LITERACY

Literacy
Defined by dictionaries as the state of being able to read and write (Literacy, Literate, n.d.).
Capacity to communicate using inscribed, printed, or electronic signs or symbols for representing
language. (Britannica)
The word “literacy” stems from the word “literate,” which means appeared in the 15th century
and is in turn derived from the Latin word litteratus, meaning “( a person) marked with letters” –
that is, “distinguished or identified by letters” – and it carried with the idea that such a person
was cultured and educated. Since the subjects of the time (e.g., grammar, logic, arithmetic,
geometry, etc.) all had written texts (which were composed of letters) that had to be studied the
ability to read and write was therefore of prime importance, leading to the strong association of
being “literate” with the ability to read and write.

Traditional or Conventional Literacy

Miller (1973) divides this conventional concept of literacy into three subcategories:
1. Basic Literacy
- It is the ability to correspond visual shapes to spoken sounds in order to decode written
materials and translate them into oral language. Simply put, it is the ability to recognize letters
and words. This would be akin to recognize letters “b-a-s-a” forms the word basa in Filipino,
even without understanding what it means.
- It is the ability to recognize letters and words
2. Comprehensive Literacy
– It is the ability to understand the meaning of what is being read. To capitalize on the example
above, this would be like knowing that basa can mean either “either” or “to be wet.”
3. Functional or Practical Literacy
- It is the ability to read (i.e., decode and comprehend) written materials needed to perform
everyday vocational tasks. This is the equivalent of reading the text “Ang bata ay nababasa,” and
being able to understand that basa here refers to reading and not to being wet.
Based on the conventional view of literacy, we notice two things for reading (and
therefore literacy) to exist:
(1) A text (consisting of symbols and grammar) to be read; and
(2) A meaning or message being communicated by the text for the reader to extract.
Without a text, there would be nothing to read; without meaning, the text is reduced to series of
incomprehensible doodles. Should therefore be noted that even in Miller’s definition of literacy,
the act of reading implies a level of understanding. Simply knowing how to say a word (or a
series of words) is not the same as being able to understand what it means. Without
understanding of the meaning of the words, reading has not taken place. Based on this,
Schelechty (2001) defines the concept of functional illiteracy as the state of being able to read,
but not well enough to manage daily living and employment tasks that require reading skills
beyond a basic level.

Expanded Views of Literacy

Traditional view of literacy, Roberts (1995) notes that in the past fifty years, hundreds of
definitions of ‘literacy’ have been advanced by scholars, adult literacy workers, and programme
planners, with even the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO, 2006) acknowledging that literacy as a concept has proven to be complex and
dynamic, it being continually defined and interpreted in multiple ways.
In 2004, UNESCO formally defined literacy as “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 in enabling individuals to achieve their
goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and fully in their community and wider society.”
In this vein, Mkandawire (2018) more succinctly posits that literacy is “a form of knowledge,
competence, and skills in a particular field or area, “being supported by UNESCO (2006),
Banton (2007), and Mkandawire, Simooya-Mudenda, and Cheelo (2017), which acknowledged
that –as we have just pointed out-modern views, appear to equate literacy with knowledge.

This shift in the definition of literacy from “reading and writing” to “knowledge” is especially
important as we explore the “new” literacies of the 21st century that seem far-removed that
context upon which conventional literacy is based.
When viewed from the perspective of conventional/traditional literacy, the concept of “new”
literacies is a bit of a misnomer, as even these new literacies of the 21st century make generous
use of being able to read and write, rather than supplant them as skills necessary for survival.
However, when viewed from the perspective of literacy as knowledge, the new literacies begin to
make sense as they are the “skills and bodies of knowledge” that are necessary for survival and
productivity in the information age.
In the same vein of reasoning, the new literacies are not “new” per se-as in the sense that they
never existed before. Rather, we consider them to be new because of the contexts in which old
skills and knowledge are being employed are new, both in nature and in scope. The ability to
translate textual information into images is not a new skill, but it is the ability to do so in a way
that is concise, complete, and clear that is certainly new, given that it will be how ninety percent
of the population will be informed on the issue. Similarly, being able to verify the truth-value
and veracity of a document is not is not a new skill-but being able to do so when there are a
hundred similar documents available to you online is.

Literacy in the 21st Century

Case in point: throughout history, humans have communicated on level apart from the spoken
and written word, for example, visually, using the long-distance communication system of
smoke signals used by the ancient Chinese, the ancient Greeks, and the indigenous peoples of
North America. In the victory era, there was such a thing as the “Language of Flowers,” where
the kind, colour, and arrangement of a bouquet of flowers were used to communicate messages
that could not otherwise be spoke aloud in Victorian society (Greenaway, 1884).
These so called “new” literacies arose from increasing availability of communication
technologies that were once unavailable to the average individual. Technologies like blogging
and vlogging, social networking and even text-messaging change and expand both the extent and
the form of our communication-blending text, sound, and images in ways unforeseen and
unprecedented (Richardson,2014).
Simply put, three things have been critical in the rise of the new literacies:
1. Increased Reach – we are communicating with more people, from more diverse cultures,
across vaster distances than ever before.
2. Increased Means of Communication – we are communicating in more ways and at faster
speeds than ever before.
3. Increased Breadth of Content – we are communicating about more things than ever before.

The 21st Century Literacies and Skills

Globalization and Multicultural Literacy – discusses how our increasing ability to communicate
with almost anyone, anywhere, in real time requires new skills and attitudes in interacting with
people with cultures, perspectives, worldviews, and priorities different from our own,
particularly with the end-view of not only peace and understanding, but also mutual benefit and
productivity.
Social and Financial Literacies - explores the need for the ability to navigate our own social
networks—of both the online and off-line variety—to not only communicate clearly, but
also to leverage resources which we ourselves might not possess.
Media and Cyber/Digital Literacies - explore the emerging need to locate, verify, and ultimately
manage online information, especially in an age where information is power and where having
the right (and wrong) information and the ability to communicate it with others and use it to
address real-world problems easily spell the difference between both personal and career success
and failure.
Eco literacy and Artistic and Creative Literacy - explore the emerging demands for knowing how
to effectively and sustainably manage the natural resources that our increased industrialization
and demands for productivity are so rapidly eating up. This explores how this increase in
productivity also brings with it an increased demand for arts and aesthetics and the need to
develop ways of effectively communicating through the creative arts in industries dominated by
objective data.
Critical Literacy - addresses the increasing need to discern the underlying (and often tacit)
messages behind the new "texts" of the 21st century, particularly in an ever-increasingly
multicultural society where ideas, cultures, and ideologies vie with one another for power and
dominance in the minds of the masses.

Summarization/Generalization
Traditional Literacy is the ability to read and write. The traditional or conventional concept of
literacy can be divided into sub-categories: 1. Literacy, which is the ability to recognize letters
and words; 2. Comprehension Literacy, which is the ability to understand the meaning of what is
being read; and 3. Functional/Practical Literacy, which is the ability to read written materials
needed to perform everyday vocational tasks. Modem views of literacy equate it with
knowledge. New literacies have risen due to increased reach, increased means of
communication, and increased breadth of content. These new literacies are globalization and
multicultural literacy, social and financial literacy, media and cyber/digital literacy, Eco literacy,
artistic and creative literacy, and critical literacy.