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Literacy

Page history last edited by Callie Petherick 12 years, 11 months ago

“Alphabetic literacy was chiefly or even solely responsible for the Greek Enlightenment and thus provided the foundations of western civilization”-John Halverson (2)

 

 Literacy:  

Literacy is the ability to read and write, it is the degree of interaction with written text that enables a person to be a fluent, functioning member of society in which the person lives and works. It involves the rapid decoding of printing and non printed text- pictures, music, sound and written text (6). Literacy is the 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 (5).

 

In a literate culture ideas and information are expressed and preserved through writing. The standards of literacy can be shaped by the social, economic and technical demands of a particular time and place, which is why literacy has changed so much over the years (2). Literacy can be broken up into two categories, critical literacy and practical literacy. Critical literacy is the ability to read, and critique. Practical literacy is the ability to read and or write. The literacy levels of many countries have changed and grown over the years as expectations have grown. Literacy has become an increasingly important means for the upward mobility of individuals and families (5) 

History of Literacy 

 

In order for a person to be literate, they need to be able to read and or write using an alphabet. The alphabet has gone through many phases throughout history. Starting with a symbolic representation of objects and ending with a symbolic representation of sounds of the spoken language. Through the alphabet the world has gained literacy and the ability to think abstractly.

 

History of the Alphabet:

If alphabetic writing can be spoken of as bringing the human race into existence, it is only because this kind of writing is unique.-Ivan Illich (3)

 

The early part of the second millennium B.C. saw many attempts by the Middle East try and combine speech and writing. Up until this point in time many cultures used hieroglyphs and ideograms that the reader is expected to speak. These forms of writing propose that the reader is familiar with the content as background knowledge is needed to be able to decipher such pictures. This meant that people could only read these symbols if they had knowledge of the story. Eventually a syllable sign had to be placed beside a thing sign to make it easier to decipher.

The North Semitic Alphabet was born in approximately 1400 B.C. This was the first alphabet to have signs for sounds only and only one sign for each group of sounds. This language did not have vowels nor did it have qualities of breathing. Today only trained scholars can read this type of alphabet because of the difficulty. The Greeks merchants used the string of Semitic constants form Syrian traders on the cost of Asia Minor, the kept the same shapes and their names unchanged but they preserved the use of the letters.  The Greeks took four of the sounds and used them to indicate vowels. This allowed for the entire word to be written on the page. The page has now become a record of sounds.

 

Plato and Literacy

Its not the speech but the language of the past that can be made into the present.- Ivan Illivich.(3)

 

Plato is one of the most notable people that began literacy. Unlike Homer and the people before him, Plato believe in literacy and created the model, that written dialogue imitates speech. Plato changed instruction from being elevated, rhythmic, public speech to the predominance e of prose speech(3). It could now be written down. This meant that the script could be copied down from one serving as the source to another. Plato was the first Greek author to write with conviction. As more and more people began writing down the information, schooling was changed. People could find out information from reading a book, they no longer needed to attend lectures.

 

Written Texts

The availability of written texts is key to literacy development. If you don't have a book available to read, you are never going to learn to be literate. As schooling, the availability of text has grown throughout history more and more people have become literate. When books were first written, it was largely only bibles and other religious texts(1). This meant that it was mainly the priests and other religious people high in the church that were literate. As technology changed, and the advent of the printing press more and more books became available. As these books became available more and more people became literate. Literacy experienced a giant increase in America when the mass production of books became cheap and therefore books could reach, the previously unreachable.

 

Literacy and America

 

 

Literacy in America has changes throughout the years, as the changing dynamics of the country changed. In the early years the majority of literary teaching occurred at home, as many people were self employed on their farms and most children were home schooled. By the 19th century literacy became and even more important element in the transformation of the society. Cheap books, reprints and dime novels began to be mass produced which rapidly increase the number of titles available to the average family. This allowed the people living in places that were previously unreached by literature become more literate. By 1918 compulsory education laws has been passed and it became more obviously that the enacting of these laws making education mandatory clearly influenced the overall rate of literacy throughout the United States of America.  By the 1980s nearly all young adults aged between 18 and 35 were considered literate by the U.S. Census standard of the last century (7).  Currently Americans believe that they need to work on their literacy levels because literacy is the single most important skill to being successful and moving out of poverty. Americans believe something needs to get done because they believe that literacy is intrinsically related to the nation's economic competiveness and to the future prosperity of children and grandchildren (6).approximately 14 percent of adults function at the lowest level of literacy and 29 percent of adults function at the basic functional literacy level, meaning they are not able to help their children with homework beyond the first few grades. The lack of reading skills hinders adults from reaching their full potential. They might have difficulty getting and maintaining a job, providing for their families, or even reading a story to their children. For adults across the country, the library might be the only source of a literacy program. Programs have been instituted in public libraries across the country in an attempt to improve the literacy rates in this country (6).

 

What are the standards of literacy in America?

1900- Able to write your own name

1930s- Three or more years of schooling

WWII- Fourth grade education

1947-Five or more years of schooling

1952- Six of more years of schooling

1970s- Ninth grade education

21st Century- High School education plus

 

 

 

 

Function of Literacy

The function of literacy was to provide a place for cultural information to be stored. Literacy allows information to be stored for many years to come. When the world became literate, the more knowledge we were able to find out. The human race no longer had to store everything they knew in their heads. Through the invention of the semiotic alphabet, which lead to the printing press and the book literacy has grown. As literacy has grown people's knowledge has grown which has allowed us to achieve the great successes as a nation. In years gone by to simply write your name was considered literate however now to be literate not only do you need to read and write texts of great detail but you also need to be able to think critically about them.

 

Impact of Literacy

 

Only after it had become possible to fix the flow of speech in phonetic transcription did the idea emerge that knowledge-information-could be held in the mind in a store- Ivan Illich(3)

Things were able to be written down, this took far less mental effort then what is needed for oral memory. Writing and the alphabet brought a visual element into language and this brought new modes of reflection.

 

 

Impact on Media Ecology

 

Literacy has had a gigantic impact on Media Ecology, without literacy the human race would not have the power or knowledge that we have now. Literacy has provided us with a way in which to write down a thoughts and feelings. Literacy provides the mind space to think, instead of just a vehicle to regurgitate information already heard. Creation of the Greek Alphabet and it alone was able to bring about widespread literacy, which in turn radically and permanently transformed human consciousness. Alphabetic literacy enabled though to transcend the limitations of the “oral mind” represented by Homer and to become the instrument of logic, philosophy and science and entirely new kind of consciousness.- John Halverson(2)

 

 


Refrences:

 

  1. Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the world. London: Methuen and co., 1982. Print.
  2. Halverson, John. "Havelock On Greek Orality and Literacy." Journal of the History of Ideas Inc. 53.1 (1982). Print.
  3. Illich, Ivan, and Barry Sander. The Alphabetization of The Popular Mind. London: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1988. Print.
  4. UNICEF. The State of The Wold's Children Education. Unicef, June 2005. Web. 5 May 2011. <http://www.unicef.org/sowc99/index.html>.
  5. Wikipedia. Literacy. N.p., 1 May 2011. Web. 2 May 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy>.
  6. 21st Centuary Literacy. Youtube, 2008. Web. 2 May 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9ZRDRPqoXo>.

Comments (1)

Jeff Martinek said

at 10:48 am on Apr 25, 2011

Callie: This is a good source, but you've got a ways to go to complete this successfully. You must flesh out these sections and cite sources. Please review the assignment sheet and the model article on General Semantics. --- JM

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