Teaching English as a Second Language
Discussion about literacy
Mistakenly, the notion of literacy is often considered as something taught with repeated exercise and measured by standard tests. However, this concept is complex and can be considered from different perspectives: psychology, linguistics, anthropology, critical theory, individual skill, socio-historical, economic, political, socio-cultural, religion and etc.
Generally, the literacy of person can be examined regarding to language: person can be literate in his language, but illiterate in English. A person is literate if his knowledge level and skills are enough to effectively communicate in the group or community. Some researchers don’t simply divide to literate – illiterate, they also suggest levels of literacy: basic – very limited language proficiency, required – literacy level required for specific context. There a lot more levels to which literacy can be divided: initial, survival, functional and etc.
Literacy for people brings a lot of opportunities: faster promotion track, ability to understand news, books, helps in business. As illiterate people are often recognized as marginal, “out of society” people, by improving literacy level person can change his life dramatically.
Social context influences the way learner comprehend the language. People from different culture can have difficulties understanding some things, because some cultural knowledge may be unfamiliar.
For different learners different levels of literacy are required. For example, one would like to read elevated English literature, whereas other needs only functional English for practical use. Also the learner’s culture of origin should be accounted. The more tactful teacher will be for students, the more inspired learners they will be. The intertextuality property should be applied at lessons, by reading a lot of texts in specific language about definite topic, the person becomes more and more intimate to this specific language.
