average prose scores of Asians/Pacific Islanders increased as well, rising 16 points between 1992 and 2003. The average prose literacy scores of Hispanics fell 18 points from 1992 to 2003, while average document literacy scores decreased by 14 points. Average prose and document literacy scores among whites did not change significantly." Literacy among college graduates declined between 1992 and 2003, with less than one-third of all graduates at the highest “proficient” level in 2003, and less than half of all graduates with advanced degrees at this level.

Other countries

Among the Arab states, 19.8% of men and 41.1% of women were not literate as of 2006.^[5]

As per the 2001 India census, India's national literacy is only 65.2 percent.^{[6] [7]} Literacy drive is spreading slowly to other states.^[8] India's youth (age 15 to 24) literacy rate was 76.4% between 2000 and 2004.^[9] At current rates India will take no less than 20 years for a literacy of 95%.^[10]. Literacy in India is not homogeneous, some states in India have more impressive literacy rates than others. Kerala, a south-indian state widely recognized as the most well-educated state in India, recorded an impressive 90.92% literacy rate in 2001. ^[11] On the other hand the north-indian state of Bihar lags behind with 47.53%.^[12] India's adult literacy rates (61.3% in 2002), is just a little better compared to other nations in South Asia except Sri Lanka's 92%, ^[13] with Nepal next at 44%, Pakistan at 50-54% [1][2] and Bangladesh the lowest at 43.1% [3] Many Indians have argued that illiteracy, especially in the rural areas, gives undue advantage to contemporary politicians, who can keep on neglecting real issues of socio-economic development, and continue with corruption [4].

Diverse definitions of literacy

Traditional definitions of literacy consider the ability to "read, write, spell, listen, and speak."^[14]

Some have argued that the definition of literacy should be expanded. For example, in the United States, the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association have added "visually representing" to the traditional list of competencies. Similarly, in Scotland, literacy has been defined as: "The ability to read and write and use numeracy, to handle information, to express ideas and opinions, to make decisions and solve problems, as family members, workers, citizens and lifelong learners."^[15]

Other ideas about expanding literacy are described below.

Information and communication technology literacy

Since the computer and the Internet developed widespread use in the 1990s, some have asserted that the definition of literacy should include the ability to use and communicate in a diverse range of technologies. Modern technology requires mastery of new tools--such as internet browsers, word processing programs, and text messages. This has given rise to an interest in a new dimension of communication called multimedia literacy.^[16]

Art as a form of literacy

Some schools in the United States, the UK, Australia, Canada and Finland have become "arts-based" or "arts integrated" schools. These schools teach students to communicate using any form humans use to express or receive thoughts and feelings. Music, visual art, drama/theatre and dance are mainstays for teaching and learning in these schools. The Kennedy Center Partners in Education, headquartered in Washington, DC, is one organization whose mission is to train teachers to use an expanded view of literacy that includes the fine arts. At the state level there are arts-based literacy projects like ABC school in South Carolina, A Plus schools in a half dozen states and Value Plus in Tennessee.

Postmodernist concepts of literacy

Some scholars argue that literacy is not autonomous or a set of discrete technical and objective skills that can be applied across context. Instead, they posit that literacy is determined by the cultural, political, and historical contexts of the community in which it is used, drawing on academic disciplines including cultural anthropology and linguistic anthropology to make the case.^[17] In the view of these thinkers, definitions of literacy are based on ideologies. New literacies such as critical literacy, media literacy, technacy, visual literacy, computer literacy, multimedia literacy, information literacy, health literacy,^[18] and digital literacy are all new literacies that are being introduced in contemporary literacy studies and media studies.^[19]

See also

• Boys' literacy
• Adolescent literacy
• Functional illiteracy
• Oral literature
• International Literacy Day

Articles about teaching literacy:

• Phonics
• Whole language
• Dick and Jane

Articles about diverse types of literacy:

• Numeracy
• Technacy
• Critical literacy
• Frank Laubach
• Paulo Freire

International statistics:

• List of countries by literacy rate
• Literacy in India
• List of China administrative divisions by illiteracy rate

References

1. ^ Dale, Nellie. (1898) On the Teaching English Reading. J M Dent & Co, London; Dale, Nellie. (1902) Further Notes on the Teaching of English Reading. George Philip & Son Ltd, London.
2. ^ Tompkins, G. 2006. Literacy for the 21st Century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
3. ^ Fountas, I. & Pinnell, G.S. 1996, Guiding Readers and Writers Grades 3 – 6: Teaching Comprehension, Genre and Content Literacy.
4. ^ Pressley, M. (2006). Reading Instruction That Works: The Case for Balanced Teaching. New York: Guilford Press.
5. ^ UNESCO Institute for Statistics: Literacy rates, youth (15-24) and adult (15+), by region and gender (September 2006 Assessment)
6. ^ Literacy Facts University of Hamburg
7. ^ Literacy, Indian Census
8. ^ The Quiet Revolution IMF
9. ^ Population, Health and Human Well-being
10. ^ India special, New Scientist
11. ^ Kerela literacy
12. ^ Literacy, Census Statistics
13. ^ Economic Survey 2004-05, Economic Division, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, quoting UNDP Human Development Report 2004.
14. ^ Moats, L.C. Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers, p. 3. Paul H. Brookes Co., 2000
15. ^ Curriculum Framework for Adult Literacy in Scotland (pdf)
16. ^ Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. London: Routledge.
17. ^ Knobel, M. (1999). Everyday literacies: Students, discourse, and social practice. New York: Lang; Gee, J. P. (1996). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideologies in Discourses. Philadelphia: Falmer.
18. ^ Zarcadoolas, C., Pleasant, A., & Greer, D. (2006). Advancing health literacy: A framework for understanding and action. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA.
19. ^ Street, B. V. (1995). Social literacies. London and New York: Longman.

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