ACTIVITY 1

� WHAT DO I KNOW?
Can you list some things which you think a literate
person can do and which an illiterate cannot or may not
be able to do?
A literate person can….
________________________________
Read medical directions
________________________________
Read a letter from a relative or
________________________________
friend and response
________________________________
Read warning labels on poisons
________________________________
and pesticides
________________________________
Read road signs get a job
________________________________
requiring reading and writing
________________________________
Read a map when they are lost
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
An illiterate person cannot….
_______________________________
_______________________________
Can't read map direction
_______________________________
Can't read restaurant menu
_______________________________
Can't response to the letter
_______________________________
that they gave to them
_______________________________
Can't read road signs
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
 WHAT DID I LEARN?
Activity 1
Directions: What is referred to in the sentence that
follows? Choose your answers from the list in the box.

Basic literacy
Functional literacy
Initial literacy
Literacy for the New Literacy Studies
researchers
Literacy in modern context
Literacy required
Survival literacy
Technical literacy
Traditional definition of literacy
UNESCO
1. _____________
UNESCO
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 potentials, and to participate
fully in the wider society.
2. _____________
INITIAL lITERACY
is the ability to write one’s own name.
3. _____________
SURVIVAL LITERACY is the ability to read, write and
comprehend texts on familiar subjects and to understand
whatever signs, labels and instructions and directions are
necessary to get along within one’s environment.
4. _____________
FUNCTIONAL LITERACY is the possession of skills perceived as
necessary by particular persons or groups to fulfill their
own-self determined objectives.
5. ____________
BASIC LITERACY
is the ability to read and write a short
sentence on everyday life.
6. ____________
TECHNICAL LITERACY is the acquisition of a body of theoretical

or technical knowledge and the development of problem-

solving capacities within that specified field.
7. ____________ is not autonomous or a set of discrete
LITERACY FOR THE NEW LITERACY
STUDIES RESEARCHERS

technical and objective skills, such as reading and writing,

that can be applied across context. Instead what counts as
literacy is determined by the cultural, political, and
historical contexts of the community in which it is used.
Definitions of literacy are based on ideologies.
8. ____________ is the ability to use language-to read,
TRADITIONAL DEFINITION OF LITERACY

write, listen, and speak.

9. ___________ the word means reading and writing in a
LITERACY IN MODERN CONTEXT

level adequate for written communication and generally a

level that enables one to successfully function at certain
levels of any modern society, thus literacy plays a role in
providing access to power.
10. LITERACY
__________
REQUIRED is the literacy level required for any given

social context and which might, therefore, change over

time, place, and social condition.
Activity 1.1

Directions: Write True if the sentence tells something

correct and write False if the sentence tells something
wrong.
1. _______
False UNESCO argues that literacy is not
autonomous or a set of discrete technical and objective
skills, such as reading and writing, that can be applied
across contexts. Instead what counts as literacy is
determined by the cultural, political, and historical
contexts of the community in which it is used.
2. _______
False Technical literacy is the literacy level required
for any given social context and which might, therefore,
change over time, place, and social conditions.
3. _______
True Literacy has been defined and understood in so
many ways.
 True
4. _______ The ability to write one’s own name is among
the skills in the initial literacy.
True
5. _______ Survival literacy is the ability to read, write
and comprehend texts on familiar subjects and to
understand whatever signs, labels, and instructions and
directions are necessary to get along within one’s
environment.
6. _______
False Basic literacy is the literacy level required for
any given social contexts and which might, therefore,
change over time, place, and social condition.
7. _______
True Literate people can be trained less
expensively than illiterate people.
 True
8. _______ Functional literacy is the possession of skills
perceived as necessary by particular persons or groups to
fulfill their own-self determined objectives.
9. _______
False In modern contexts, the word literacy means
the ability to use language-to read, write, and listen.
10. ______
True Literacy in the “real world” involves reading
signs, advertisements, and bumper stickers, writing
letters, reading newspapers and magazines, and giving
oral and written messages to others or leaving them for
oneself.